Up next in 10
Discover the 7 reasons you should be looking at 2022 and not 2021 cruises, including the surprising news that the cruise lines agree with this too! In this episode of Tips For Travellers, I look at why booking 2022 cruising vacations (or even 2023 cruises) and avoiding committing to 2021 right now and waiting, no matter how eager you are to go cruising, is your best bet by far.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
you're about to discover seven reasons
0:02
you should be looking at
0:03
2022 and not 2021 cruises including
0:07
the surprising news that the cruise
0:09
lines agree with this too
0:12
i'm gary bembridge and in this episode
0:13
of tips for travellers i look at why
0:16
booking
0:16
2022 cruising vacations and avoiding
0:19
committing to 2021 right now
0:22
and waiting no matter how eager you are
0:24
to go cruising
0:25
is your absolute best bet by far
0:28
probably the most compelling reason for
0:31
focusing booking
0:32
for 2022 is the cruise lines themselves
0:36
are actually recommending it there are a
0:38
couple of things
0:39
to note that have developed over the
0:41
last couple of days and weeks
0:43
firstly at a recent travel agent virtual
0:46
cruise
0:47
showcase arranged by the cruise line
0:49
association
0:50
the lions were telling travel agents to
0:52
encourage
0:53
travelers to book itineraries earliest
0:55
from autumn winter 2021
0:57
and to focus more on 2022 cruises so why
1:01
are they doing that or simply
1:03
because they are much more certain that
1:04
their advertised cruisers will
1:06
actually be able to run by then for
1:09
example peter shanks now he's the
1:10
managing director of silversea cruises
1:12
he was very explicit and said that
1:14
travel agents should focus on promoting
1:17
and selling their cruises from the
1:19
autumn of 2021 and
1:20
he recommended more early 2022 because
1:23
they would be confident they would be
1:25
operating them
1:26
as planned now this also explains why
1:29
the cruise lines have been putting 2022
1:31
and
1:31
2023 itineraries on sale to give us as
1:35
travellers
1:35
and of course agents further out cruises
1:37
to focus on
1:39
secondly the cruise lines simply don't
1:41
know when
1:42
for certain they will be able to resume
1:44
sailing in 2021
1:45
no one really knows there's no agreed
1:48
date in north america
1:50
nor in major cruising parking countries
1:52
like the uk
1:53
and spain there's no agreement on
1:54
lifting bans in places like canada
1:57
and australia now there is a process for
2:00
return to sell in most of these
2:01
countries like
2:02
the us cdc framework for conditional
2:05
sailing
2:05
but there's no clarity or certainty on
2:08
the dates
2:09
when cruisers will really honestly start
2:11
up in the uk
2:12
in the u.s in spain australia and so on
2:16
thirdly even once they can start sailing
2:19
all the lines have been really clear
2:21
that they'll be staggering their fleet
2:23
return to service through most of
2:25
2021 it will not be one big ban and all
2:28
the ships
2:29
come back to service however they are
2:31
still listing
2:32
and selling cruises right across their
2:34
fleets from the first date they hope to
2:36
start the very first
2:37
ship or ship sailing so that cruise you
2:39
may be eyeing for 2021 that currently
2:41
shows us running
2:42
may not be in the end no one really
2:45
knows for 2021 yet
2:47
norwegian carnival groups for example
2:49
they say they only envisage
2:50
all their ships being back sailing by
2:52
autumn 2021
2:54
so it's clear that many many advertised
2:56
cruisers won't run
2:58
now others like fred olson cruises
2:59
they're already starting to be much more
3:01
upfront
3:02
and much more explicit they have laid up
3:04
one of their ships the braemar
3:06
already until 2022 as this one is used
3:09
to sell more distant more flight crews
3:11
more multi-country itineraries they've
3:13
cancelled all 20-21
3:15
cruises for that ship and they will only
3:17
bring back ships in 2021
3:19
that run no-fly local departures they
3:22
cruise to domestic or
3:23
ports that are close to the uk fourthly
3:26
it's also worth
3:27
considering as you think about timing
3:29
that the major cruise groups have been
3:31
raising cash
3:32
to enable them to survive without any
3:34
cruises running through to summer 2021
3:37
so that may also be an indication of
3:38
their thinking
3:39
so if you want to plan your vacation
3:41
time your budget
3:43
with maximum certainty pushing it out to
3:46
the earliest end of the year 2021 and
3:49
even better into 2022
3:50
is definitely your best option don't
3:52
just take my word for it the lines are
3:54
saying it
3:55
too it's also therefore not a surprise
3:59
that the lines are making it even easier
4:01
for you to book cruises
4:03
in 2022 using your future cruise credit
4:06
from
4:06
cancelled trips so if you have future
4:09
cruise credit
4:10
do not feel pressurized to use it to
4:12
cruise in 2021 which
4:14
of course had been the case for quite
4:15
some time the cruise lines are allowing
4:18
you to use your future cruise credit
4:19
for 2022 cruises and some like msc
4:23
cruises carnival cruise line
4:25
for 2023 cruisers already now many
4:28
cruisers including me
4:29
for a time think that the expiry date of
4:32
our future cruise credit is
4:33
by when you have to have cruised now
4:36
this is not
4:37
always the case so check really
4:39
carefully with your line
4:40
most cruise lines only require you to
4:43
have used your future cruise credits
4:44
to make a booking before the expiry date
4:47
and usually it can be for
4:48
any cruise on sale at the time you book
4:50
so certainly
4:51
in 2022 and as i mentioned for some
4:53
lines
4:55
now there are some exceptions at the
4:58
time of recording so royal caribbean and
4:59
holland america
5:00
you have to have actually cruised before
5:03
your credit expires but again
5:05
that date is well well into 2022.
