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BIG CRUISE UPDATE: 8 Changes Cruise Lines Made To Be Sailing From May In UK (+ US latest)
Feb 14, 2025
In this latest cruise update, I explore cruising opening up from May in the UK by lines including Princess Cruises, Cunard, Viking Cruises, P&O Cruises and Fred Olsen and why it is not a return to normal - and what it means for cruise passengers both in the UK and as far afield as the USA. I also look at less promising news about European river cruises and the USA latest
So, what is going on? Join me as I explore and unravel all of this, and more importantly give my take on what it means for travellers like you and me keen to start cruising again.
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0:00
it's definitely not cruising as we knew
0:03
it
0:03
as i poked around into the nitty-gritty
0:05
detail from the cruise lines of who
0:07
when where and how people can go
0:09
cruising this summer in the uk
0:11
it's definitely not cruising returning
0:14
back to normal and neither will it be
0:16
for european river cruises
0:17
nor the united states and let's find out
0:19
what's happening in this
0:21
cruise update at the time of recording
0:24
five lions have officially confirmed
0:25
they will be starting up
0:27
uk sailings this summer viking cruises
0:30
from may on their viking venus
0:32
pinot cruises with two ships britannia
0:35
and iona
0:36
from the end of june cunard on queen
0:37
elizabeth princess cruises on two ships
0:40
from the
0:40
end of july and fred olson with two
0:43
ships
0:44
now actively working on cruises are also
0:47
royal caribbean
0:48
and hutu griton and reviewing their
0:50
options include
0:51
saga cruises msc cruisers so by the time
0:54
you watch this
0:55
they may all have announced there's two
0:57
plus others
0:58
as well but there are eight key
1:00
decisions the lions have built into
1:02
these uk cruises
1:03
that i think everybody in the world not
1:05
just the uk should know because i think
1:07
it really confirms the direction of
1:09
opening and they do mirror what happened
1:11
in other regions as they opened so let's
1:13
take a look at those
1:15
first it's taking a very long time from
1:16
getting the green light from government
1:18
to being allowed to resume actually
1:20
cruising it's taking between
1:22
three and four months now this is what
1:24
the lions have kept saying
1:26
coming back into service will take this
1:28
long so bear that in mind
1:29
as you look at your region and when you
1:31
get the okay to sell because it's still
1:32
going to take
1:33
quite some time secondly these cruisers
1:36
replace
1:36
all the advertised cruises and run for
1:38
limited times in the case of viking
1:40
they only have three planned 22nd of may
1:42
29th of may and the 5th of june
1:44
pinot cruisers are running them from
1:46
june until september the 19th
1:48
similar for cunard princess cruises from
1:50
the 31st of july
1:52
to the 28th of september the hope is
1:54
then to return to the advertised cruise
1:56
schedule
1:57
as travel beyond the uk waters is
1:59
allowed and countries in europe and even
2:01
further afield
2:02
open thirdly cruise passengers have to
2:04
be uk resident
2:06
and fully vaccinated so both doses at
2:09
least seven days before
2:10
sailing now on most of these settings
2:12
this applies
2:13
with the main exception that i've seen
2:14
so far of viking who only going to rely
2:17
on testing
2:18
so anyone that does not want to has not
2:20
yet been always under 18
2:22
will not be able to go on all the other
2:24
of those cruises
2:26
so vaccination is a real key issue now
2:28
the vaccine
2:29
rule only applies at the start-up
2:32
cruises so those running until late
2:33
september
2:34
and then the theory is they won't be so
2:36
we'll have to wait and see
2:37
crew by the way will not be vaccinated
2:39
as many of those won't have qualified
2:41
yet so they'll go into quarantining
2:43
and be regularly tested fourth limited
2:45
fleet pinot cruises for example are
2:47
using
2:47
two of their six ships and only the two
2:50
large ones
2:51
cue not just using one viking using one
2:53
princess two
2:54
sky princess and regal princess and so
2:56
on so as we've seen across the world
2:59
as cruising resumes only one or two
3:01
ships are used by line
3:03
and also probably linked to how much
3:05
demand because these cruisers may have
3:07
limited appeal
3:08
so as i keep saying as cruising returns
3:10
do not expect a
3:11
entire lines fleet to start up at the
3:13
same time
3:14
we don't yet know by the way what the
3:16
exact level of reduced capacity on these
3:18
ships
3:19
will be in other regions it's been
3:21
between sort of 50 and 60
3:23
so that's something to watch fifthly
3:25
cruisers to nowhere now these
3:26
are largely going to be scenic cruising
3:28
as they were in asia
3:30
singapore japan and taiwan now that
3:33
could be
3:33
obviously it's easy to keep managing
