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I discuss the 6 latest updates on European river cruising, USA, Asia and Africa river cruises, and why things are complicated. There is a lot going on with river cruises. I discuss: What is going on and the outlook for European river cruising this year? How many river cruise ships will return to service and when? What is complicating the return of river cruises?
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0:01
what is going on with european
0:03
river cruising and in fact river
0:05
cruising worldwide what do you need to
0:07
know
0:07
what's the latest update will ship sale
0:10
what should you be doing
0:11
i'm gary bembridge and i'm going to
0:13
delve into river cruising in this update
0:15
i've had loads and loads
0:16
of people that watch the channel asking
0:18
for more frequent updates around
0:20
river cruising so here we go before any
0:23
river cruising can happen
0:24
the advice against river cruising
0:26
actually has to be lifted so if in the
0:28
united states for example the u.s
0:30
centers for disease control and
0:32
prevention recommends
0:34
currently do not go river cruising they
0:36
updated their guidance to focus on
0:38
cruise travel
0:38
and they said i'm going to quote here
0:40
they recommend that all people avoid
0:42
travel on cruise ships
0:43
including river cruise ships worldwide
0:46
because the risk of clover 19 on cruise
0:48
ships
0:48
is very high now in the uk the foreign
0:52
commonwealth and development office the
0:53
fco they actually advise
0:55
citizens of course it's illegal to
0:57
travel at all abroad until at least
0:59
may and when they did have advice around
1:03
cruising river cruising was actually
1:04
not included in general cruising you
1:06
were allowed to go river cruising
1:08
so before anything can happen the
1:09
country you live in has to specifically
1:12
lift the advice against not only travel
1:14
but also against
1:15
river cruising so that's the most
1:17
important thing as you look and
1:19
plan the second thing i'm asked is when
1:21
will the actual cruisers resume
1:23
themselves the simple answer
1:24
is nobody actually knows though there's
1:26
a couple of really key things to note
1:28
the river cruise
1:29
europe industry meeting was held
1:30
virtually has around 30 of the river
1:32
cruise line
1:33
and ports involved they had a meeting
1:35
recently and revealed a lot basically
1:37
what it said
1:38
is they're hopeful rather than
1:40
optimistic at this stage for an early
1:42
startup they actually see
1:43
2021 as a transition year after the
1:46
total wipeout of 2020
1:47
and when they think will be a major
1:49
return in 2022.
1:51
most said they're not expecting to
1:52
return all their fleet into service
1:54
and most of them are expecting about
1:56
half of their ships to sell this year
1:57
but it all hinges on which travelers
2:00
they cater for
2:01
the current start dates for many of them
2:03
range anywhere from april
2:05
to june now the lines that cater for
2:07
european passengers think they will be
2:08
able to start before
2:09
june so things like ammo waterways
2:12
across europe
2:13
they're expecting to start fairly early
2:15
why because they cater for eu passengers
2:18
which despite the relatively slow roller
2:19
of vaccines in europe
2:21
people are still going to be expected to
2:23
be able to travel pretty easily and
2:24
freely
2:25
around the different parts of the
2:27
european union and particularly in the
2:28
schengen zone
2:29
although there are some restrictions
2:31
currently so those lines like cross
2:33
europe
2:33
like arosa and other much more specific
2:36
lines
2:37
catering say for german or swiss
2:38
passengers they are expecting to be able
2:40
to start
2:41
cruising on the rivers relatively soon
2:44
the reason being they fall pretty much
2:45
within the regulations around
2:46
hotels as hotels can open they're also
2:49
more likely going to be able to open as
2:51
well
2:52
now lions who cater mostly for
2:54
international guests
2:55
they are going to rely on the eu first
2:57
of all changing the travel policy to let
2:59
travelers
3:00
come in free with no quarantining so
3:02
we're seeing things like move to may
3:04
but most of them to jews are crystal
3:06
emerald scenic tui
3:07
avalon viking they've all set their
3:10
resumption of the moment to june and
3:11
they see vaccines
3:12
as absolutely fundamental to opening up
3:15
many of them rely
3:16
on passengers come to the united states
3:18
and from the uk and of course the
3:19
vaccine
3:20
road is moving very fast in the uk and
3:22
pretty fast
3:23
as it seems in the united states so
3:25
they're working on the assumption
3:27
that those passengers of course they
3:28
tend to be slightly older who go on
3:30
river cruises are going to be vaccinated
3:32
keen to go and are likely to be able to
3:34
go there is an assumption
3:36
that they're making that either the
3:38
airlines or the countries in europe are
3:40
going to make vaccination a requirement
3:42
and that's really important to note
3:43
because the european union has just
3:45
recently agreed that they are going to
3:47
introduce a what they call a digital
3:50
green passport which will include
3:52
things like test results and vaccination
3:54
status and they're going to use this
3:56
to first of all allow people to move
3:57
fairly fully within europe but
3:59
importantly to allow third countries
4:01
outside the eu so that's the uk the us
4:03
and eventually i guess australia and new
4:04
zealand as they open up
4:06
to actually come into the eu so it does
4:09
seem that vaccination is going to be
4:10
key and the river cruise lines are
4:12
assuming that vaccines will be
4:13
fundamental to the ability
4:15
to open and the timing to open so at the
4:18
moment
4:18
many of those have june as the date
4:20
however the eu's saying they're unlikely
4:22
to have
4:23
that green passport launched for another
4:27
couple of months so that
4:28
looks much later so it looks more like
4:30
july and august a more realistic
4:32
start date for those particular cruise
4:34
lines avalon
4:35
at the moment is the only cruise line
4:37
