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CRUISE UPDATE : More Lines Return With New Rules Cruisers Will Dislike?
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Jan 28, 2025
In my 10th cruise news update, I look at the latest news and what it means for cruisers like you. As lines like MSC Cruises and Carnival's Costa and AIDA begin sailing again this month, I look at 7 trends emerging including some new rules and protocols that these cruise lines resuming service have put in place which, based on discussions on my channel and other cruise forums, many cruisers may dislike and see as a reason not to cruise. What do you think? Are these at least a way to be able to start cruising up again. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore 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. Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #CruiseUpdate #CruiseNewsUpdate #CruisingUpdate 00:00 Start 00:27 Europe Leads Way 00:59 European Focused Lines 02:32 New Cruises Only
View Video Transcript
0:00
in this big cruise news update
0:03
here where more big ships are starting
0:05
to sail in europe the deal breakers that
0:07
could stop cruisers like you wanting to
0:09
cruise
0:10
why exactly is norwegian cruise line
0:12
groups sending
0:13
seven of their ships right now from the
0:15
united states
0:16
to europe as ocean cruising opens up
0:19
again we're seeing seven
0:20
big trends that the news over the last
0:23
week or so
0:24
has reinforced so let's take a look at
0:25
what the news is telling us about ocean
0:28
cruising first of all
0:29
it's all about europe at this stage
0:31
we're seeing more and more countries in
0:32
europe
0:33
open to cruising so in the last week or
0:35
so we've seen italy now join those
0:37
countries
0:38
that have opened up to cruising so we
0:40
now have norway
0:41
we have germany we have greece
0:45
we have italy and malta opening up to
0:47
cruising
0:48
so those countries where they're
0:49
starting to get the virus more under
0:51
control are opening up to cruising spain
0:53
in the uk
0:54
which are two huge big important cruise
0:56
markets not yet
0:57
budging and no signs they're likely to
0:59
budge
1:00
secondly what we're seeing is as
1:02
cruising opens it's the european owned
1:04
or those cruise lines that are part of
1:06
the big corporations like royal
1:07
caribbean
1:08
and carnival corporation that have
1:10
european focused
1:11
cruise lines actually the ones that are
1:13
starting up so what we're really seeing
1:15
at the moment
1:16
is the announcement by msc cruises which
1:18
is european based and owned cruise line
1:20
they are the fourth biggest cruise group
1:23
in the world and they have announced
1:24
they will start sailing out of italy
1:26
with two itineraries and they're
1:28
starting on the 16th of august with the
1:30
first of those
1:31
we've also seen costa which is part of
1:33
the carnival corporation
1:35
also very italian based announcing they
1:37
will start cruising
1:38
still at the time of recording not
1:39
announcing the exact date and the
1:41
itineraries
1:42
and of course as we've covered before in
1:44
germany you've got mind shift and hapag
1:46
lloyd which is part
1:47
of a royal caribbean group joint venture
1:50
have started sailing and i ida which is
1:52
part of the carnival corporation
1:55
announcing that they will only start
1:56
sailing in september so they've delayed
1:58
the startup of their cruising
2:00
so carnival will have two cruise lines
2:03
sailing in europe
2:04
rural caribbean will also have two of
2:06
their cruise lines
2:07
sailing in europe over the next five or
2:10
six weeks
2:11
in norway we're seeing two norwegian
2:13
owned cruise lines of course hutu
2:14
grueten
2:15
which did have some issues with a covert
2:17
outbreak on their expedition ships but
2:20
they are still sailing
2:21
uh up and down the coast of norway and
2:23
sea dream which is also owned by
2:24
a big norwegian entrepreneur so those
2:27
cruise lines are setting so we're seeing
2:28
very much
2:29
european owned or european focused
2:31
cruise lines the ones to start up
2:33
the third critical thing that we're
2:34
seeing i think this is really important
2:36
as you look ahead at how you think
2:38
you're going to be cruising again
2:40
is when cruisers start up they are brand
2:42
new cruises so as
2:43
cruise lines launch again and we've seen
2:46
that for all of them herder gruetten
2:48
sea dream mind shift hypagloid and now
2:50
both msc cruisers
2:52
and costa when they start sailing again
2:54
these are brand new itineraries brand
2:56
new cruises
2:57
so they are still cancelling the
2:59
schedule cruises to make way for new
3:01
tailor-made cruises that fit around the
3:03
restrictions so again i think we're
3:05
learning that
3:06
when cruising starts up again don't
3:07
expect those cruises that you perhaps
3:09
have booked to happen because that's not
3:11
the way cruising is starting up
3:13
the fourth big thing that we're seeing
3:15
and again the most recent announcement
3:17
confirms this
3:18
is the cruisers either have no ports or
3:20
extremely
3:21
limited ports so we've seen of course
3:23
before that the german cruisers are all
3:25
cruises
3:25
to nowhere norway very much focused on
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norwegian
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ports once msc and costa start they're
3:31
doing a slightly different approach
3:33
because they have
3:33
more countries they can cruise to so
3:35
let's take a look at what msc
3:37
are doing so msc are bringing on board
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two of their ships so not the entire
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fleet which is again a very important
3:42
part of the trend
3:44
msc grandiosa will be having seven night
3:46
cruises focusing on the western
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mediterranean
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and they will be calling it ports like
3:51
genoa
3:52
giujivecia rome naples paloma
3:56
and valletta in the malta msc
3:59
magnifica will be also having seven
4:01
night cruises focusing on the eastern
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mediterranean
4:04
and the airports will include places
4:06
like barrie and trieste in
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italy and the greek ports of kofu
4:10
katakolon and perez which is athens and
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costa look to be doing a very similar
4:16
thing
4:16
so again we're seeing limited ports or
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ports which are completely focused
4:20
on those countries that are open to
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cruising
4:23
the fifth big trend which again is
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reinforced by the most recent news with
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msc and costa is when cruising starts
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it's also
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very focused on very specific
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populations it started originally
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with just norwegian and then spread to
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norwegian and dutch as norway started
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what we're seeing
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is a slightly different dynamic so first
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of all when the german cruisers
4:42
came on board those cruises to nowhere
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they were open to
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kind of a travel bubble which included
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germany
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austria and switzerland now when msc
4:51
come on board they're now opening all
4:53
their cruises to everyone
4:54
within the schengen zone the schengen
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zone is a group of eu countries which
4:58
normally don't
4:59
have requirements as you pass around the
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borders there's quite a few countries
5:03
involved in schengen so in
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schengen you have countries which
5:06
include
5:08
belgium the czech republic denmark
5:10
germany estonia greece spain france
5:13
iceland italy latvia liechtenstein
5:15
lithuania luxembourg
5:17
hungary malta the netherlands norway
5:19
austria poland portugal
5:21
slovenia slovakia finland sweden and
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switzerland
