Up next in 10
Do you want to cruise in 2021? I explore why you may be going about it in totally the wrong way. I discuss what I am doing to escape the on-going cycle of cruise booking, cruise cancellations, getting cancelled cruise refunds or cruise future cruise credit, and how you can ensure that you can go cruising in 2021 and be able to guarantee you will be on the first cruises that run when cruising resumes
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0:00
so you want to make sure you go cruising
0:02
in 2021
0:04
it's not going to be as simple or as
0:06
straightforward as you thought it would
0:08
be
0:08
and you may be approaching it the wrong
0:10
way
0:11
i'm gary bembridge and in this episode
0:14
of my
0:14
tips for travelers i'm going to share my
0:17
tips on the very best way
0:19
to ensure that you will cruise in 2021
0:22
and what i'm doing to make sure i can be
0:24
on some of the early cruises
0:26
book cruises that are actually going to
0:28
sell
0:29
all while breaking out of that endless
0:32
booking
0:32
cancel rebook and refund spiral
0:35
trap my very first tip is if you're
0:38
planning a cruise for 2021
0:40
right now only book one in october
0:42
november or december
0:44
if you want to be pretty secure and
0:46
certain that you will actually
0:48
be going do not book cruises before then
0:51
at the moment especially if it's a
0:54
bucket list trip
0:55
there are very specific ports or places
0:57
you absolutely want to visit or
0:59
certainly in the case of the united
1:01
states you want to go on a cruise
1:03
that's longer than seven nights because
1:05
those are banned
1:06
until at least the end of november
1:10
now i'll come on to what you need to do
1:12
before those months
1:13
in a bit but let me explain why i think
1:15
you should only make
1:16
new bookings for the end of the year at
1:19
this particular point in time now in
1:22
various
1:23
travel agent sessions which i've
1:25
reported on in a couple of past episodes
1:28
the cruise lines themselves are actively
1:31
encouraging
1:32
agents to steer their clients towards
1:34
booking
1:35
from quarter four because this is the
1:37
earliest
1:38
that they feel confident they are going
1:40
to be able to run
1:41
itineraries as advertised by then the
1:44
expectation is that you know the vaccine
1:46
rollouts they've gathered
1:47
enough momentum there'll be a level
1:49
where countries
1:50
are going to be more open to letting
1:52
cruisers operate closer to normal
1:54
this means things like being able to
1:56
call on all or certainly most of the
1:57
ports
1:58
that are included in the advertised
2:00
itinerary and that restrictions both
2:02
on the ship like masks and so on and
2:04
also on land
2:05
uh have been eased to a greater degree
2:08
lines also expect by then that they will
2:10
have been able to return
2:12
most of their fleet back into service
2:14
and so they will be able to run
2:16
almost all of the advertised itineraries
2:19
which they're not certain of
2:20
until then all the lines of course are
2:22
also saying that they will
2:23
phase ships back into service and you'll
2:26
notice as each round of cancellations
2:28
are made
2:28
they're now listing returns by date by
2:31
ship
2:32
often spread across multiple months and
2:34
some lines
2:35
have already confirmed some of their
2:37
ships will only return
2:38
in 2022 so for example carnival cruise
2:42
line
2:42
they have carnival fascination and
2:45
carnival radiance
2:46
only returning in 2022 fred olsen have
2:49
taken one ship
2:50
out of service until then too and more
2:52
likely to follow
2:53
now talking to various contacts that i
2:55
have within the cruise lines before
2:56
making this episode
2:58
they have all told me that many many
3:00
cruisers have already cottoned on to
3:01
this
3:02
and most of the bookings they're getting
3:04
so far this year
3:05
are only from quarter four onwards so i
3:08
recommend
3:09
you follow what the lions are saying and
3:12
focus any new bookings
3:14
for 2021 on the final months of the year
3:17
if you want
3:18
any high degree of certainty of them
3:20
happening
3:21
but what if you want to cruise before
3:23
say october what should you be doing
3:25
and planning many many passionate
3:28
cruises
3:29
of which i am certainly one of those are
3:31
really keen to support the lines
3:33
and be sailing on the early cruises or
3:34
suddenly as soon as possible
3:36
