Old_tilly_billy Posted December 5, 2022 #1 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Only booked this last week one of the Black Friday deal oh well never mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted December 5, 2022 #2 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Not particularly enamoured with the alternatives proposed, but I guess that without St Petersburg they are struggling to sell Baltic cruises, so it's not surprising. However Baltic cruises in our experience generally offer warmer weather than Iceland, Norway or UK cruisers, so I think we will be opting out. Unfortunately as we need an accessible cabin I doubt we will find an alternative warm weather cruise with an available cabin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britboys Posted December 5, 2022 #3 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Hmmm, interesting. That's most of the Baltic cruises between the beginning of June and the end of September... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiB Posted December 5, 2022 #4 Share Posted December 5, 2022 48 minutes ago, terrierjohn said: Not particularly enamoured with the alternatives proposed, but I guess that without St Petersburg they are struggling to sell Baltic cruises, so it's not surprising. However Baltic cruises in our experience generally offer warmer weather than Iceland, Norway or UK cruisers, so I think we will be opting out. Unfortunately as we need an accessible cabin I doubt we will find an alternative warm weather cruise with an available cabin. We are effected as well but we have just asked our TA to cook the replacementcruise wherever it goes. As it happens she read out the itinerary for the replacement and it sounded quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiB Posted December 5, 2022 #5 Share Posted December 5, 2022 4 minutes ago, Britboys said: Hmmm, interesting. That's most of the Baltic cruises between the beginning of June and the end of September... Its the war, I suspect that it is a Carnival thing and that their insurers are not happy about any Baltic cruiswes at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiB Posted December 5, 2022 #6 Share Posted December 5, 2022 (edited) repeat post Edited December 5, 2022 by daiB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britboys Posted December 5, 2022 #7 Share Posted December 5, 2022 6 minutes ago, daiB said: Its the war, I suspect that it is a Carnival thing and that their insurers are not happy about any Baltic cruiswes at this time. But there is still one Britannia and an Aurora cruise going there Dai. It will be interesting to see whether other Carnival Corp Lines continue to sail. It may be just that there is low demand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astrajet Posted December 5, 2022 #8 Share Posted December 5, 2022 (edited) We were booked on one of these cruises and had already decided to cancel. Fortunately our TA had suggested waiting a while before we cancelled. We have already booked a replacement (slightly lower value so unable to transfer) and have three others booked. So we will miss out on the OBS offered but at least now we will get our deposit back and not have to forfeit it by cancelling. Edited December 5, 2022 by Astrajet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bakerybill Posted December 5, 2022 #9 Share Posted December 5, 2022 They have cancelled the Baltic cruise but will not have an alternative until 9th Dec. £100 on board spend offered but only if you book before end Dec. Iceland and British isles are likely replacements. I won't be going Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hollers Posted December 5, 2022 #10 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Just noticed it now. A shame, but I guess it is security related. Also more people will be choosing not to book the Baltics with the current situation as it is. Not a surprising development. I will be interested to see what the alternatives are when they are released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majortom10 Posted December 5, 2022 #11 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Iceland is a beautiful country and is a good alternative to the Baltic's. Makes you think it was poor senior management to even consider cruising in that area and do soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiB Posted December 5, 2022 #12 Share Posted December 5, 2022 15 minutes ago, Britboys said: But there is still one Britannia and an Aurora cruise going there Dai. It will be interesting to see whether other Carnival Corp Lines continue to sail. It may be just that there is low demand... True but then again the low demand is due to the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare TigerB Posted December 5, 2022 #13 Share Posted December 5, 2022 We had a great Baltic cruise in September onboard Britannia and felt totally at ease and safe. When we booked it two years previous we were really looking forward to St Petersburg, but the current situation put paid to that. The ship was less than 70% full, whereas the Mediterranean cruises that preceded and followed it were almost full; so I reckon folk were cautious about travelling. Probably the same next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molecrochip Posted December 5, 2022 #14 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Summer 2023 went on sale in November last year. Baltic cruises were fully available to book. In Feb they cancelled the 2022 Baltic Cruises and all calls to Russia. Then they withheld from sale the 2024 cruises to the Baltic in the spring when the rest of Summer 24 was released. These were later replaced with alternative cruises. They have now taken a decision to cancel 2023 Baltic Cruises. I’m led to believe the bookings were low and lots of people had cancelled/moved their cruises to others outside of the Baltic. Likely that the couple still going are because bookings are higher. