Up next in 10
In the fourth in my cruise shutdown questions, I answer more of the questions sent to me which includes on (1) how insurance can or cannot help with cancellations or changes to your cruise booking, (2) what happens if you change your cruise or take Future Cruise Credit and then the line cancels your cruise with better offer, (3) my view on if cruises will start again in May, (4) when do I think European river cruising will start up and (4) what is happening with new ships and maiden voyages?
The other videos in the cruise shutdown Q&A series:
1: What should you do with bookings: https://youtu.be/Bp4xA21bsY4
2: Cancellations and refunds: https://youtu.be/BEadOjDRwAA
3: Cruise Lines Finances and refunds: https://youtu.be/E5Uco5H3CYU
4: When Cruising Will Really Start Up: https://youtu.be/3A4ZxXa-l8o
5: How cruising will change: : https://youtu.be/bamjq0pT8FU
6: Will people cruise again: https://youtu.be/mF_fKOmAmxg
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
I'm Gary Bainbridge this is the fourth
0:02
in my series of questions and answers
0:05
around the whole cruisin shutdown and
0:07
thanks for everybody who sent in
0:09
questions in this particular episode I'm
0:11
gonna focus on some very frequently
0:14
asked questions that I'm getting one of
0:16
which is around insurance the others
0:17
around what happens if you make a
0:19
selection or you're postponed accrues
0:20
and then the Cruise Lines cancels also
0:23
I'm going to talk a little bit about
0:24
what's happening with new ships and what
0:26
to expect and then very importantly I'm
0:28
getting ocelot is how long do I think
0:29
the shutdown is going to go for so let's
0:32
start first of all with insurance I've
0:34
been getting loads and loads of
0:35
questions about insurance I'm certainly
0:38
not a financial expert I the only thing
0:40
I would say that I have found also from
0:42
my own experience and also the
0:44
experiences that people are having
0:46
existing travel insurance and also
0:48
certainly new policies do not seem to be
0:51
covering the whole pandemic situation so
0:53
if you want to chop and change your
0:55
cruise cancel cruise because of the
0:57
whole thing that's going on at the
0:58
moment you like to find that your
1:00
insurance will not cover that and pretty
1:02
much seeing that if you want to make
1:04
changes or you want to make claims
1:06
specifically related to the whole thing
1:09
that's going on at the moment you're
1:10
probably going to find your insurance
1:12
policy is not applicable the critical
1:14
thing I would say is and I've said it in
1:16
all the videos so far is the best thing
1:19
you can possibly do is hold on and wait
1:22
until the cruise line cancels because
1:25
once the cruise line cancels most of
1:28
them will offer cash as an option there
1:31
are from much more generous terms in
1:33
terms of extra onboard credit or various
1:35
incentives so wait as long as you can
1:37
hold your nerve if you possibly can that
1:39
leads me on to the next point a lot of
1:42
people have contacted me saying what
1:44
they've done is they've got very nervous
1:45
about travel they've got red jittery or
1:47
parts of their group they're traveling
1:50
with have got kind of nervous and
1:51
they've gone in and taken the offer we
1:53
can you know chop and change and cancel
1:55
without a penalty and they've been given
1:58
some sort of future cruise credit then
2:00
what's happened as we've seen in the
2:02
last week that I've been recording this
2:04
is a cruise lines have then gone and
2:06
canceled cruises for a whole nother
2:08
month and they've offered much better
2:09
terms
2:10
once you've actually made a decision
2:12
once you've got a effectively
2:13
new arrangement with the cruise line
2:14
they will not give you those added perks
2:17
if they cancel the cruise you're on and
2:19
some people contact me saying they
2:20
literally they decided to take the new
2:22
offer a day later the cruise line
2:25
cancelled their cruise and they didn't
2:27
offer them the better terms if you can
2:30
hold your nerve and wait until cruises
2:32
are canceled the other thing which is
2:33
also sort of linked to that as a lot of
2:34
people have said you know they've got
2:35
perhaps cruises coming up in a couple of
2:37
months time you know 60 to 90 days time
2:39
should they pay their fine events
2:41
because they worried about losing their
2:43
deposits but they also don't want to pay
2:45
in and pay final balances my point of
2:48
view on that is if you have any idea or
2:51
concern that you're not going to do a
2:52
cruise is don't pay your final balance
2:55
except you're gonna move your cruise
2:57
into next year whatever but all of the
2:59
Cruise Lines are offering that chance to
3:02
move cruises with no penalty take that
3:05
option now if you can now some cruise
3:08
lines are ending that to the end of
3:09
August at the moment some are doing to
3:11
the end of September some of them are
3:12
doing it any time this year but you have
3:15
the opportunity to move your cruise and
3:17
certainly if you're nervous about paying
3:18
a final deposit and you're wondering
3:20
what's going to happen with that you
3:21
definitely shouldn't be doing that that
3:23
leads me onto the question of course and
3:25
the decision that everyone has to make
3:27
is how long is the shutdown going to go
3:30