3:35
that bubble navigate all different rules
3:37
across the different nations of the uk
3:39
and
3:39
also just you know acceptance of cruise
3:42
ships going into some of these ports
3:44
there are some hints viking are going to
3:45
try and have some
3:46
english only ports fred olson will on
3:49
one cruise
3:50
only call in at the shetland islands and
3:52
orkney islands
3:53
princess are also hoping to have a few
3:55
ports on a limited
3:56
number of their cruises so we'll see how
3:59
this evolves but piano britannia
4:01
for example will run short three and
4:03
four night cruises
4:04
along the south coast of england iona
4:07
will do coastal cruising
4:09
past the channel islands and along the
4:11
coast of france
4:12
although their very first cruise which
4:13
is actually going to be their maiden
4:14
voyage
4:15
will actually scenic cruise up to the
4:16
island of viona in scotland
4:18
and as i mentioned that will be her
4:19
maiden void so cruises to nowhere or
4:22
very limited
4:23
places six balcony cabins and suites
4:25
only now this has been the case with msc
4:27
mindshift
4:28
audience of the season israel quantum
4:30
the season singapore
4:31
only balcony and above are put on sale
4:33
now could be that inside
4:34
an ocean view being used by the crew
4:36
maybe they're part of the isolation
4:38
and quarantine fallbacks but also of
4:40
course it means that people have cabins
4:42
with access to fresh air if there are
4:44
any issues on these cruises the seventh
4:47
area is around protocols now as with all
4:49
the others that have started selling to
4:50
date
4:51
things like social distancing mark
4:52
wearing no self-service
4:54
buffets health screenings all those kind
4:56
of things will still
4:58
apply now it's not confirmed about
4:59
testing for passengers although it will
5:01
be frequent for crew
5:02
but i did ask for example pinot cruises
5:04
they told me that testing may be
5:06
required
5:07
and will actually be covered within the
5:08
fair if it is and when it is
5:11
the eighth area is really important it's
5:12
around insurance travelers
5:14
will have to prove they have travel
5:16
insurance with
5:17
covert 19 cover so for example the piano
5:20
rules say and this is true of all the
5:22
other
5:22
carnival group but i'm going to quote
5:24
what they say insurance must include
5:26
medical
5:27
and repatriation cover of 2 million
5:29
pounds minimum
5:30
that includes cover for emergency
5:32
evacuations and medical expenses
5:34
related to covert 19. if you want to
5:36
know that is in dollars that's about 2.7
5:38
million dollars
5:39
so all of this shows that cruising as it
5:41
returns will not certainly for much of
5:43
this year
5:44
actually return but come back as
5:46
something different
5:47
and this i believe will be the same in
5:49
every single region it's cruising
5:51
but not as we used to know it now if you
5:54
want to know
5:55
more detail on all of these points
5:57
around the uk
5:58
cruise resumption rules you could watch
6:00
the video that i've made about them
6:02
and the link is above so as all this
6:05
progress
6:05
happens in the uk what about the united
6:08
states what's
6:09
on earth is going on now it looks like
6:12
things are
6:12
mostly slowing down they're certainly
6:15
not speeding up
6:16
so when will we see any ocean cruising
6:19
out of the united states i think
6:20
most of us probably including you have
6:22
given up predicting a date but let's
6:24
take a look
6:24
at a couple of developments that have
6:26
happened that are of note
6:28
and are of significance when we talk
6:30
about the united states
6:31
first of all in really big news the
6:33
first u.s homeport line virgin voyages
6:36
they've announced that they will require
6:38
vaccines for both passengers
6:40
and crew when they're allowed to start
6:42
sailing now of course they're an
6:44
adult only line so they don't face that
6:46
whole dilemma
6:47
and discussion on what should they do
6:49
about excluding under 18s
6:50
from their cruises that other lines do
6:52
of course as in the uk
6:54
people under 18 cannot yet be vaccinated
6:57
now
6:57
tom mcalpine he's their ceo he said in a
7:00
statement i'm going to quote it because
7:01
it's
7:01
pretty important to see the thinking our
7:04
goal is to ensure that we're providing
7:06
the safest
7:06
travel experience which means
7:08
vaccinations for both our crew and
7:10
sailors
7:11
this is a step towards this safe return
7:14
to sailing and is the right decision
7:16
for virgin voyages of course they join
7:19
american steamboats
7:21
line and victory line requiring vaccines
7:24
in the united states for their settings
7:26
we're going to watch with great interest
7:28
what the cdc
7:29
and uh perhaps other lions do especially
7:32
for those test cruises that we're
7:33
waiting
7:34
for and eventually for fair paying
7:36
cruises particularly when they start up
7:37
and resume
7:38
