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5 Surprising Things The Pandemic Taught Us About Cruising
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Jan 28, 2025
5 Things This Pandemic Taught Us About Cruising. I discuss the 5 biggest things this pandemic has taught us about cruising. The good, bad and sometimes surprising, and revealing, things we learnt about the cruise industry and cruising as a result of the pandemic. BECOME A TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS MEMBER ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Become a Channel Member to get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs --------------------------------------------------------- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA --------------------------------------------------- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers Instagram: http://www.instgram.com/garybembridge LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
what has the pandemic taught us
0:03
so far about cruising i'm gary bembridge
0:06
this is tips for travellers whether you
0:09
love cruising or you loathe cruising the
0:12
lockdown and the last
0:13
months have taught us enormous amount
0:16
about cruising
0:17
why did cruising become such a poster
0:19
child of
0:20
coronavirus and did cruise lines need to
0:22
dispose of some of their fleets and what
0:24
the big money really thinks about the
0:26
future of
0:27
cruising let's explore the five big
0:29
learnings
0:30
that i think we've got about cruising so
0:32
far
0:33
through the pandemic one of the biggest
0:36
learnings that we got
0:37
is that cruising and cruise lines have
0:40
very
0:40
few influential and important friends
0:43
that includes governments
0:44
that includes health authorities that
0:46
includes the media and even states
0:48
and countries which have an enormous and
0:50
really important cruising
0:51
business going through there like
0:53
florida or even spain they have
0:54
certainly turned their back on cruising
0:56
and being
0:56
quite hostile to cruising now cruisers
0:59
and cruise lovers have got very upset
1:01
about the lack of support and the lack
1:03
of
1:04
friends and influence however i think
1:06
there are a number of
1:07
critical things that have created that
1:10
first of all the cruise lines are flying
1:13
as flags and convenience
1:14
so they are genuinely the big cruise
1:16
companies the three really big cruise
1:18
companies a carnival corporation
1:20
royal caribbean and norwegian cruise
1:22
line they don't
1:23
have their head office and they're not
1:25
incorporated in one of the big countries
1:27
like the united states
1:28
so they're registered offshore or their
1:30
ships are registered offshore
1:32
so they're not seen as a fundamental
1:34
part of any of these big countries
1:37
also really importantly that also means
1:39
because of the way that they recruit
1:40
people although they do
1:42
obviously employ a lot of people in
1:43
countries like the united states the uk
1:45
and so on but most of the people who
1:47
work on those ships are seen
1:48
as foreign so they're not seen as being
1:51
a fundamental part of the countries they
1:53
operate in even though there are
1:54
really big companies secondly and
1:57
linked to that is they're seen as
1:59
entirely recreational and not strategic
2:01
so when you look at the airlines for
2:02
example
2:03
they're seen as really fundamental and
2:04
strategic not only because they
2:06
are seen as being one of the companies
2:09
you know the registered domiciled in a
2:11
particular country but they're also seen
2:12
as fundamental for moving cargo around
2:14
for building business links for
2:16
connecting families for opening up
2:18
access to
2:19
out of the way places so airlines are
2:21
seen as fundamentally and strategic
2:24
whereas cruise lines are seen as just
2:25
recreational they are discretionary
2:27
and there's a certain amount of snobbery
2:29
around it because cruises are actually
2:30
still seen as being
2:31
kind of a luxury thing even though we
2:32
know there's a wide range of cruises so
2:34
they're also not seen as strategic and
2:36
fundamental so
2:37
they're not seen as being really
2:38
important to defend or look after
2:40
to the same degree one of the really
2:43
important
2:44
reasons that they don't have friends is
2:45
they're seen as a drain on resources
2:47
certainly
2:48
when the lockdown started there was
2:50
cruise ships all around the world trying
2:52
to get into ports
2:53
they were looking for help from the
2:54
maritime authorities maybe from the
2:56
health authorities
2:58
to try and help repatriate people of the
3:00
ships so they were
3:02
seen as a real potential drain on the
3:05
resources
3:06
of a particular state of course then
3:07
linked to that they are not that good
3:09
for the environment they also create
3:10
lots of
3:11
noise and people and over tourism so
3:14
there's a sense also that from that
3:15
perspective they're not great
3:17
what's really interesting though is if
3:18
you look at countries where they do
3:20
have cruising companies which are either
3:23
incorporated
3:24
in that place or have major operations
3:27
we've seen a very different approach so
3:28
let's take a look at norway for example
3:30
who de grueten
3:31
and sea dream which are both norwegian
3:33
owned they were one of the first
3:35
to be allowed to get back into some form
3:37
of cruising in germany
3:39
where tui is a massive big travel
3:42
company
3:42
in germany they have a joint venture uh
3:45
cruising so they have mine chief cruise
3:47
line they have habakkuk lloyd again they
3:48
were allowed
3:49
to start up really early msc cruisers
3:52
are owned by an italian family based out
3:54
of switzerland but again
3:54
very strong links with the italian
3:56
economy they have a huge cargo operation
3:59
which operates out of italy they are
4:02
seen as really really fundamental and
4:03
again
4:04
we saw the italian government being very
4:06
keen and open to letting them start
4:08
in france you have ponont which is a
4:09
french-owned company again
4:11
being allowed to start up so where