5:09
so from my research and looking around
5:11
it looks to me like virtually
5:13
all cruise lines enable you to use
5:15
future cruise credit no matter when it
5:17
was issued
5:17
to sale sometime in 2022 so consider
5:21
that
5:22
and your ability to use that if you want
5:24
the absolute certainty to escape that
5:26
cycle of booking cancellations and
5:28
rebook and use your future cruise credit
5:30
for 2022. another reason to hold off
5:33
booking a cruise until
5:34
2022 is there is no certainty when all
5:37
the protocols being put in place for
5:39
cruising
5:39
to resume are going to be lifted many of
5:42
which i've seen
5:43
lots of cruisers object to and they only
5:45
want to cruise
5:46
when these things are lifted vaccination
5:49
is being seen as the cruise lines as
5:51
i've covered in the past episode
5:53
as being really really key to being able
5:55
to lift many
5:56
of the limitations and rules that are
5:57
being put in place now although we are
6:00
all optimistic
6:01
that vaccination programs are going to
6:02
roll out really quickly in 2021
6:05
to be honest we just don't know for
6:06
certain the time scale right now it
6:08
could be
6:09
quite some time into 2021 before these
6:12
programs
6:12
have really been rolled out across all
6:15
the age groups
6:17
my other thinking is with the attitude
6:18
towards cruising being generally
6:20
pretty negative and pretty cautious by
6:22
the various authorities
6:23
i would suspect that permission to lift
6:25
the protocols on cruise ships
6:27
will be slower than many of us hope i
6:29
believe that's going to happen even as
6:31
vaccinations rather i think it's going
6:32
to be really cautious
6:33
timing on lifting off the protocols so
6:35
if you object to
6:36
any of the protocols for any reason you
6:39
should only book
6:40
as far as possible the end of 2021 more
6:42
sensibly into 2022 to increase the
6:45
chance
6:45
that they've been eased or lifted to
6:47
your satisfaction so if you object to
6:49
testing compulsory mask wearing physical
6:52
distancing which means you have to
6:54
reserve
6:54
places to dine attend events sit around
6:56
the pool go to the theater and so on
6:58
if you object to cruise line only
7:00
excursions in ports venues like
7:02
saunas and nightclubs being closed
7:04
events like pool parties not being held
7:06
then do not book during at least i would
7:09
say the first nine months of 2021
7:11
and more realistically focus on 2022
7:14
until you know for sure that these have
7:16
been lifted be cautious about when you
7:18
book
7:19
now until the likelihood of passengers
7:21
contracting coronavirus or
7:22
even showing these symptoms is really
7:25
really low
7:26
you do need to consider the risk of your
7:28
crews being truncated even it's able to
7:30
run
7:31
when you start booking so the risk of
7:33
any outbreak
7:35
is likely to be lower the more further
7:37
out you look when the combination of you
7:39
know
7:39
vaccine adoption ever more effective
7:42
testing protocols just the general
7:44
level of the virus circulating is much
7:47
lower
7:48
now the reason i'm saying that is
7:49
important is as all the return to cruise
7:52
protocols
7:53
they currently say that if there are
7:54
suspected cases of coronavirus on board
7:57
usually above a small threshold the
7:59
cruise will be curtailed
8:01
and has to return to the embarkation
8:02
port so even if the cases end up being
8:05
false positives
8:06
such as we saw for sea dream in norway
8:09
and cruise in alaska
8:10
poor gagan and french polynesia and even
8:12
more recently on royal caribbean quantum
8:14
of the seas out of singapore
8:16
cruises still get cut short if even if
8:19
it ends up being a false positive
8:21
and of course better track and trace
8:22
means only those who came into contact
8:24
with the infected passenger or
8:26
passengers gets
8:27
really strictly isolated everyone gets
8:30
quarantined in their cabins until it can
8:31
be
8:31
more land-based testing and you get sent
8:34
home so your cruise gets
8:35
short if there's a suspected outbreak on
8:38
board
8:38
so waiting further out into the end of
8:40
2021 and into 2022
8:43
should reduce the risk of this so it's
8:45
another thing of course to consider
8:46
and another reason for booking further
8:48
out just the chance of that happening
8:51
of course if you want to do a cruise
8:52
longer than seven nights that leave
8:54
arrive or call on ports in the united
8:56
states
8:57
then you do have to wait until 2022 to
9:00
book those the cdc has banned
9:02
longer cruises at the stage until at
9:04
least the end of november 2021.
