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Is it now the time to be looking at or booking a cruise for 2021? Cruise travellers ask me if booking a 2021 cruise is something they should be doing now. I share my 2021 cruise booking tips and tricks, and explore 5 things to consider before you do, and if you decide to then book a cruise for 2021 the 4 things you must do when booking. Are you booking a 2021 cruise, and if so why?
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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0:00
i'm gary bembridge and i'm going to take
0:02
a look at
0:03
whether now is the right time to book a
0:06
2021
0:07
cruise loads of people are asking me
0:09
this very question
0:10
lots of people want to book something so
0:12
they have something to look forward to
0:13
they're worried the prices are going up
0:15
the itineraries are selling out
0:17
and they want to know is the right time
0:19
to book
0:20
now i will take a look at five things
0:22
you need to think about before you click
0:24
that book button
0:26
or you make that commitment and also if
0:28
you do decide to go
0:29
ahead with the booking four things you
0:31
absolutely
0:32
must make sure you do if you are booking
0:35
first of all
0:36
everyone's assuming that i'm talking to
0:38
that 2021 is going to be
0:41
returning to normal they're assuming
0:42
that everything's going to reset and
0:44
it's going to be
0:45
normal again this is not likely bear in
0:48
mind these itineraries were developed
0:50
a long time ago years and years ago
0:52
before the pandemic came
0:53
and the world got thrown into disruption
0:56
so when you're looking
0:57
to book in 2021 do not assume that
1:00
things are going to reset
1:01
back to normal it's possible but
1:03
unlikely
1:04
importantly no one knows when mainstream
1:07
cruising is going to resume
1:09
we've seen a couple of local cruises for
1:11
local people starting in places like
1:12
france
1:13
if you're german you can go cruising
1:15
around germany
1:16
if you're norwegian you can go cruising
1:18
around norway
1:20
i'm talking about mainstream cruising so
1:21
cruising that goes around the
1:22
mediterranean the caribbean alaska
1:24
whatever nobody knows when these are
1:27
going to start
1:28
and no one knows where they're going to
1:29
start this year or even into
1:31
next year the authorities like the cdc
1:34
in the u.s
1:35
even the public health england and the
1:36
uk the authorities in spain
1:39
they have not agreed when cruising can
1:41
resume and we have no idea
1:43
whether that's going to happen this year
1:44
or into 2021 so certainly if you're
1:46
looking to book
1:48
do not assume that cruising will have
1:49
started so particularly if you're
1:51
looking at the beginning of 2021
1:53
it's probably not the greatest time to
1:54
book a cruise wait until
1:56
it's absolutely certain that cruises are
1:59
starting and cruising
2:00
started where you wanted before you book
2:02
because we just don't know
2:04
if they're going to happen in that time
2:06
frame also travel advisories are
2:08
stopping
2:08
a lot of people moving around to join
2:10
the cruising so in the uk you have
2:12
a advice which says don't go cruising
2:15
the same in the us
2:16
australia is not talking about letting
2:18
people travel and leave the country to
2:19
join cruising
2:20
until sometime into 2021.
2:23
also if you're from the eu you can't
2:25
even fly into the u.s at the moment
2:26
because of restrictions
2:28
in the us and u.s can't move into many
2:30
countries of the world to join cruises
2:32
so if you think you're booking a cruise
2:34
only book a cruise when you genuinely
2:36
believe that travel restrictions around
2:38
you moving to join a cruise have lifted
2:40
and cruising has restarted
2:42
if you are an eu resident for example
2:44
you could though
2:45
book a river cruise in europe because
2:47
these cruises are up and running
2:48
and eu citizens are allowed to move
2:50
around and join those cruisers currently
2:52
without having to do any self-isolation
2:55
returning to their countries so there
2:57
are some opportunities to cruise if you
2:58
do want to go cruising
2:59
in french polynesia those cruises are up
3:02
and running
3:02
you could go on one of those cruises if
3:05
you want to go cruising around iceland
3:06
those are
3:07
up and running as well so there are some
3:09
cruises that are up and running
3:11
accepting international travelers
3:12
subject to cover 19 testing
3:14
so that could be something that you want
3:15
a book because they are definitely
3:17
running
3:18
even if cruisers have restarted the
3:20
second key thing to think about
3:22
is the itinerary that you are looking at
3:24
booking
3:25
may not run so even if cruisers have
3:27
started you might find there's country
3:29
restrictions or port restrictions
3:30
around accepting cruise ships they may
3:33
not all be open so if you book an
3:35
itinerary
3:35
because you've the certain islands you
3:37
want to visit in the caribbean or
3:38
certain places in europe you want to go
3:40
or certain destinations in alaska you
3:42
want to go to wherever you're thinking
3:44
of cruising
3:44
don't book a cruise for 2021
3:48
if there are absolute places that you
3:50
want to visit on that itinerary because
3:51
we do not know yet
3:53
if those are starting up if you're
3:54
broadly happy to go to the caribbean or
3:56
the mediterranean
3:57
and not that fussed about which specific
3:59
ports you call that
4:00
you may want to then say well actually
4:02
i'll book because i don't mind if the
4:03
itinerary changes
4:05
the cruise line under their contract can
4:07
change a cruise
4:08
once you have booked it and don't
4:11
necessarily have to give you the chance
4:12
of pulling out
4:13
so you might find you book a cruise to
4:15
caribbean and they change all the ports
4:17
or they have more sea days
4:18
the cruise line can do that quite
4:20
happily within their rights so
4:22
when you're booking an itinerary for
4:24
2021 bear in mind that itinerary
4:26
there's no guarantees that that will run
4:28
so if you're really locked in and set on
4:29
a certain itinerary
4:30
i would hold back from booking it until
4:33
we know absolutely
4:34
that that is up and running the third
4:36
thing to consider if you're looking to
4:37
book a cruise is if you're booking a
4:38
cruise because there's a very specific
4:40
ship you want to go and perhaps a new
4:41
ship
4:42
that's coming out you know launching for
4:44
the very first time
4:45
or some ship that's going to be revamped
4:47
or actually this is a very specific ship
4:49
you want to try one of the new celebrity
4:50
edge class ships or
4:52
something like that i would also hold
4:54
back until we know
4:55
that those ships are coming into service
4:57
and actually running
4:58
now the reason i say that is it's very
5:00
clear that all the cruise lines have
5:01
said
5:02
that when sailing does start they're
5:04
going to be phasing
5:05
in ships slowly and surely they're not
5:08
going to all come on stream at one time
5:09
so you might find that your ship
5:11
is not up and running when you want to
5:12
go cruising in 2021.
