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BIG CRUISE UPDATE: Vaccines Required? Alaska No Go? March USA ? Good News? & More
Feb 12, 2025
In my latest cruise update, the 30th in my cruising update series, I explore the latest cruise developments on if you will need to have had a cvid vaccination before being able to cruise, if the 2021 Alaska cruise season happen or will Alaska cruising not happen due to the latest cruise news and hurdles, more cruise cancellations and changes or cruise resumption dates along with some proactive cruise news on process to cruising resuming in the USA.
For the most up-to-date list of cruise cancellations and when cruise lines plan to resume sailing: http://www.tipsfortravellers.com/cruise-line-cancellations
CDC ship status: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/crew-disembarkations-commercial-travel.html
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0:00
will you need to have a vaccine to
0:02
cruise
0:03
will you rarely be able to cruise from
0:04
march in the u.s will alaska cruises
0:06
next year run
0:07
this and much more coming up i'm gary
0:11
bembridge and this is another of my
0:12
cruise updates where i discuss the very
0:14
latest
0:15
cruise news and important developments
0:17
that i think you need to know about
0:19
and what it means for you and me and all
0:20
of us as cruisers
0:22
first of all as curved vaccines start to
0:24
be rolled out around the world
0:26
their role in cruising has been in the
0:28
news in recent
0:30
days whilst a very vocal number of
0:32
cruisers have expressed
0:33
really strong resistance to having to
0:36
prove they've had a covet
0:37
vaccine before cruising the lines
0:39
themselves
0:40
have confirmed that they are seeing them
0:43
as key
0:44
to rebuilding cruising and are actively
0:46
looking at
0:47
having these as a requirement before
0:49
people can board their ships of course
0:51
once vaccination rollout is much more
0:53
widespread so i thought
0:55
it was a good opportunity to update you
0:57
on what the latest news
0:58
and developments are in this area first
1:01
of all roger frizzle he's the chief
1:03
communications officer for
1:04
carnival corporation group he called the
1:07
vaccine
1:08
a positive development for cruising but
1:10
the ceo
1:11
of the royal caribbean group so that
1:13
includes royal caribbean celebrity
1:15
azamara and silversea richard fain in
1:17
the last few days issued a video
1:20
and he said that vaccines were the key
1:22
to unlocking
1:23
and opening cruising he said and i'm
1:26
going to quote exactly what he said in
1:27
the video
1:28
the arrival of highly efficacious
1:30
vaccines
1:31
is a game change previously we expected
1:34
cruising to resume based on creating a
1:36
virtual
1:37
bubble of safety on the ship vaccines
1:40
change all that and importantly you went
1:43
on to say and again i'm going to quote
1:44
him
1:45
today we envisage that the key will be
1:48
the vaccines
1:49
rather than purely the protocols of
1:50
course he's referring to all those
1:51
protocols of testing
1:53
distancing all that kind of stuff
1:55
although he did not
1:56
in that video talk about the requirement
1:58
for guests to prove
2:00
they were vaccinated calling it the key
2:02
to cruising
2:04
getting up and running and back to
2:05
normal seems to suggest it could be
2:09
however more evidence of that thinking
2:11
came from frank
2:12
del rio he's the ceo of the norwegian
2:14
group so to remind you that includes
2:16
norwegian cruise line
2:17
oceania and region seven seas he said in
2:20
a interview which he did with john
2:22
lovell he's the president of the travel
2:24
leaders group
2:25
he said that norwegian are actively
2:27
exploring
2:28
requiring guests to prove they've had
2:31
the vaccine to board
2:32
he said and i'm going to quote here it
2:34
will certainly
2:35
be a requirement for the crew and he
2:38
went on then to confirm
2:39
that their lawyers were currently
2:41
looking at if they could require
2:42
passengers to have one before cruising
2:44
with any of their lines
2:47
now went on to say it is absolutely
2:49
crucial in helping
2:51
to build confidence in our customers
2:54
and among ourselves that it's safe to
2:56
cruise
2:57
he then went on to point out that many
2:59
travel providers including airlines
3:01
are also exploring requiring proof that
3:04
travelers have been vaccinated now so
3:05
far
3:06
qantas airlines is the only line airline
3:09
so far that i've
3:10
seen confirming that they will be