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionboard Posted December 5, 2022 #15 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Can't understand lack of interest in Baltic. Loved it in August visiting Danish and Swedish ports plus Riga, etc. Shame. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aud761 Posted December 5, 2022 #16 Share Posted December 5, 2022 We were booked to go on the B318, one of the cancelled ones. I believe the main problem for people booking is the lack of clarity about what is happening. This will not be helped by the cancellation of these cruises. If this is truly because of lack of demand then I wish they would be upfront about it , or they could do a bit of advertising for these cruising. The baltics is a beautiful area to visit during the summer and I was really looking forward to going back. I'm almost afraid to rebook in case whatever I book gets cancelled again. And I'm not in the least bit excited about a British Isles cruise, whatever they pretend! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulsteinvik Posted December 5, 2022 #17 Share Posted December 5, 2022 If it would not be safe in the Baltic, they would cancel all cruises. So it is clearly a lack of demand.. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanlyon Posted December 5, 2022 #18 Share Posted December 5, 2022 4 hours ago, Fionboard said: Can't understand lack of interest in Baltic. Loved it in August visiting Danish and Swedish ports plus Riga, etc. Shame. i can totally understand it. It's just not safe in the Baltic. Russia has a piece of land there. Anything couldl happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Sharon Posted December 5, 2022 #19 Share Posted December 5, 2022 Having spent 3 weeks in the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia last August, I felt totally safe. There are lots of other interesting ports in lieu of St Pete's - Riga, Tallinn, Skagen, Goteborg, Kemi, Ronne, Visby etc. and the weather was perfect. Would happily go back next year. Perhaps there are just too many Baltic cruises to fill them all. What would cause me not to book however, is the probablity the cruise would be cancelled and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Sharon Posted December 5, 2022 #20 Share Posted December 5, 2022 13 minutes ago, jeanlyon said: i can totally understand it. It's just not safe in the Baltic. Russia has a piece of land there. Anything couldl happen. Why is it not safe? Has there been a single incident this year involving tourists or cruise ships? Other lines are still sailing there, including the ultra-cautious Saga. 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrierjohn Posted December 5, 2022 #21 Share Posted December 5, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, jeanlyon said: i can totally understand it. It's just not safe in the Baltic. Russia has a piece of land there. Anything couldl happen. Other than the tiny land locked enclave between Poland and Lithuania, there is only St Petersberg on the Baltic and that is quite a distance along a narrow inlet that would be relatively easy to isolate with a few NATO submarines if Putin did escalate things in the region. So I don't believe that security is the reason. Like Moly I think the reason is diminishing bookings, but I can't really see that extra Norway, Icland or round Britain cruises are going to be any easier to fill, unless they offer distressed pricing like Princess did last year on Enchanted Princess, which could well result in a much lower return, than keeping the Baltic cruises. Edited December 5, 2022 by terrierjohn 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goosebear Mum Posted December 5, 2022 #22 Share Posted December 5, 2022 (edited) I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May? For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual. I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings Edited December 5, 2022 by Goosebear Mum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aud761 Posted December 5, 2022 #23 Share Posted December 5, 2022 The lack of St.P didn't bother me particularly. I would like to visit it but at the moment am happy to give it a miss. There are so many other interesting places to visit around the baltic sea. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Sharon Posted December 6, 2022 #24 Share Posted December 6, 2022 1 hour ago, Goosebear Mum said: I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May? For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual. I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings Which leads to another question - why has Aurora’s dry docking been cancelled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel57 Posted December 6, 2022 #25 Share Posted December 6, 2022 4 hours ago, Host Sharon said: Which leads to another question - why has Aurora’s dry docking been cancelled? When was she due to go in for that Sharon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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