5:15
arnold donald the head of the carnival
5:17
corporations that includes
5:18
obviously carnival holland america
5:20
cunard piano seabourn aida all those
5:23
cruise lines has said that he doesn't
5:25
expect the full fleet
5:26
to be sailing again possibly as late as
5:29
2022
5:30
so if there's a very specific ship you
5:32
want to go on be very cautious about
5:34
booking until
5:35
that ship has re-entered service all
5:37
this confirmation that it's re-entering
5:39
some people found that out the hard way
5:40
they'd booked for example a world cruise
5:43
on holland america amsterdam that has
5:45
been scrapped
5:46
because holland america sold four of
5:48
their ships they sold the
5:50
amsterdam the mars down the rotterdam
5:52
and the viendam so those
5:53
all those cruisers the world cruise
5:55
alaska
5:56
canada all those cruisers have
5:58
disappeared
5:59
so we just don't know what ships will be
6:01
up and running and it's possible
6:03
i'll probably even like in 2021 we're
6:04
going to see a staggered
6:06
approach to cruise ships coming back in
6:08
so if you want to book a cruise because
6:09
you really want to go
6:11
on a very specific ship then don't book
6:14
until you know that ship is coming on
6:15
stream not only have new ships been
6:18
delayed but also upgrades have been
6:19
postponed
6:20
so we've seen a celebrity pushing back
6:22
some of their upgrades carnival
6:24
pushing back the upgrades royal
6:25
caribbean pushing their
6:27
upgrades up into the future so if you're
6:29
also choosing a ship which had
6:31
brand new bells and whistles and
6:32
features again we don't know
6:34
when that will be coming on stream
6:36
another good reason for not booking a
6:38
2200 cruise
6:39
absolutely right now on any of those big
6:42
mainstream
6:43
lines is you have no idea what the
6:45
actual protocol is going to be and what
6:47
the cruise experience
6:48
is going to be like so you could be
6:49
booking a cruise and you find you don't
6:51
like the way the cruise is
6:53
running so for example what we've seen
6:55
at the moment is some indications of
6:56
what could be the case
6:58
but they have not been agreed we've seen
7:00
for example lots of talk about more
7:01
pre-screening
7:02
so some cruise lines have actually
7:04
introduced a doctor's notes where you
7:06
have a doctor screening beforehand so
7:07
for example on pranat
7:09
they've introduced that they've also
7:10
required that you have to have a
7:12
covert 19 test before you go on that
7:14
many of their
7:15
cruises now that may or may not happen
7:17
on other cruise lines
7:18
and you may not want to go with that for
7:20
example we also don't know exactly what
7:23
the on-board experience is going to be
7:25
we've seen lots of indications
7:26
for example that there will be fewer
7:28
passengers on board to enable more
7:29
social distancing
7:31
we've seen the fact that you may have
7:33
limits on the amount of people that can
7:34
be around the swimming pool
7:36
the theater the bars the casino at any
7:39
point in time
7:40
so you may not want to go through that
7:41
experience if you can't go to the pool
7:43
whenever you want or in the jacuzzi
7:45
the hot tub you may not like that
7:47
experience there's been lots of changes
7:48
suggested to dining no self-service
7:51
dining
7:52
perhaps only being able to sit with
7:53
people in your travel party
7:56
much more staggered timing of dining
7:58
more people eating
8:00
room service to encourage and free up
8:02
space in the dining room
8:03
says changes to the dining room process
8:05
could happen which
8:06
doesn't appeal to you mosques may be
8:08
part of the cruise experience we've seen
8:10
on some cruise lines that they started
8:11
up
8:12
mirroring what's happening on land with
8:13
the current mask regulations so masks
8:15
may be part of the cruise experience
8:17
and you don't want to do that we just
8:20
don't know which of these will be in
8:21
place we've seen some indications based
8:23
on cruise lines that have started up
8:24
but if you're going on a cruise line for
8:26
example pennant around france
8:28
or mind shift or hapag lloyd
8:31
or aida in germany or hertigruten
8:35
if you book those cruises now if you're
8:37
a resident in those countries you know
8:39
exactly
8:40
what you're going to have to do and put
8:41
up with so i would
8:43
recommend if you have any reservations
8:46
about what the changes could be
8:47
wait until you know exactly what the
8:49
protocols are before you book your 2021
8:51
cruise
8:52
because you're not going to be able to
8:53
pull out of the cruise once you're
8:54
committed to it
8:55