4:12
you've seen those companies which have a
4:14
strong route they are
4:15
opening up and we're allowed to open up
4:17
much more the second thing that we
4:19
learned
4:20
about cruising is it was seen as the
4:21
poster child it seemed to represent
4:23
a lot of things that coronavirus is and
4:25
it stands for
4:26
but again i think there's a really good
4:28
reason why that happened at the time the
4:30
diamond princess
4:31
outbreak happened where there was that
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big spread through the ship
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it was quarantined in japan there was
4:38
a huge press focus on it that was the
4:40
only
4:41
really major outbreak of covet 19 that
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affected western
4:46
people and western businesses up until
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then it had been seen
4:49
a problem that was happening in asia it
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was bubbling up in china
4:52
vietnam cambodia wherever that then
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followed on with things like ruby
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princess in australia we then had all
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those ships sailing around the world
4:59
with western passengers trying to find
5:01
ports of core being turned away
5:02
all through south america all around the
5:04
world eventually having to
5:06
head into the united states it is very
5:08
frustrating for many people that
5:10
the cruise industry was seen as and
5:12
still seen as such a major issue
5:14
when it comes to coronavirus when you
5:16
look at the spread of coronavirus around
5:18
the world it's very clear that
5:19
cruising could not possibly have been
5:22
the cause of its rapid spread it must
5:24
have come
5:24
through people for example flying around
5:26
the world and bringing from one country
5:28
to the next and spreading it if you just
5:29
look at the way it spread
5:31
however the airlines never were seen as
5:33
the flashpoint for coronavirus the
5:35
airlines had never been
5:36
as intimately associated with
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chronovirus although
5:39
actually practically which drives people
5:41
who are
5:42
big pro cruisers very drives them
5:45
actually crazy and frustrates them
5:47
is the cruise industry didn't
5:48
necessarily spread coronavirus around a
5:50
lot other than potentially could argue
5:52
in australia but it did seem as a flash
5:55
point and it really was
5:56
the symbol of travel that made
5:58
coronavirus so tangible for many people
6:01
also what's important to bear in mind is
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another reason that it became such
6:05
a poster child is not only was early
6:08
outbreaks
6:09
and that floating petri dish was a very
6:11
dramatic
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term was coined but it made for very
6:14
good stories people were
6:15
stuck on ships for long periods of time
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that media was able to
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have lots of imagery around it they were
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able to focus on it they're able to tell
6:22
the stories of the people involved they
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could track the whole story of people
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so actually from a storytelling point of
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view
6:28
it became a really powerful symbol
6:29
whereas people are an aircraft and they
6:31
disappear all over the place
6:32
we see that of course in the countries
6:34
that we live if there's an outbreak in a
6:35
pub
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or even in a factory it becomes a fact
6:38
rather than a story and i think that's
6:40
another reason why
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cruising has become such a big focal
6:43
point for
6:44
as opposed to child for coronavirus it's
6:46
also important to note
6:47
that where startup cruises have started
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the media have made an enormous
6:51
story around the outbreaks however there
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has only been
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as cruisers started up one true outbreak
6:56
which was on her to growth and roland
6:58
amundsen
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where they didn't follow the right
7:00
procedures and protocols for
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quarantining crew and there was a
7:04
genuine outbreak on board the ship
7:06
however all the other reported things
7:08
like sea dream uncruise
7:09
poor gargan that was actually a case of
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protocols working where one
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guest either who'd been on the cruise
7:14
previously or was on the cruise
7:16
was picked up as having a positive test
7:19
and they were able to be isolated taken
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off the ship
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and everyone was tested everyone was
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fine but the media had reported
7:26
this whole wave of covert outbreaks the
7:28
same thing doesn't happen of course if
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one person
7:30
is positive in a pub or a any other kind
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of situation
7:34
the next thing that we learned which i
7:36
found is really interesting is whilst
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there's a doom and gloom around
7:39
the money certainly believes there is a
7:41
lot of potential in cruising
7:43
there was lots of talk as the lockdown
7:44
started that cruise companies were going
7:46
to go bus they were all going to go to
7:48
the wall
7:49