3:12
requiring this but more may follow
3:14
now based on all of this cruise critic
3:16
in the past week then asked various
3:17
lawyers in the united states
3:19
including weinberg wheeler hodgkin's gun
3:22
and dial
3:23
to take a look at if lions would legally
3:25
be able to require vaccinations
3:27
now broadly speaking although it's
3:29
expected that if the rule came in there
3:31
may be legal
3:32
challenges all agreed that the lines
3:34
because their private
3:35
commercial operations could have it as a
3:38
condition to travel as
3:39
they already have other conditions to
3:42
tell about age
3:43
pregnancy all that kind of stuff and
3:45
they felt that any legal challenges
3:46
would be unlikely to have that ruling
3:49
overruled
3:50
and they've looked at rules on different
3:52
topics such as requiring people to wear
3:54
masks religious objections and
3:55
so on the way those have gone and they
3:58
also point out
3:59
that many countries and ports are
4:01
expected to have
4:02
a vaccine proof as a requirement for
4:05
visitors to enter
4:06
just as some countries already have
4:08
requirements
4:09
for vaccines like yellow fever typhoid
4:12
cholera
4:12
hepatitis a hepatitis b so cruise lines
4:16
would also be obliged
4:17
to insist on cover vaccines if ports
4:21
they call and require them now the only
4:23
thing that lawyers did say
4:24
would be required is the alliance would
4:26
have to allow passengers
4:28
to cancel cruises and be refunded in
4:31
full if they didn't accept
4:32
the requirement now if you want to
4:34
review what the legal arguments and
4:36
views are there is
4:37
a link in the notes of this episode to
4:39
the article which goes into
4:40
much more detail of course we also need
4:43
to see what the cdc
4:45
decides on the role of vaccinations in
4:47
the us and europe and so on
4:49
if any and particularly in the us in
4:51
their framework for conditional sailing
4:52
as that gets worked through and the road
4:56
occurs now i'm sure there will be much
4:58
more news
4:59
on this topic over the coming months and
5:01
much discussion and
5:02
angst too and i will keep you posted in
5:05
these updates
5:06
many people have asked me about the 2021
5:08
alaska season and if it will run
5:10
i have to declare an interest as i'm
5:13
booked on princess cruises
5:14
in may in alaska it's definitely not
5:17
clear based on the news to date if the
5:19
season will run in its entirety or even
5:21
at all
5:22
there are five developments that i think
5:24
you need to know about
5:26
first of all canada has to lift their
5:29
ban
5:29
on cruise ships in canadian waters the
5:31
current ban runs to february the 28th
5:34
now based on past extensions the
5:36
decision on lifting or extending the ban
5:38
is normally taken really close to the
5:40
expiry date so we're
5:41
unlikely to know until well into
5:43
february on the lifting
5:45
or extension of the ban the reason it's
5:47
important is u.s
5:48
law requires foreign flagships which all
5:50
the main lines are
5:51
that are leaving and return to u.s ports
5:53
have to call
5:54
on a foreign country within the
5:56
itineraries unless canada lets ships
5:57
call in there the alaska season
5:59
cannot run because it's unlikely the u.s
6:01
lawmakers will ever change
6:02
that law or allow waiver secondly even
6:06
if canada does lift the ban
6:08
the canadian british columbia premier a
6:10
man called john hogan
6:12
this is where vancouver victoria and
6:14
port prince
6:15
rupert ports are they're essential for
6:17
alaska cruises to run
6:18
he made it clear in the last few weeks
6:20
that his goal is to not allow
6:22
travellers in until vaccines are in
6:25
widespread distribution
6:26
and visitors are vaccinated before
6:28
visiting so timing of vaccination
6:31
rollout could be a big factor in alaska
6:33
cruises
6:33
thirdly the norwegian group ceo frank
6:35
del rio has said that the alaska season
6:38
is still
6:38
very up in the air especially those
6:41
early sailings but on the optimistic
6:42
side
6:43
he said he believes that alaska will see
6:45
cruise ships sometime in the summer
6:47
while by autumn he thinks thanks to
6:49
vaccines again it should be
6:51
pretty much fully open the fourth issue
6:53
is due to
6:54
all of this some lines are already
6:56
though starting to give up alaska for
6:58
2021
6:59
and cancelling cunard scrapped their
7:01
plans with queen elizabeth for 2021
7:04
and windstar cruisers have just
7:05
cancelled their
7:07