after they actually physically return
3:39
however in my view the best way of doing
3:42
that
3:42
is to stop looking at what the cruise
3:44
lines are advertising
3:46
and telling you and taking a very
3:49
different
3:49
approach now this may sound crazy and
3:52
count intuitive
3:53
so let me explain as i passionately
3:55
believe
3:56
this will mean that you can get on early
3:58
cruises and escape
4:00
that cycle of booking rebooking paying
4:02
final balances and fighting
4:04
to get refunds start off by
4:07
not focusing on what the lines have as
4:10
return dates
4:11
if you phone up the lines they will tell
4:13
you all the advertised cruisers will be
4:15
going
4:16
now they've been saying that for every
4:18
single cruise that finally got cancelled
4:20
even
4:21
days or the day before they were
4:22
scrapped they've been saying that
4:24
the lions can't decide and aren't able
4:27
to decide when they can sell
4:29
only the government agencies can so
4:32
things for example like the cdc in the
4:33
u.s
4:34
the transport and foreign office guided
4:36
by the chief medical officer in the uk
4:38
and so on and so on
4:40
so focus on what those bodies are saying
4:43
and what you really expect them to do
4:46
now all of those
4:47
are taking a much more conservative
4:49
approach to cruising resumption
4:52
than soon the lines return dates are
4:54
currently showing
4:55
none of the major cruise country
4:57
authorities have
4:58
committed to a date that's really really
5:00
important to remember the cdc
5:01
have lines caught in their framework to
5:04
conditional sailing
5:05
it's got all sorts of hurdles it's got
5:06
various stages and there is no
5:09
timetable of commitments in that the uk
5:12
for example they've agreed actually they
5:13
returned to cruise protocols
5:15
but they refused to set any dates until
5:18
case
5:18
rates are really low on land canada and
5:21
australia
5:22
they do have set dates to review their
5:24
bans but they're certainly not showing
5:26
any enthusiasm
5:27
for lifting them despite what scheduled
5:29
cruisers are saying
5:30
so what i recommend is take a judgment
5:32
call on when you think
5:34
the authorities will shift as you start
5:36
to consider when you should actually
5:38
book but even then don't
5:41
book on one of the currently advertised
5:44
cruises
5:45
early and certainly in the middle of the
5:47
year i'm absolutely convinced
5:49
that for the first few months after
5:51
cruising is actually given the go ahead
5:54
that none of those advertised cruises
5:56
will
5:57
run there will be new cruises designed
5:59
to meet
6:00
and work with the various regulations
6:02
the different limits
6:03
that are set by every single country
6:05
where cruisers are going to be embarking
6:07
from
6:08
so why on earth do i say this what sort
6:09
of grounds do i have for saying this
6:11
firstly every single country and line
6:14
that has started sailing so far
6:16
has had to create new cruises and new
6:19
routes that
6:19
gel with the different requirements of
6:21
the regulating country
6:23
and of course around limits of available
6:25
open ports
6:26
and then there are also limits on who
6:27
was even allowed to go
6:29
on those cruises too so for example
6:32
norway in the summer they allowed hutu
6:34
grueten and sidrean
6:35
to run norway-only cruises for locals
6:38
and then eventually other scandinavian
6:40
countries for a while
6:43
bonant was allowed to sell french ports
6:46
for
6:46
french only guests during the summer new
6:49
cruises
6:50
germany allowed hutu grutan main chief
6:52
and havoc lloyd to first run cruisers to
6:55
nowhere
6:55
for german guests out of german ports
6:58
they were all
6:58
brand new cruisers italy allowed costa
7:01
cruisers and
7:02
msc cruisers to take italian and
7:04
eventually eu guests
7:06
initially to italian ports and then for
7:08
a short time to greek ports before they
7:09
had to close again
7:10
these were all new cruisers taiwan japan
7:14
and then singapore
7:15
each allowed short cruises to nowhere
7:17
again only for locals in each of those
7:19
countries
7:20
again all new cruises more recently new
7:23
zealand has given the okay for pennant
7:24
to probably sail
7:26
in their country but again only for
7:28
locals and again it was a new cruise
7:30
so it's really important to note that in
7:32
all the major cruise countries
7:34
including the united states uk and
7:36
australia the lines
7:38
