What should you be doing if one of this year, or next, cruises gets cancelled from here onwards? I discuss what you now need to consider and what you should be doing based on whether you have just paid deposit or the final balance. Things have changed and steps you may have taken with booking a cruise is different from just a few months, or even weeks ago.
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0:00
what should you do if your 2021 cruise
0:03
gets cancelled
0:04
from here onwards i think you should be
0:06
rethinking what you were planning to do
0:08
i'm going to share with you
0:09
four really important tips and things
0:11
that i think you should be
0:13
looking at if your cruise this year gets
0:15
cancelled
0:16
whether it's your first cruise or you've
0:18
had multiple cruises cancelled
0:20
these are the things i really think you
0:22
should consider doing
0:24
first of all stop for a while think and
0:26
reflect on when and what cruising
0:29
this year is going to be looking like
0:31
before you do
0:32
anything no one knows when
0:35
cruising will return not even the cruise
0:37
lines it's out of their hands it's very
0:39
much
0:39
up to government agencies and the way
0:41
things play out
0:42
so nobody knows when it returns quarter
0:45
four is when the cruise lines do believe
0:47
that things might be back much more to
0:50
normal the second thing to think about
0:51
is when cruisers resume i strongly
0:54
believe they will almost
0:55
certainly be brand new cruises they're
0:57
going to be shorter they're going to be
0:58
more local
0:59
the advertised cruises will be scrapped
1:01
and we've seen that happen
1:02
germany and italy in norway in singapore
1:05
in japan and taiwan
1:07
this is the way the cruises will open
1:08
they will be different cruisers
1:10
the next thing to think about is bear in
1:12
mind the protocols despite the vaccines
1:14
will be in place you're going to have
1:15
things like reduced capacity
1:17
multiple testing probably before you get
1:19
on the cruise before you get off the
1:21
cruise
1:21
you have to wear things like masks
1:24
you're going to have multiple
1:25
temperature controls
1:26
and checks you're gonna have to have
1:28
changes in dining dining with only
1:30
people in your party so lots of
1:31
different protocols
1:32
which will be in place during 2021
1:34
that's something to think about
1:37
the other thing to think about is as you
1:38
think about your crews getting to and
1:40
from
1:40
cruises could be increasingly
1:42
complicated particularly if you're
1:43
looking at air travel
1:44
we're seeing lots of borders closed
1:46
we've seen lots of restrictions with
1:47
coming in and out of country so even
1:49
calling on ports of core there may be a
1:50
whole myriad of new things to
1:52
navigate the other key thing to bear in
1:54
mind is when countries will be opening
1:56
so canada for example has to open before
1:58
alaska can run
2:00
you have australia which has a ban on
2:02
cruise ships
2:03
you have the caribbean islands talking
2:04
about reservations about bringing cruise
2:06
lines back so you need to think about
2:08
when countries are going to be open to
2:10
take cruises bear in mind cruises longer
2:12
than seven nights are also bad
2:14
in the united states right through until
2:15
november so it's really important to
2:17
understand that no one really knows
2:19
this point of time how the year will
2:21
play out so bear that in mind
2:22
and all these issues as you look at what
2:25
i think you should be doing
2:26
so now let's get into some very specific
2:29
things
2:29
your cruise is cancelled what should you
2:32
do
2:33
first of all if you've paid your entire
2:35
fare
2:36
i recommend strongly that you take a
2:38
cash refund
2:40
don't take future cruise credit and the
2:41
reason for this is
2:43
i think it's really important to stay
2:44
flexible it's important to remember that
2:46
future cruise credit once you take them
2:48
can not be turned into cash at a later
2:51
point
2:52
even if you don't use all of it future
2:54
cruise credits
2:55
have an expiry date if you haven't used
2:57
it it will expire you will lose that
2:59
money
2:59
if you already have multiple future
3:01
cruise credits from
3:02
different cruises with one line you
3:04
