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MEGA CRUISE UPDATE: Lines CANCEL INTO 2021, Caribbean Outbreak Fall Out, New Cruise Deals & More
Jan 28, 2025
In this latest massive and extended cruise update, I discuss the biggest and latest cruise news updates including some huge news and fall-out from the SeaDream Caribbean cruise outbreak, dramatic news like Carnival cancelling cruises out of USA ports until at least end of January 2021 and why, latest on cancellations from lines offering multi-country and exotic cruises and why they cancelling to mid 2021, test cruise updates and the latest and best cruise deals for 2021.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
it's been another busy week of cruise
0:02
news and developments
0:03
including some dramatic and unexpected
0:06
fallout from the sea dream covert
0:08
outbreak
0:08
cancellations that reveal more about the
0:11
lions real 2021 plans
0:13
chances to get free cruises new and
0:16
amazing deals for 2021
0:17
and so much more i'm gary bembridge and
0:21
this
0:21
is another of my tips for travellers
0:23
cruise updates where i will
0:25
unpick the biggest breaking cruise news
0:28
and discuss importantly what it means
0:30
for all of us
0:31
as cruisers first of all the resumption
0:35
of cruises
0:36
out of the ports in the united states
0:38
will not
0:39
be as fast as some cruisers were hoping
0:42
and
0:42
expecting the conditions put on the
0:44
lines by the cdc to return to service
0:47
are proving much more complicated and
0:50
definitely more time consuming
0:51
than many had expected including the
0:53
lines now carnival with the very first
0:56
line
0:56
to confirm this by cancelling all their
0:59
sailings
1:00
out of usa ports to at least the end
1:03
of january 2021. they also announced
1:06
that they will focus the resumption of
1:08
cruisers
1:09
only on two ports initially that's miami
1:12
and port canaveral and then
1:14
they will later start out of galveston
1:16
so this has meant
1:17
that they have already cancelled all
1:20
sailings until the end of february
1:22
from all their other ports that's about
1:24
six or seven ports
1:25
however tampa their settings have been
1:27
cancelled to the end
1:29
of march so you should absolutely expect
1:31
similar announcements from other lines
1:33
as they digest
1:34
what it means to start sailing again now
1:36
on a positive note
1:38
we are seeing reports of cruise lines
1:40
already starting to send ships
1:42
back to usa waters to be able to get
1:44
them through the cdc process
1:46
through all the different drawers and to
1:48
be able to start sailing again
1:50
so carnival have already confirmed that
1:53
they are returning ships to usa waters
1:55
they removed them or before so carnival
1:56
horizon
1:57
is on its way to miami and carnival
1:59
breeze will be the next ship
2:01
back in the united states now in a
2:04
letter sent
2:04
to employees the holland america
2:06
president gus
2:08
and torture he said and i'm going to
2:10
quote here
2:11
following in-depth discussions with the
2:13
cdc
2:14
other government agencies and medical
2:16
and science authorities
2:18
we have decided to start moving six
2:21
holland america line ships towards u.s
2:23
waters
2:24
over the next several weeks to begin
2:27
completing the requirements
2:29
for conditional sailing that's great
2:31
news they're actually sending
2:32
the conningsdam new staten dam new
2:35
amsterdam
2:36
the westerdam the zedda dam and the
2:39
nordam back
2:40
to the us at least two disney ships are
2:43
also about
2:44
to sell from europe back to u.s waters
2:47
and in fact disney
2:48
fantasy has already at the time of
2:49
recording this left southampton on route
2:52
for port
2:53
canaveral so whilst resumption of
2:56
cruising out of usa ports to the
2:58
caribbean
2:59
is not likely to be as fast as many had
3:01
hoped
3:02
there are though positive signs on
3:05
progress
3:05
being made however there is less good
3:09
news
3:09
for those seeking to travel further
3:12
afield
3:13
cruise lines that focus on more exotic
3:15
and multi-country cruisers
3:17
have taken a pessimistic view about how
3:20
soon
3:21
they can start sailing again we are
3:23
seeing
3:24
an increasing wave of cancellations to
3:27
as far
3:28
as the middle of 2021 being announced
3:31
this means
3:31
more and more lines confirming they will
3:34
not be cruising for
3:35
over a year so who has been cancelling
3:39
and what is the significance of who is
3:41
canceling for all of us
3:43
as cruisers and aboard me for you well
3:45
cunard the iconic british cruise line
3:47
has cancelled the queen elizabeth to
3:50
march
3:51
queen victoria to may and queen mary 2
3:53
to
3:54