that's included vaccines specifically
4:38
so they've given an opportunity if you
4:41
want to go cruising with them to either
4:43
have a negative
4:44
test or for example to have a
4:47
vaccination or to be a recent recoverer
4:49
from covered with proof
4:50
that you have immunity of some kind
4:53
what all of those lines are saying is
4:55
they're already seeing travelers
4:56
shifting
4:57
their bookings to past august and i
4:59
would recommend if you do have a river
5:00
cruise
5:01
booking i would push it to august and
5:03
beyond
5:04
despite saying all of that there is a
5:05
third really important thing to note
5:07
when it comes to river cruising so
5:08
unlike ocean cruising
5:10
the river cruise lines are able to turn
5:12
on cruising
5:13
relatively quickly so some of the cruise
5:15
lines are saying they can do within days
5:17
but probably
5:17
more like a week or two or three weeks
5:19
and why is that
5:20
well first of all staffing is all local
5:23
so they don't have to worry about
5:23
bringing staff from all around the world
5:25
staff is local the supply chain is local
5:27
they restock the ships very frequently
5:29
and in local ports they don't have all
5:31
the port infrastructure
5:32
and also importantly all of their ships
5:35
are laid up as they always are for the
5:37
winter but they have a lot of experience
5:38
at taking ships out of cold
5:40
layout and getting them back into
5:41
service very quickly because they do it
5:43
every single year
5:44
so the lead time to start cruising is
5:46
very quick so once things start to move
5:48
once
5:49
things start to lift they will be able
5:50
to turn it on really quickly
5:52
so really important stay flexible
5:54
because if river cruising does open
5:56
if travel does open they will put stuff
5:58
on sale
5:59
and i'm sure there'll be lots of
6:00
opportunities and maybe some sharp
6:02
deals and opportunities to get cruising
6:04
so stay flexible
6:06
there is one really big unknown still
6:08
though which is around what travel
6:09
restrictions will be
6:10
put in place by local authorities where
6:13
as the season starts as it begins
6:15
so for example in 2020 you found some
6:17
cruisers only really were able to sell
6:19
within germany
6:20
or they had problems with cruises in
6:21
portugal because it did include stops in
6:23
spain
6:24
and spain had some restrictions on which
6:25
nationalities could come in and out
6:27
so one of the uncertainties with the
6:29
river cruises is will they be able to
6:31
run the actual itineraries
6:32
as currently scheduled so certainly if
6:34
you are booking early on
6:35
in the season bear in mind that you may
6:37
not actually get to do the actual
6:39
itinerary that you're hoping to book
6:41
again another reason for pushing things
6:43
later because the cruise lines are
6:44
saying they just don't know what those
6:46
restrictions may be the other thing that
6:48
people ask me
6:49
as we look at an update on river
6:51
cruising is what about all the protocols
6:52
so certainly all the cruise lines are
6:54
saying they're expecting the protocols
6:56
that they put in place
6:57
already will continue to be in place
7:00
during 2021 so that means lower capacity
7:02
on all the ships
7:03
so sailing with much fewer passengers
7:05
there'll be some kind of health
7:06
screening
7:07
before boarding this ship there will be
7:09
mask wearing because that is still a
7:10
requirement
7:11
in all the places in all countries until
7:13
that get lifted in those countries it
7:15
will stay
7:16
they have things like one-way systems
7:18
there's no buffets at all it's all
7:19
served
7:20
of course the cruise lines have line
7:22
excursions anyway however you would be
7:24
able to go out and tour
7:25
on your own if that is basically what
7:28
you can do anyway as an independent
7:30
tourist but they'll be encouraging you
7:32
to stick with the line excursions fewer
7:33
people
7:34
on each of the excursions there'll be
7:36
staggered dining so much more
7:37
limits around who you can dine with and
7:39
when you can dine there'll be of course
7:41
lots of
7:42
cleaning daily temperature checks your
7:44
luggage all gets sprayed and
7:46
cleaned and so on and so forth so all of
7:48
those kind of protocols will remain in
7:50
place
7:51
certainly until they get lifted in the
7:52
countries themselves because again
7:54
river cruises do tend to follow the
7:56
local rules particularly things around
7:59
mars wearing and pretty much what you'd
8:01
have to do in a hotel stay
8:02
you're gonna have to do on a river
8:04
cruise in europe
8:05
in the us the american steamboat company
8:08
has already announced they're going to
8:09
require vaccines for both crew and
8:10
guests from july the opening start
8:12
in april may without it the the river
8:15
cruises that go to the growth through
8:16
the great lakes into canada
8:17
they're all uncertain because of the
8:19
camera rules in terms of the mekong it's
8:21
not looking very promising at all
8:22
in that area because in myanmar there's
8:25
no signs it'll be irrawaddy cruises
8:26
because of
8:27
the coup there both in vietnam and
8:30
cambodia with all the restrictions on
8:32
travel
8:32
it looks like that key sort of march
8:34
april to september period is not going
8:36
to happen
8:37
in africa now they're hoping they can
8:39
open that later in the year
8:40
so pretty much river cruising is looking
8:42
a little bit like ocean cruising in
8:44
terms
8:44
of uncertainty however certainly in
8:46
europe we are likely to see river
8:48
cruises start saying
8:49
relatively early as we head into summer
8:51
for european
8:52
guests only when it comes to
8:54
international guests we're talking much
8:56
later in the year and all hinges around
8:58
the role of
8:59
vaccines the role of passports to come
9:02
into countries
9:03
and basically travel opening up and very
9:06
importantly countries
9:07
individually lifting the ban on river
9:09
cruising
9:10
hopefully you found this interesting and
9:11
helpful remember i have hundreds more
9:13
of tips for travellers episodes packed
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9:17
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