might find that you can only use one
3:06
future cruise credit
3:07
against one cruise now that is evolving
3:09
a bit royal caribbean for example now
3:11
lets you
3:12
bunch together future cruise credits so
3:14
check really carefully
3:15
before you take future cruise credit if
3:16
you have more than one because you might
3:18
find you can only use one future cruise
3:20
credit
3:20
on one new booking so you'd have to book
3:22
multiple bookings
3:23
as i said if you have any left over you
3:26
will lose it if you don't
3:27
use it so for example i took some future
3:29
cruise credit early on
3:30
it was a 200 bonus i booked a new cruise
3:33
and i still have some left over
3:35
it does mean that i will lose that money
3:36
unless i book another cruise with that
3:39
cruise line and spend even more money so
3:41
really really important to understand
3:44
now the reasons that i say you should
3:47
take the dollars
3:47
if you have booked a cruise and paid
3:51
in full and why i think it's really
3:53
important that you stay as flexible as
3:55
possible so if you've handed over loads
3:56
of money
3:57
get it back and be flexible first of all
4:00
the lines
4:01
themselves and the cruise line
4:02
association and even governments
4:04
are pushing very very hard for cruising
4:06
to resume of course but
4:08
cruising to resume with local cruises so
4:11
you want to be able to be
4:12
flexible have the money to jump on those
4:14
cruises when they come up so
4:16
that's what happened with people in
4:17
singapore in taiwan in japan
4:19
in germany in italy and so on they
4:22
are brand new cruises and brand new
4:25
fares
4:26
brand new deals and you want to be able
4:27
to jump on those and then man
4:29
your line may not be offering those
4:31
secondly
4:32
governments are advising really strongly
4:34
to avoid any form of international
4:36
travel outside your country you have the
4:37
u.s state department saying so
4:39
you have justin trudeau in canada saying
4:41
so you have uk ministers saying
4:42
so you have the australian minister
4:44
saying so there is not going to be a lot
4:46
of incentives and
4:47
moving outside your country is going to
4:48
be difficult as it is
4:50
and we don't know how that's going to
4:51
play out so having the flexibility to
4:53
spend on cruises sailing from your home
4:55
ports and close to you
4:57
and local is something worth having get
4:59
all your money tied up in cruises you
5:00
can't do
5:02
so it's really important to book a
5:03
cruise and have the flexibility to book
5:06
at a port that is right next to you so
5:08
in the uk that southampton or dover or
5:10
newcastle or liverpool
5:12
if in the us look at carnival and royal
5:13
caribbean who depart from loads of
5:15
different ports
5:16
around the country if you're in europe
5:18
msc they let you embark
5:19
at all the ports they call on and so on
5:22
so you really want to focus and be able
5:24
to have the money to jump on those
5:25
local cruises and the no-fly cruises
5:28
prices
5:29
also are all over the place at the
5:30
moment and until the cruise lines know
5:32
exactly what they're selling
5:34
and what they're actually going to be
5:35
able to sell prices will really settle
5:37
down
5:37
and what we did find in fact that those
5:39
new cruises that came up in singapore in
5:41
italy
5:41
they did not sail even at the reduced
5:44
capacity
5:44
full and they had lots of great deals so
5:47
you want to have cash
5:48
to be flexible so if you've paid the
5:50
full amount i recommend you get the
5:52
money back
5:53
and build in flexibility if you've only
5:56
paid the deposit
5:57
however i would recommend something
6:00
different i would actually
6:01
take that take the extra bonus and book
6:04
the same cruise or as close as summer
6:05
cruise
6:06
in 2022 especially if your deposit's
6:09
not that much money so it's not going to
6:11
be tying up a lot of money
6:12
and it's a bucket list cruise that you
6:14
really really want to do
6:16
so actually lift and shift it as it were
6:18
if you can so i've done that so
6:20
far with an alaska trip i've moved it to
6:22
next year i've done that with an african
6:24
river cruise
6:25
i've done that with the virgin new ships
6:27
so as they've got cancelled
6:28
i've moved and booked similar cruises