right the way through to april crystal
3:56
cruises has
3:57
also similarly pushed back its voyages
4:00
on its ocean-going fleet into
4:02
march and april based on which ship is
4:05
coming into service
4:07
the ultra luxury regent seven seas now
4:09
they are part of the norwegian
4:11
cruise group they have followed these
4:13
two and they've also scrapped
4:15
all departures through to april 2021
4:19
meanwhile some lines have cancelled even
4:22
further into 2021 this
4:25
includes silversea the ultra luxury line
4:28
which is part of the royal caribbean
4:30
group
4:31
and they have cancelled as far as
4:33
mid-june that's right
4:35
june 2021 although five ships will sail
4:39
again
4:40
in april and may silver wind silver
4:42
whisper
4:43
and silver explorer will only resume
4:47
in june so that's the middle of next
4:48
year their competition
4:50
seabourn has announced it will restart
4:53
ship by ship between april and june as
4:56
well
4:57
meanwhile windstar cruises says that
4:59
while most ships will resume
5:01
in march and april star pride will not
5:04
return
5:04
until its july voyage to northern europe
5:07
so way into the middle of next year
5:09
so why is this happening and what does
5:12
it mean for
5:13
us as cruisers well first of all
5:16
these lines sail multi-country and
5:18
exotic cruises
5:20
which will be much more challenging to
5:22
resume with the complexity
5:24
of moving people around the world to
5:26
join these cruises
5:27
differing requirements to enter
5:29
countries
5:30
timing and certainty of what ports will
5:32
be open and which will be
5:34
kind of willing to accept cruises and
5:36
all those many many complicated
5:38
hurdles so if you are planning to do a
5:41
multi-country
5:43
or an exotic cruise i strongly recommend
5:45
looking at the latter half of
5:47
2021 or even better 2022 now many
5:52
cruisers have already reached this
5:54
conclusion
5:54
and all of those lines have spoken in
5:56
recent days how 2022
5:59
is especially strong for bookings
6:01
already
6:02
secondly the lions have all said there
6:04
will be
6:05
a staggered return of ships to deal with
6:08
the complexity of re-staffing
6:10
training repositioning preparing and
6:12
restocking ships and all the
6:14
complications
6:14
of starting selling again so for example
6:17
norwegian cruise line ceo
6:18
has said that it will not be until
6:21
quarter 3
6:22
2021 until all their ships are back
6:25
in service so this is why we are no
6:28
longer seeing
6:29
as many kind of blanket cancellations by
6:31
one set date by the lines and we're
6:33
starting to see
6:34
as i've already spoken about start dates
6:36
ship
6:37
by ship within each line so as you plan
6:40
cruises ahead
6:41
do bear in mind different ships will
6:43
start sailing before
6:44
others so watch out for those
6:46
announcements as you start planning your
6:48
future cruises now thirdly if you want
6:50
to cruise sooner it is worth noting
6:53
that the lions are focusing on getting
6:55
cruising restarted
6:57
in the biggest cruise region that's the
6:59
united states
7:00
and that's before they deal with the
7:01
other regions their focus
7:03
is on getting caribbean cruising open
7:07
energy time money and resources are
7:10
really really strongly focused on
7:12
working through those very detailed
7:13
very stringent guidelines and steps that
7:15
have been laid out by the cdc
7:17
in their framework for conditional
7:19
selling and it is pretty complex
7:21
getting this sorted will enable the
7:22
biggest lines including carnival
7:24
royal caribbean norwegian msc cruisers
7:27
celebrity princess disney and holland
7:29
america to take
7:31
paying passengers they really hope in
7:33
the first quarter of
7:35
2021. the lions have a lot to do
7:38
they hope though that they can bring
7:40
back a few ships
7:41
on short caribbean trips initially
7:43
focused on their privilege
7:46
through the early months of 2021. so
7:49
even if
7:49
lions start sailing early in the year to
7:52
the caribbean
7:53
you cannot count on the itinerary you
7:55
might have booked running
7:57
as advertised and that's certainly what
7:59
i'm assuming is those ones in january
8:00
march just aren't going to happen as
8:02
planned
8:02
this is especially true if the 2021
8:05
cruise
8:06
you have booked or are looking at is
8:08
longer than seven nights these are not
8:10
allowed
8:10
under the cdc framework until at least
8:12
november
8:13
and as i suggested in my last update
8:15
almost all the major lines
8:17
have taken those off sale already they
8:20
have not
8:21
formally cancelled those cruises but if
8:23
you are booked
8:24
on a cruise over seven nights out of the
8:26
usa i strongly recommend you start