the cruise line association and all of
7:40
the authorities
7:41
are proposing that return will focus on
7:44
new and limited cruises uk and australia
7:48
for example
7:49
they are actively talking about resident
7:50
only cruises calling on ports within
7:52
their countries at first
7:54
the us is talking about cruises that
7:55
call on the line's private
7:57
islands initially again all of these are
8:00
new
8:00
cruises so all of those currently
8:03
advertised cruises
8:04
close to any probable return date the
8:07
lions are
8:07
unlikely to be able nor in fact are
8:10
planning to be running
8:11
them as and when cruising gets the okay
8:14
they of course hope to be able to add to
8:16
expand and eventually phase into the
8:19
originally planned itineraries
8:21
so this is why avoid booking the rest of
8:24
the year
8:24
cruises for now fine so that's what you
8:28
should
8:28
not do so what of course should you
8:31
actually be doing
8:32
well first of all retain ultimate
8:35
flexibility
8:36
both of your cash and your vacation time
8:39
so if you have any existing 2021 crews
8:42
cancelled i
8:43
strongly recommend consider taking a
8:46
cash refund
8:47
and not future cruise credit i also
8:49
suggest not paying final balances
8:52
if they become due and shift your
8:54
bookings into quarter four and beyond
8:56
if your deposit is not refundable as
8:59
my existing 22 round cruises are getting
9:01
cancelled i'm shifting
9:02
them into the end of 2021 and probably
9:05
more so now into 2022 i'm also not
9:07
paying
9:08
any final balances that come to you on
9:10
any 2021 cruises
9:11
because i want to avoid tying up big
9:13
chunks of money or end up waiting for
9:15
refunds which of course can be really
9:17
slow
9:18
this then means i have cash in my hand
9:20
and i can
9:21
jump when things finally opened and i'm
9:23
not limited
9:24
to which line or lines that i'm going to
9:26
have to sail with
9:27
because i have future cruise credit
9:28
locked in them when cruising returns
9:31
now if you do this too it means you will
9:33
have money
9:34
to be able to book one of the new return
9:36
cruises you're not stuck or limited to
9:38
any particular line because your funds
9:41
are tied up with them
9:42
you have flexibility to move around
9:45
now we will only know close to the time
9:46
what the new cruisers are
9:48
how long they are and what they will
9:50
cost and even if they will appeal to you
9:53
so having flexibility of cash and
9:54
importantly vacation time
9:56
means you're going to be able to be
9:57
nimble you can jump on any line or route
9:59
that appeals
10:00
and works best for you bear in mind
10:02
you're not going to know what these
10:03
cruises are
10:04
at this point in time importantly of
10:06
course it means that you should have
10:07
vacation day flexibility
10:09
to take any new cruises that pop up when
10:11
they come and stream because you're not
10:13
having to hold back days for cruises
10:15
you've got booked during the course of
10:17
and of course those quizzes may not
10:19
happen as planned and you then box
10:20
yourself
10:21
into a corner so having cash and
10:24
vacation flexibility
10:25
should mean that when cruising actually
10:28
really returns
10:29
with new cruises you are in a position
10:32
to act
10:33
and cruise in 2021 with some confidence
10:37
now quite a few people have said to me
10:38
that recommending approaches like this
10:40
is totally wrong and we should all be
10:42
showing support for the
10:43
lions by booking right now
10:47
however booking later this year and
10:49
entered 22 is supporting them
10:51
and also though being ready and able to
10:54
book return cruises
10:55
when they create them i believe is even
10:57
better support
10:59
the lions in countries like norway
11:00
germany italy japan singapore and taiwan
11:03
they were delighted and very encouraged
11:05
by people being able to commit
11:07
and booking their return cruises they
11:09
created
11:10
when they came back so by being ready
11:13
and able with
11:14
cash and time to support cruisers when
11:16
they genuinely start in whatever form
11:17
they are
11:18
seems like a good thing to me now do you
11:20
agree with that approach
11:22
by the way remember i have loads more
11:25
tips for travelers episodes full of
11:27
cruising advice and tips
11:29
so why not go and enjoy another one
11:31
right now
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