on for at the time of recording this all
3:32
the cruise lines had moved their cruises
3:35
into the middle of May and the dates
3:37
slightly differ the cruise lines had
3:39
also started to announce that they
3:41
Alaska season was not going to start
3:43
until July because Canada's closed all
3:46
their ports until the end of June so you
3:49
then have to take a decision around when
3:51
you think cruising's going to start up
3:52
again my personal view is it's a long
3:55
way off so although they've moved it to
3:58
may I do think that the cruise lines
3:59
what they're currently working on is a
4:01
month by month basis that's partly
4:03
because as we know everything's so
4:04
uncertain at the moment also when they
4:07
do cancel cruises for a month if you
4:08
consider they've got you know weekly
4:10
cruises going they have ships of two
4:12
thousand four thousand five thousand
4:14
people whole process of handling the
4:16
volume of chops and changes and refunds
4:18
is enormous
4:19
so going month to month is what they're
4:21
doing why do I think that the shutdown
4:24
is going to last for much longer well
4:25
first of all you need to be ramadi if
4:27
not really the cruise lines decision
4:29
when cruising starts again that is
4:32
really going to be determined by
4:33
government and government agencies so
4:35
you're gonna need government agencies to
4:37
agree to open ports for travels they're
4:40
also going to decide that ports are
4:41
going to be open for embarkation and
4:43
disembarkation also you need in the
4:46
places that cruisers are going to go to
4:48
you need the ports to be open at this
4:50
point in time it's hard to see there's
4:52
going to be a lot of enthusiasm for
4:54
opening ports early we've already seen
4:56
as I mentioned earlier Canada's closed
4:58
their ports already quite a while ago to
5:00
July New Zealand's close into July
5:03
Australia in the last week have said
5:05
they're not going to have any ships
5:06
until at least in the middle of June and
5:08
all of these places are still rare
5:10
locked down it's it's hard to see
5:11
governments and agencies actually
5:13
releasing that and opening up really
5:15
early particularly in some countries
5:16
where we talking about lock downs or
5:18
severe restrictions even domestically
5:20
and in your town and your home lasting
5:23
and spreading through to June another
5:25
couple of big indicators I think we've
5:27
seen is from the cruise lines themselves
5:29
in the last couple of days before I
5:32
recorded this Carnival went out to the
5:34
markets to raise four billion dollars to
5:37
help with liquidity of him in the last
5:39
video if you watch that I did talk about
5:41
how they we're not going to get a
5:42
bailout and maybe they wouldn't have to
5:44
go out to the private sector they've
5:45
done that and they're looking to raise
5:46
four billion that four billion if you
5:48
look at the submission they've made is
5:50
to help cover them right through for up
5:53
to and into next year at least in terms
5:56
of liquidity
5:57
they've also in that filing that they're
6:00
due for I think it's the SEC in the US
6:03
there's a couple of really telling
6:04
things they make it very clear there
6:05
they have no idea about when governments
6:07
are likely to lift restrictions secondly
6:09
they have no idea at this point in time
6:11
about what requirements will be made for
6:13
screening passengers on board procedures
6:15
and other restrictions that may come in
6:17
place they also made it pretty clear
6:19
that there's going to be a combination
6:20
over the next couple of weeks and months
6:22
of ships they keep ready and active to
6:24
go into service and other ships that
6:26
they're going to go into pretty much a
6:27
real shutdown and very skeleton crew so
6:30
they're going to have indicated already
6:31
because the cost of running each ship
6:34
for a month and keeping you're ready to
6:36
go is one or two million dollars so
6:38
they're going to try and minimize some
6:39
of those costs
6:40
some of the ships are gonna come out of
6:41
service it sounds like also if we look
6:44
at some other cruise line so for example
6:45
saga here in the UK has indicated
6:47
they've all you look to planning where
6:49
they may have no cruising going right
6:51
through for the next six months or so
6:53
based on where they think the government
6:56
may or may not end up letting travel
6:59
start again we need to bear in mind that
7:01
also there is a lot of restrictions
7:03
heading into this shutdown around
7:05
cruising if you remember very
7:06
specifically most of the major
7:08
governments I think the US the UK
7:10
Australia so the big markets linked to
7:13
cruising they all made it clear that
7:14
people over 70 shouldn't go on cruises
7:16
at all and that advice is still in place
7:19
we have no idea and that's going to come
7:20
off but certainly in if I look at the UK
7:22
here you know the advice is still for
7:24
people to stay at home if you're over 70
7:26
or in the borough vulnerable Academy
7:28
stood at least June at the moment that
7:30
may change it make it shorter make it
7:32
longer it's hard to see them lifting
7:34
that restriction on people certainly 70
7:37
plus until there's more immunity to
7:40
those vaccines so it's hard to see those
7:42
restrictions lifting quite quickly ports
7:45
opening travel advisory opening Cruise