8:28
looking at shifting that
8:30
to a seven night cruise alternative
8:32
because it has more chance of going
8:34
now fourthly it is clear that the next
8:36
priority after the caribbean
8:38
will be on getting europe and alaska
8:40
able to open
8:41
and cruising for the season in those
8:44
regions now both those regions
8:46
usually operate from kind of april may
8:48
time until september october
8:50
now in europe this includes four key
8:53
regions
8:54
so that's the mediterranean the
8:55
norwegian fjords
8:57
the british isles and the baltics
9:00
german and italian lines of course have
9:01
already been sailing italian greek and
9:04
canary island itineraries
9:06
although they're actually on pause at
9:07
the moment due to european lockdowns
9:09
clear in europe is pushing hard to get
9:12
the uk baselines and those at home port
9:14
in the uk
9:15
sailing uk-based itineraries which as i
9:18
reported in the last update
9:19
the uk government appears to be moving
9:22
towards so that's uk ports for
9:24
uk residents one of the steps the lions
9:26
have to complete
9:28
before the cdc will allow them to sell
9:30
of u.s ports
9:31
is to run what they call simulated
9:34
cruises
9:35
now these are designed to test both the
9:38
new cdc protocols
9:39
and also the ones that the lines
9:40
themselves have developed
9:42
and published royal caribbean created a
9:45
lot of excitement across the last week
9:48
by launching
9:48
a website for people to register for
9:51
these
9:52
free test cruises certainly as they call
9:55
them
9:55
they also launched a facebook page now
9:58
at the time of recording
9:59
over 100 000 have signed up for interest
10:03
and there's about 40 000 on the facebook
10:05
group now this is not a surprise
10:07
because they're suggesting offering
10:08
people a free cruise
10:10
what is interesting though is if you
10:11
read the discussion on the facebook page
10:13
it's really clear
10:14
that a surprising amount of people have
10:16
not understood the changes to cruising
10:19
that is coming
10:20
and will be in place to allow lines to
10:23
sail again
10:24
so it's certainly worth joining the
10:25
facebook group to see the kind of
10:27
discussion that's taking place and what
10:28
people
10:29
are and aren't expecting the other lines
10:32
have
10:32
not said how they will recruit
10:34
volunteers nor actually has royal
10:36
caribbean even said exactly how they
10:38
will select those people at the time of
10:40
recording
10:41
they are though the only ones asking
10:44
people at the stage to register so keep
10:46
out
10:46
for the other cruise lines to follow now
10:48
in terms of timing norwegian cruise line
10:50
ceo this past week
10:52
suggested that these test cruises are
10:54
unlikely to be ready to sail
10:56
certainly this year and it was unlikely
10:58
that any other lions would
11:00
because there's an enormous amount that
11:02
the lions have to put in place
11:03
including building things like testing
11:05
capability bringing crew back
11:08
meeting the cdc guidelines for that that
11:10
they have to get through train they have
11:12
to get the ships ready so
11:13
it's unlikely that these test cruisers
11:15
will run this year if you want to know
11:16
how to sign up for any of those
11:18
there are links in the notes uh for of
11:20
this i wanted to update you on the
11:23
sea dream covert outbreak on their first
11:25
caribbean cruise
11:26
out of barbados and the impact it has
11:29
had
11:29
in the end nine people were confirmed as
11:32
testing positive for curvat by
11:34
sea dream this was a group of five
11:37
traveling together
11:38
another couple that it seems they were
11:39
pretty friendly with and
11:41
two crew members one of the infected
11:44
passengers was actually flown back to
11:46
california
11:47
on a medical evacuation flight the
11:49
remaining passengers who
11:51
all tested negative by the barbados
11:54
authorities were then disembarked
11:56
and returned home on commercial airlines
11:59
for example uk guests
12:01
returned to the uk on a british airways
12:03
flight now this move actually surprised
12:06
a lot of people including some of the
12:07
passengers themselves as the cdc
12:09
guidelines
12:10
for ships selling out of the usa would
12:12
have required first of all a longer
12:14
quarantining
12:15
and also would have required use of
12:17
non-commercial transport to get
12:19
passengers home
12:20
after an outbreak on a ship so that was
12:22
one key difference
12:24
guests reported that the barbados
12:25
authorities were behind this push for
12:27
them to disembark by the way and
12:29
leave it wasn't c dream's decision now
12:32
there have been
12:33