entire 2021 alaska season
7:10
other lions though have started
7:11
replacing their existing alaska plans
7:14
with seven night trips due to the cdc
7:16
rules
7:17
on cruise length seabourn has the most
7:19
significant change so far
7:20
ditching planned cruises and replacing
7:22
them with 18
7:24
seven-night one-way sailings between
7:26
vancouver in the south
7:27
and juno in the north now this actually
7:29
looks pretty ambitious as it makes juno
7:31
an embarkation port which i don't think
7:33
it has been used for previously
7:35
at all so the answer to the question is
7:38
alaska cruising going to happen in 2021
7:40
is
7:41
it is uncertain and signs are strongly
7:43
pointing
7:44
to at best a late start in the season
7:46
based on the news
7:47
to date so if you do hope to go in 2021
7:51
focus on cruises towards the end of the
7:52
season to increase
7:54
certainty i for example am looking at
7:56
doing a lift and shift
7:57
on my may booking to the end of the
7:59
season for that reason
8:01
other than the changes already mentioned
8:03
there has not been
8:04
much more movement on cancellations
8:06
although there are some signs that i'll
8:08
talk about
8:08
that some may be coming the two biggest
8:11
moves in recent days have been first
8:13
windstar moving resumption of cruising
8:15
from march
8:16
to may and as they did they ditched
8:18
alaska as i've already mentioned but
8:20
they also
8:21
ditched any itinerary that had a u.s or
8:24
mexican port in it and they replaced
8:26
those with more sailings in french
8:27
polynesia and caribbean departures out
8:30
of the islands
8:31
mostly secondly at the time of recording
8:33
disney abruptly have removed
8:35
all their march cruises off their
8:37
website
8:38
the big question that many are asking
8:41
including me
8:42
is following on from these signals is
8:45
are
8:45
any of those march u.s cruisers that
8:47
pretty much
8:48
every single line still have on sale
8:50
going to happen
8:52
probably not it seems let me talk about
8:54
it a bit more
8:55
in recent interviews some of the cruise
8:57
line ceos have called march
8:58
a long shot due to both the trends of
9:01
the pandemic in the united states and
9:03
the big challenges of meeting the cdc
9:05
requirements in their framework
9:07
for conditional sailing for example
9:09
frank del rio who i seem to have quoted
9:11
quite a few times
9:12
in this episode said and i'm going to
9:14
quote here we hope that the pandemic
9:16
will ease
9:18
and we can work out our differences with
9:20
the cdc to start in mid
9:22
to late march it's a long shot but i
9:25
want to keep that possibility as long
9:27
as i see a possibility as i reported
9:30
last episode he said
9:31
again that a much more solid bet is
9:33
their ship selling in april in europe
9:36
we said and i'll quote again i think
9:38
there is a good chance
9:39
that europe will be open to cruising in
9:41
the april to may
9:43
time frame however a more positive news
9:46
towards cruising resuming carnival
9:48
cruise line is returning a
9:50
third ship into u.s waters to work on
9:52
those
9:53
cdc protocols carnival panorama will
9:56
arrive in long beach california
9:58
from panama on december the 22nd
10:01
and norwegian cruise lines senior vice
10:03
president
10:04
of entertainment and cruise programming
10:08
a guy called richard ambrose he's
10:10
confirmed that they are going to start
10:12
rehearsals in january at their central
10:14
studios in tampa
10:16
where they rehearse all the shows for
10:18
all of the ships
10:19
he also said it takes 90 days to work
10:21
through all the staging the rehearsals
10:23
and so on
10:23
to be ready to start up these shows on
10:26
the ships so that suggests
10:28
that they do expect around april into
10:30
may to have all the shows ready so that
10:32
also ties in with a more likely
10:34
april to may timeline now if you want to
10:36
keep up to date with the latest on
10:38
cancellations
10:39
and even ships that are sailing you
10:41
should visit the page on my website
10:43
tipstotravers.com i constantly updated
10:46
with which ocean and river cruise lines
10:48
are sailing
10:49
and the latest planned resumption dates
10:51
often by ship and a link
10:53
is in the notes of this episode i hope
10:56
you found this update really helpful i
10:58
have
10:58
hundreds more episodes packed full of
11:01
cruising updates cruising tips and
11:02
advice
11:03
so why not enjoy another one
11:06
right now
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