7:47
Lines being ready to go Airlines ready
7:49
to move passengers about so my sense is
7:51
that it's going to last for longer and I
7:54
think definitely any longer than the May
7:56
period things gonna be very very
7:57
challenging so that's one of the things
7:58
I'm saying is if you can hold on a wait
8:01
but if you're pretty sure that you are
8:03
going to want to cruise you know at
8:04
least push it to the later in the year
8:06
maybe push it into next year if you're
8:07
worried about that deadline coming to
8:09
pay your final balance you probably
8:11
don't want to be paying off for final
8:13
balance at this point in time I'm
8:15
guessing pretty sure with the amount of
8:18
capacity that's going to be available
8:19
which is again what Carnival Corporation
8:21
referred to that they expecting lots of
8:23
capacity people be slow to come back you
8:26
if you want if it opens up much earlier
8:29
your croutons are going to be very very
8:31
happy for you to pull bookings forward
8:34
that's my that's my view so certainly I
8:37
think that we're looking at a longer
8:40
period before Cruise is going to be able
8:42
to start up again and I think the cruise
8:44
lines are indicating that certainly
8:46
they're now doing a month-to-month basis
8:48
and I guess we're all living pretty much
8:50
a month-to-month week to week base to
8:52
see what's going to happen
8:53
I've had a lot of questions also
8:55
therefore linked out about what do I
8:56
think is going to happen with river
8:57
cruising my message on river cruising is
8:59
pretty much the same and the advantage
9:03
that river cruising companies have in my
9:05
view is they're used to closing down for
9:07
a couple of months a year so they close
9:10
down at the end of the season last year
9:12
they put all their ships into storage
9:14
the crew go home so their running costs
9:16
are pretty low obviously have lots of
9:17
fixed costs with head office etc but
9:19
their ships already kind of storage
9:21
closed down and shut down and so they
9:24
have perhaps less difficulty because
9:27
they don't have to shut down ships as
9:28
ocean do they have much more time to
9:31
perhaps think about it and go up and
9:33
running some of the cruise lines have
9:34
already pushed that into July like
9:36
Avalon many of them are now talking into
9:38
May as well
9:39
I again think that we will see river
9:41
cruising starting up at a much slower
9:44
pace and much later in the year as well
9:48
so I think river cruising in Europe if
9:50
you look at what's happening at some of
9:51
the key countries in Europe it's very
9:53
very challenging and also as we come out
9:55
of the lockdown some of the governments
9:57
of Europe I'll talk about the way of
9:58
ending some of the lockdown process is
10:00
once they can do antibody testing so
10:02
they're actually more clear about who
10:03
can start moving around so I think it's
10:05
quite a complex situation as governments
10:08
look to release and get things moving
10:11
again and I think cruising is going to
10:13
fall in my view unfortunately lower down
10:16
the priorities when it comes to getting
10:18
travel moving and kicking off again I've
10:22
been asked by many many people who have
10:24
booked on maiden voyages because people
10:25
love their maiden voyages for the many
10:27
ships that are due to come what I think
10:29
is going to happen all of the major
10:31
shipyards have slowed down closed down
10:33
and already a couple of companies have
10:36
been very clear like I've seen some
10:38
announcements this week from piano with
10:40
Iona
10:40
I've seen saga make an announcement in
10:43
fact today that I'm recording at that
10:44
their ship is delayed so all of those
10:46
big shipyards are struggling to meet
10:49
things so I think if you're booked on a
10:51
maiden voyage I think it's pretty
10:53
certain that that's not going to happen
10:56
and I guess over the next coming weeks
10:58
and months we will start to see some of
11:00
those being cancelled and moved around
11:02
and reshuffled have you seen Carnival
11:04
with some of their
11:05
and big revamps of ships to relaunch
11:08
ships they were announced that those
11:09
aren't going to happen for a very long
11:11
time
11:11
okay that's answered some of your
11:13
questions I know some of this is perhaps
11:15
being a little bit downbeat and you may
11:16
have a completely different view you may
11:18
think that I'm being too conservative
11:19
too pessimistic about when I think Cruz
11:21
is going to start again of course I love
11:23
cruising I'm very excited about when
11:25
things go back to normal we can start
11:27
cruising again I just think that it's
11:28
gonna take much longer if you have any
11:31
questions or thought to you on my
11:32
opinion please feel free to send those
11:34
in I have lots of people who hate
11:36
cruising watching these videos I have
11:38
people who love cruising people who
11:39
interested in cruising watching those
11:41
please if you're going to leave comments
11:42
it's great to have a debate let's try
11:44
and be as civil and as friendly as we
11:46
possibly can and have a good healthy and
11:48
good discussion until then stay home
11:51
stay safe and keep dreaming about the
11:54
days when we can go of traveling and
11:56
cruising the world again
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