two really big impacts to date from this
12:36
outbreak
12:37
first of all sea dream have cancelled
12:41
the rest of their 2020 caribbean sailing
12:43
so in a statement they said
12:44
i'm going to quote this sea dream
12:47
successfully operated more than
12:48
20 sailings during the pandemic without
12:51
any cases
12:52
and further improvements were made to
12:54
protocols before the barbados
12:56
season the company will now spend time
12:59
to evaluate and see if it is possible to
13:02
operate
13:03
and have a high degree of certainty of
13:05
not
13:06
getting covered now the sea dream
13:07
experience shows that despite
13:10
various layers of testing and other
13:12
controls keeping
13:13
curvature ships cannot be guaranteed
13:16
however it is also important to remember
13:19
i think
13:20
that a similar protocol admittedly using
13:22
a different
13:23
test type has actually meant that
13:25
covet-free ships
13:27
have been sailing with many more guests
13:29
in europe throughout
13:30
this past summer without any incident
13:33
those ships have been carrying over 1
13:35
000 on each sailing
13:37
in the case of mse cruisers and costa
13:39
versus the 50 odd
13:40
that were on sea dream so certainly
13:43
there is a real chance of having
13:45
safe covert sailings now the second
13:47
impact of the sea dream incident
13:49
has led to some u.s leaders led by a guy
13:51
called richard blumenthal
13:52
from the senate and doris matsu who's a
13:55
member of congress
13:56
to lobby and write to the cdc to ask
13:58
them to reinstate
14:00
a blanket no sell order instead of their
14:03
framework to conditional sailing
14:05
they have required and requested a reply
14:07
from the cdc by the 27th
14:09
of november and no reply at the stage
14:11
now whilst
14:12
this does seem unlikely the cdc still
14:15
has enormous control
14:16
of when cruise lines can actually start
14:18
selling and
14:19
they alone determine how fast the lines
14:22
and ships
14:23
will progress through each of the stages
14:25
they have laid down now personally
14:27
i suspect we will see things progress
14:30
at a very slow and very measured pace
14:32
rather than them
14:33
reinstating the no sell order but
14:35
certainly something to watch out for
14:37
a number of people have contacted me to
14:39
ask what my view is
14:41
on the celebrity cruises always included
14:43
fares
14:44
that will be offered for all celebrity
14:46
cruise bookings made from november the
14:48
17th
14:49
they now include wi-fi drinks and
14:52
gratuities
14:53
into the basic cruise fair although
14:56
celebrity cruises have
14:58
made quite a big noise about this in
15:00
reality this actually brings them in
15:02
line with the deals
15:03
that were their direct competition
15:05
holland american princess cruises were
15:07
already
15:08
offering on their 2021 cruises you'll
15:11
find that you
15:12
can get these items included in fares
15:14
across
15:15
those premium lines when booking cruises
15:17
for next year this is
15:19
really good news as it means that
15:20
although fares are broadly the same
15:23
as pre-pandemic levels they are much
15:26
much better value than they were before
15:28
their pandemic
15:29
now i've been saying for some time that
15:32
2021 fares will be more attractive
15:34
to encourage cruisers back and this move
15:37
to a more all-inclusive
15:39
fare is very welcome in my view and i
15:41
think will be very appealing to a lot of
15:43
cruisers
15:44
so what actually is being included in
15:46
these new fares
15:47
well the celebrity always included has
15:50
classic
15:51
drinks package so you can get a range of
15:53
beers spirits cocktails liqueurs
15:56
and wines by the glass includes wi-fi
15:58
for two devices and that includes all
16:00
the gratuities they then offer different
16:02
upgrades to different packages where you
16:04
can get premium drinks onboard credit
16:06
to use like at the spa and excursions
16:08
and so on so
16:09
as you look to book cruises for next
16:10
year definitely check out
16:12
and compare line by line what these
16:14
deals are holland america
16:16
princess and celebrity cruises are all
16:18
ones i've taken advantage of as they
16:20
include
16:21
many of those items that can really
16:22
mount up and add to the cost
16:24
of a cruise so really really welcome now
16:27
these are the biggest
16:29
news stories breaking that i felt you
16:31
really needed to know about
16:32
at the moment and what i think they mean
16:34
for us as cruise lovers
16:36
i have loads more tips for turtles
16:39
episodes full of cruising advice
16:41
and tips so why not enjoy another one
16:45
right now
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