9:07
lions currently have adopted different
9:08
approaches so be careful when you're
9:10
looking at what's on sale
9:11
some have stopped selling longer cruises
9:13
hoping over time the cdc will relax
9:15
the ruling they haven't cancelled them
9:17
others have cancelled them and put
9:18
different cruises in their place so for
9:20
example
9:20
seabourn they've changed all their
9:22
alaska season into seven night trips
9:24
some like windstar have gone even
9:26
further and they've pulled every single
9:28
cruise out of the usa
9:30
for 2021 and gone to different regions
9:33
so if you want longer cruises out of the
9:36
us according to the us
9:37
you do have to book further out into
9:39
2022.
9:41
also consider booking cruises only at
9:43
the end of 2021 and
9:44
2022 if they involve flying to a foreign
9:46
destination
9:47
and include calling on multiple
9:49
countries it's really uncertain when
9:51
countries will open
9:52
and what restrictions they will of
9:54
course be putting in place
9:55
we're all probably being over optimistic
9:58
at how fast this will all change in 2021
10:01
i think i am i think the first half of
10:03
the year
10:04
will be fine but i don't think that's
10:05
going to be the case
10:07
now so this is really really especially
10:09
true if you have big bucket list
10:11
destination cruises these could be once
10:13
in a lifetime cruises
10:14
and i would say you want to be confident
10:16
that you can see everything
10:18
do everything not have to be constrained
10:20
or follow things like wearing masks
10:22
restricted excursions
10:24
and so on so as i mentioned earlier no
10:27
one knows when countries will be able to
10:29
open freely to tourism without
10:32
restrictions
10:33
testing requirements for vaccines or
10:35
whatever
10:36
most countries are hoping and saying
10:38
that by summer
10:39
things will be more easy but as we learn
10:41
through 2020 things
10:43
end up being volatile they are
10:44
unpredictable and what we've learned is
10:46
they are just
10:47
much slower to happen than we expect so
10:50
if you have a multiple country trip
10:52
that's a
10:52
big bucket list one in mind i would
10:55
definitely recommend booking
10:56
at least the end of 2021 but probably
10:58
2022 which is what the lines are
11:00
suggesting
11:01
focus much more on domestic and close to
11:03
home cruises in 2021
11:05
if you are wanting to focus on that
11:07
because once the cruise lines are
11:09
actually sailing again
11:10
and offer trips that they know they can
11:12
deliver i think we can all revisit our
11:14
2021 plans with certainty
11:16
then we saw that in italy and germany
11:18
because when the lines were given the
11:19
okay to sail there were only specific
11:21
ports and places they could go
11:23
so what they did is they scrapped
11:24
existing cruises and they developed
11:26
and they put on sell brand new trips
11:29
based on the limitations
11:30
so once the lines get the full okay
11:33
in 2021 they will launch new trips that
11:36
they can
11:36
absolutely deliver this is the time to
11:39
then book
11:40
2021 wait for those new cruises for
11:42
example
11:43
uk lions are working on uk only ports
11:45
with uk destination cruises for when
11:47
they can start selling in 2021
11:49
because they think both the authorities
11:51
and travelers will prefer those
11:53
we've heard the lines selling out of us
11:55
ports talking about creating new cruises
11:57
focused on private caribbean islands
11:59
for a while in 2021 once they resume
12:02
most of 2021 cruisers
12:04
once they resume will almost certainly
12:06
be new cruises i believe
12:08
from what we've seen so wait for those
12:10
and focus on 2022 right now
12:12
to book those more back to usual
12:14
itineraries and
12:15
plans and then revisit 2021 when you see
12:18
what's
12:19
really really available another great
12:21
reason for looking at 2022
12:23
is the lions are really keen to get
12:26
people to commit
12:27
to 2022 and beyond as they are also sure
12:30
they can deliver them
12:31
they want to get your deposits in they
12:32
want to get commitments locked in
12:34
and not have all that uncertainty so
12:36
there are many
12:37
fantastic deals and incentives to
12:39
encourage bookings further out
12:41
the first few months of the year is
12:43
known as wave season and this is where
12:44
lions
12:45
traditionally already run promotions for
12:47
cruises
12:48
because so many people book their
12:49
vacations this time of year expect
12:52
lots of deals and offers for 2022 and
12:54
2023
12:55
a great reason to be booking as you will
12:57
find amazing opportunities and savings
12:59
by looking further ahead i hope that's
13:02
given you something to think about as
13:03
you plan your vacations budgets
13:05
and all the different plans for 21 and
13:07
22. i have
13:08
hundreds more tips to traverse episodes
13:11
packed full of cruising updates
13:13
tips and advice so why not enjoy another
13:16
one
13:17
right now
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