6:31
right
6:31
into next year because the money i had
6:34
tied up
6:34
is not that great the second reason that
6:37
i say
6:38
move it into next year is especially if
6:40
it's a bucket list cruise
6:41
there's a much greater chance of the
6:43
full advertised trip
6:44
happening there will be some easing of
6:46
protocols we're sure there'll be
6:48
if not there'll be clear rules around
6:50
the role of vaccinations
6:51
testing quarantining whatever it is
6:54
countries and what i like to have opened
6:56
excursions are more likely to be freer
6:58
because people have worked out
7:00
how to manage around this whole
7:02
situation by then
7:04
the third thing i would do those if you
7:06
do want to rebook three
7:08
absolute rules to follow and i'm
7:09
repeating a little bit of what i might
7:10
have said but
7:11
again if you are going to book when your
7:13
cruise gets canceled something else
7:15
three rules to follow first of all focus
7:18
on a port
7:19
local to you where you ideally don't
7:21
even have to fly to it
7:22
so that you can actually just drive to
7:24
it so you have to worry about all of the
7:25
hassles of
7:26
airlines and so on you know just the
7:28
complications of flying
7:30
secondly book a cruise this year that
7:33
calls to as few countries as you
7:36
possibly can
7:37
to avoid any possible challenges so
7:39
that's for example in the uk
7:41
maybe around the uk trip if you're in
7:43
europe one of those
7:45
cruises that just goes around italy or
7:47
course on very
7:48
few countries maybe two countries or if
7:51
you of course in singapore you've got
7:52
things like the no-fly
7:54
cruisers in the u.s look at cruises when
7:56
they eventually come up that perhaps
7:58
called on one port
7:59
in the u.s and then called private
8:00
islands or quarter perhaps
8:02
private islands and the bahamas
8:04
something like that
8:06
and then the third key thing is book as
8:08
late in the year as possible so ideally
8:10
booking quarter four so october november
8:12
december or
8:14
july august kind of time you know june
8:17
july
8:17
august but as late as possible because
8:20
you have the greatest chance of things
8:21
being a little bit calmer so those three
8:23
really important rules if you are
8:24
rebooking existing cruises that are
8:26
being advertised i still recommend
8:28
though
8:28
wait for those new cruisers to come on
8:30
board the next point i have is
8:32
travel insurance when you book our look
8:35
to rebook a cruise
8:37
make sure you have travel insurance you
8:39
take our travel insurance
8:40
that includes cancellation and
8:42
cancellation for
8:43
any reason flexibility is the name of
8:46
the game
8:47
of course but you want to make sure that
8:49
you can
8:50
cancel it's really important you buy
8:51
insurance so it's in place if you need
8:53
to cancel and
8:54
look at cancellation for any reason now
8:57
of course the cruise lines
8:58
do have much more flexibility so do look
9:00
at what those policies are
9:02
there are policies for example which
9:04
guarantee that you can
9:05
cancel cruise up to 48 hours before
9:08
you sail right through into next year
9:11
and get a future cruise credit back so
9:13
there's lots of flexibility around
9:15
so look if you are going to re-book at
9:18
having insurance or making sure that
9:19
you're booking with one of those
9:20
policies
9:21
that allow a lot of flexibility again it
9:23
could tie you though
9:24
into future cruise credit but let's
9:27
really face it we
9:28
do not know how things are going to play
9:30
out so it's really important i think
9:32
if your cruise gets cancelled to follow
9:34
these approaches whether you've paid
9:36
the full amount i think there's one
9:37
route you should go if you paid
9:39
the deposit only there's another route
9:40
you go and a key set of principles
9:42
if you are going to rebook we just don't
9:46
know how things are going to settle down
9:47
and that's what i recommend
9:48
for this year anyway you look at doing
9:51
if your cruise gets cancelled
9:53
if you found this interesting and
9:55
helpful remember i have loads more
9:57
tips to travel episodes packed full of
9:59
cruising tips and advice so why not
10:01
go and enjoy one right now
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