and whether they follow the approach to
7:39
the uk done you know the startup cruises
7:41
having the vaccine requirement the
7:44
second really big news which you
7:45
probably are no
7:46
is the norwegian group norwegian region
7:48
seven seas and oceania
7:50
they've cancelled all their cruises
7:51
through to july others inevitably will
7:54
and they probably have
7:55
by the time you watch us follow because
7:57
they all have the same reason
7:58
the cdc and those rules the cdc they
8:02
again went out reforming their stance
8:05
against
8:05
any travel at this point in time there's
8:08
no news
8:08
on when technical details to plan those
8:11
tests cruises will be
8:12
and even if you move away from the cdc
8:15
of course we've seen various speeches by
8:16
president biden
8:18
which spoke about some of the effects of
8:20
vaccines will only start playing out
8:21
sort of from july
8:23
onwards in terms of rules and
8:24
regulations so it's really a waiting
8:26
game
8:27
on the positive side point number three
8:29
is both american cruise line
8:31
and american steamboat line they have
8:33
resumed some of their river cruise
8:35
services so certainly
8:36
there's a river cruising option now in
8:38
the united states
8:39
the fourth thing really sort of linked
8:41
to the us is crystal cruisers
8:42
they're going round all those cdc rules
8:44
by home porting
8:45
the crystal serenity from the third of
8:47
july of the bahamas with seven night
8:49
cruises
8:50
with embarkations of both nassau and
8:52
bimini
8:53
so will other lions be tempted to try
8:55
one or two ships in the islands there's
8:57
lots of limitations
8:58
on islands actually being able to handle
9:00
the logistics and the numbers and what's
9:02
required
9:03
but it'll be interesting to see if any
9:04
others start to follow
9:06
now the outlook for european river
9:08
cruising has unfortunately
9:09
slumped a bit since my last update the
9:12
slower kind of progress of vaccination
9:14
in europe versus say the uk
9:16
and the us is probably reducing optimism
9:19
within europe
9:20
because it's going to affect when
9:21
borders open for ships to sell freely
9:24
and also really importantly for people
9:25
entering the eu to join the river
9:27
cruises
9:28
50 of the river cruise europe
9:30
association members they met online
9:32
very very recently and there were a
9:33
couple of really big takeouts from me
9:36
from that meeting that i thought i would
9:38
share with you because i think they're
9:39
really important
9:40
first of all what they said is european
9:43
river cruising is at best
9:44
expected startup only in the second half
9:47
of may but with domestic routes only so
9:50
only within one country so only
9:51
within germany or say portugal now this
9:54
is due to the various limits
9:55
that are being set by countries on
9:57
opening up travel and all the various
9:59
restrictions you know a number of
10:00
european countries
10:01
seem to be heading into a potential
10:03
third wave and there are increasing
10:04
restrictions
10:06
and lockdowns so that's making that more
10:08
pessimistic about when they could open
10:10
certainly they're not thinking it'll be
10:11
for easter
10:12
secondly cross-border cruises are
10:14
forecast to only start
10:16
from the earliest july probably more
10:18
from august so those are the ones that
10:19
you know go
10:20
right along the danube or the rhine and
10:22
thirdly they do believe that because
10:24
of those issues with coming in out with
10:26
air transport
10:27
capacity they think that europeans are
10:30
going to again
10:31
this year be the bulk of customers for
10:33
another year
10:34
and they don't think all the fleets are
10:36
therefore going to come back into
10:37
service of course they
10:38
hope that things will change
10:39
particularly once again into september
10:41
now around the world we are seeing very
10:43
different paces and plans when it comes
10:45
to cruising now
10:46
one key factor definitely there's a roll
10:49
out of vaccines
10:50
and the confidence in each of those
10:51
different countries and the authorities
10:53
to open
10:54
their various countries so we saw that
10:56
in asia
10:58
we're seeing it now in the uk and we're
11:00
seeing it in parts of
11:01
europe the very first key step in all of
11:04
those cases has been to open
11:06
domestic travel and domestic cruising
11:08
for local residents it's something that
11:10
is just not possible in the united
11:12
states
11:12
due to the passenger vessels services
11:15
act which means
11:16
cruisers have to call on a foreign
11:18
country you can find out much more about
11:20
the protocols that are being used for
11:22
cruising
11:22
in all these various countries opening
11:24
and which are likely to stay
11:26
by clicking on this here to view a
11:29
playlist of two videos
11:30
i've made on this topic so why not do
11:32
that
11:34
right now
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