if you don't like the protocols another
8:57
critical thing to think about
8:59
is prices at the moment there are deals
9:01
going around but the prices
9:02
overall are quite high they haven't
9:04
really factored in
9:06
reduction of prices so what you're
9:07
seeing is lots of deals which will
9:09
bundle new
9:10
things in so you'll get gratuities
9:12
strengths packages perhaps some
9:13
excursions thrown
9:14
in wi-fi those kind of things are being
9:17
bundled in but the overall
9:18
rate of fares hasn't really come down to
9:21
reflect
9:22
possibly fewer people wanting to go
9:24
cruising
9:25
so i would say if you're looking for a
9:27
great deal now is probably not the time
9:30
to book once the cruise lines know that
9:32
they have the go to start selling they
9:34
know what ships are coming on stream
9:35
they know what itineraries they're
9:36
running
9:37
they'll know what the real demand for
9:39
those cruisers are
9:40
then we will see prices start to meet
9:42
much more the demand
9:43
i personally believe that we will see
9:45
much sharper pricing fair pricing
9:47
as we head into next year and people
9:50
then have to physically make the
9:51
decision of boarding ships or not
9:53
die-hard cruisers many people are big
9:55
fans of cruising
9:56
are i think going to want to cruise but
9:58
they're new to cruise perhaps less
10:00
frequent cruisers i think are going to
10:02
hold back bear man a lot of those
10:03
cruisers in 2021
10:04
are people who've booked year or more
10:06
ahead before the pandemic and i think a
10:08
lot of those will drop out we will see
10:09
much more capacity coming on stream
10:11
so if you want to book now because
10:12
you're worried about not getting a great
10:14
deal i wouldn't worry about that i would
10:16
wait until
10:17
the ships are committed to sailing we
10:19
know what's actually going to be out
10:20
there and running
10:20
and then we will see the real prices
10:22
coming on if you do decide to book
10:24
then that is a risk that you are going
10:27
to take that prices
10:28
actually work against you if despite all
10:30
of that you decided you still want to
10:32
book four critical things you should do
10:33
when you make a booking
10:35
these are absolutely essential if you
10:37
make a booking for 2021
10:38
right now first of all make sure that
10:40
you're perfectly fine
10:42
if you have that cruise cancelled on you
10:44
or significant changes to the itinerary
10:46
if you say you don't mind taking that
10:48
risk then proceed with booking
10:50
secondly make sure that you're taking a
10:52
booking which has a very low deposit
10:54
which many are doing
10:55
or certainly you have a refundable
10:56
deposit or you're able to move the
10:58
deposit so you're not going to lose that
11:00
money
11:01
i've seen lots of cruisers for example
11:02
in 2021 where you're paying as little as
11:04
50
11:05
or 75 to make a booking so you may say
11:08
that's a risk you want to take
11:09
thirdly make sure you take out insurance
11:11
when you book and
11:12
insurance includes two things first of
11:14
all it includes
11:16
council for any reason so if you change
11:17
your mind and you want to pull out of
11:19
cruise you can do that
11:20
and also make sure that it does include
11:21
covert 19 cover
11:23
for cruising fourth thing to do is track
11:26
prices as i mentioned i think prices are
11:27
going to be volatile
11:28
so once you've made a booking keep an
11:30
eye on that there's a couple of sites
11:32
you can go to cruise critic
11:33
enter your cruise and you can set up a
11:35
tracker or site that i like to use
11:37
called cruisewatch.com
11:38
i input my cruises and keep an eye on it
11:41
and i've already
11:42
seen i have some cruises booked for
11:43
january february in 2021
11:45
i've put my cruises in there and i have
11:47
seen four alerts already
11:49
in the last six weeks of that price of
11:51
those cruises coming down
11:53
so if you are going to book a cruise
11:54
make sure you track prices that gives
11:56
you leverage to then go back and
11:57
negotiate
11:58
a lower fare or upgrades is
12:01
now the right time to book a 2021 cruise
12:04
if you desperately want to book it
12:06
there are some key watch outs and things
12:08
that you need to be absolutely careful
12:09
of
12:10
because you could be booking a cruise
12:11
that just is never
12:13
going to happen so think very carefully
12:15
about it before you
12:16
take a booking i have loads more videos
12:20
packed full of other tips and advice so
12:21
why don't you watch another one of those
12:23
right now
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