now at the time of recording they
7:50
haven't sailed for nearly six months or
7:51
so and it's very unlikely the way things
7:53
are heading that they're probably going
7:54
to be cruising
7:55
anytime this year or certainly they're
7:57
very lucky towards the end of the year
7:59
in a
7:59
formal fashion however they have raised
8:02
an enormous
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amount of money from either new
8:04
investors in the case of carnival with
8:06
the saudis came in and took a big chunk
8:08
of it
8:09
or from loans and other kind of fund
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raising
8:12
they're burning through now that they've
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dialed back the ships with cold storage
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between 150 million
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and 250 million dollars every single
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month
8:21
but they have raised enough money to be
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cruising for a good nine months to
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a year longer with no cruising so
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certainly
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the financial industry the investors
8:32
see an enormous potential in cruising so
8:34
whilst other people are losing faith in
8:36
cruising the long-term future
8:38
where the money are placing their bets
8:39
is very pro cruising
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and i think that's a big learning is
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that people when they look at the longer
8:44
term
8:45
see the future of cruising the other
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thing that i think we learned
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is that the cruise lines because there
8:49
was so much demand we're actually
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running quite a lot of unprofitable
8:53
or borderline profitable ships so we saw
8:55
as the lockdown happened
8:56
that cruise line started to get rid of
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the less efficient parts of their fleet
9:00
the most significant of those was
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carnival they got rid of almost 10
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of their fleet they got rid of 13 ships
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either by sending those
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for scrap or selling those on royal
9:10
caribbean haven't sold any of their core
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brands
9:12
but pullman tool which was another joint
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venture which had a couple of ships
9:15
those ships have gone and been basically
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broken up or in the process of being
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broken up
9:20
what's very important though is we
9:22
haven't seen as people had predicted
9:24
big bankruptcies and that ships and
9:27
cruise lines were going to disappear
9:29
there probably only been two really key
9:31
ones one of which was pullman tour the
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one that i've already mentioned
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although that as a brand name still
9:35
survives and then cruiser maritime
9:36
voyages
9:37
based on the uk they did go bankrupt
9:39
there's been some other very small
9:40
individual ones but none
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of the key major ones have gone bankrupt
9:44
crystal holding company
9:45
is doing some financial reconfiguring
9:47
but i really clear that that is going to
9:49
keep on sailing we haven't seen the
9:50
massive contraction
9:52
certainly at this point of time that
9:53
people have predicted in cruising
9:55
there's been a bit of shedding
9:56
because they were inefficient ships but
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they ditched all the unprofitable ships
10:00
very early on the next key thing that i
10:02
think we learned is that cruising is
10:03
going to take time
10:04
to return we've seen as cruising have
10:06
started again in europe the demand
10:08
hasn't been
10:08
perhaps as robust as many people had
10:10
thought it would be we
10:12
although they're selling with 60 to 70
10:14
capacity
10:15
msc cruisers have postponed bringing a
10:17
second ship
10:18
back into service because demand has
10:19
been relatively weak
10:21
so demand hasn't been massively huge i
10:23
think we're going to see it's going to
10:24
take
10:25
some time for people to get the
10:26
confidence to move back to cruising i've
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done a whole other video where i've
10:29
looked at the reasons that people
10:30
aren't coming back so quickly but one of
10:32
the key stumbling blocks for people who
10:34
love cruising
10:35
is many of the protocols that are being
10:36
required to get cruising back
10:38
and up and running is not creating the
10:41
kind of vacation experience that people
10:42
love cruising for so it's going to be a
10:44
challenge over time is
10:45
marrying protocols that are safe enough
10:48
to get cruising sailing again
10:49
with creating an environment on board
10:51
that people really want to embrace and
10:53
spend their money on and you can go and
10:54
watch that video if you want to find out
10:56
more about that so far in the pandemic
10:58
we've learned a load of things about
11:00
cruising cruise lovers and cruise haters
11:02
have really strong perspectives what
11:03
i've tried to do
11:04
is take a look in a slightly more
11:05
balanced way i think anyway
11:07
at what we've really learned about
11:08
cruising i have loads more videos of
11:10
cruise updates
11:11
cruise tips and advice so why don't you
11:13
watch another one of those
11:14
right now
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