5:25
so quite a big and diverse group of
5:27
countries they can
5:29
call on to join their cruises the uk and
5:31
ireland which are not in the schengen
5:33
zone for example
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residents from those countries cannot go
5:36
on these cruises so again we've seen the
5:38
cruises very much
5:39
around travel bubbles or in the case of
5:41
europe a kind of existing
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travel group which when borders opened
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the whole schengen opened to each other
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so again i think we're going to expect
5:49
to see cruises very much focused on very
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specific
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populations and the most recent news
5:54
reinforces that
5:55
the sixth big thing and this is the big
5:57
deal breaker for many people when it
5:59
comes to these cruises that are starting
6:01
up
6:01
the new protocols and rules that are put
6:04
in place which i think so we're seeing
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again with the most recent news fewer
6:09
passengers on board so the capacity on
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msc is going to be 70
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and we're seeing really as all these
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cruisers start between 60 and 70
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capacity we're also seeing things like
6:20
social distancing on board so limits to
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the number of people who go to events
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or be around the pool lots of changes to
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dining where again it's socially
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distance you have to dine with your own
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travel group no self-service dining
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options
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but one of the big issues which for many
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people is a bit of a deal breaker is
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around masks so for example
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the msc protocols say that when you're
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indoors you need to be wearing a mask
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outdoors you only have to wear it when
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there are occasions where you can't
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socially distance i guess this is some
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sort of gathering event
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or party of some kind so masks are a key
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part of what's going on this reflects
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what's happening on land i know a lot of
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people
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are saying they really want to wait
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until that shifts before they start
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cruising but certainly we're seeing
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masks
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social distancing as a key key part of
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these protocols and this is being
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consistent
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as more and more lines start sailing
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again big deal breaker for many people
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another critical thing that we're seeing
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and this is a bit of a
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change certainly within europe is msc
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cruisers are
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going to be doing not only covert 19
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testing for all their crew
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which what is what all of the lines that
7:25
have started so far are doing
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but they're also going to be testing all
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passengers before they
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board the ship now one of the things
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that i haven't been able to get a strong
7:34
hold on is if you are denied boarding
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because you fail the test what actually
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happens
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in the statement that msc have made they
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talk about making sure that people get
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the help they need the assistance to get
7:44
home
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the assistance to make sure medical help
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is
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arranged but it doesn't specifically say
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what will be covered by msc what would
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be covered by the passengers
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and the arrangements so that's still one
7:55
big gap and i think probably a deal
7:56
break for many people that won't really
7:58
want to understand exactly
7:59
what will be happening the next thing
8:01
that we're seeing is
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when it comes to ports now as we've seen
8:05
some cruisers are cruising to nowhere
8:07
some have very limited ports the big big
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change we're seeing is
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with msc cruises now that they're going
8:12
to be offering cruises which
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call on multiple countries you're only
8:16
going to be able to get off the ship
8:18
in port if you're on an msc cruise so
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you can only go in that msc cruise
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bubble
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on land in port you can't go and
8:26
self-explore you can't do independent
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touring so they can kind of control that
8:30
whole bubble and i assume that's some
8:31
kind of arrangement that's
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made ports comfortable with letting
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cruise passengers on board and also to
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protect
8:36
people from getting infected on land so
8:39
that again is a massive issue and i've
8:40
seen lots of discussion amongst groups
8:42
uh online and also in the on my channel
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when i've asked people that question
8:46
is the idea that you can't just get off
8:48
and explore yourself again as a deal
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breaker for many
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shifting to another key piece of news is
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norwegian cruise line have announced
8:54
that they are moving
8:55
a large number of their ships from the
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us
8:58
to europe but first of all let's take a
9:00
look at what are moving so there's
9:01
five ships within the norwegian cruise
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fleet
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as it were that are moving and they
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include the epic the spirit the dawn the
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encore
9:09
and the bliss two oceanic cruise ships
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are moving and one from regent seven
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seas
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why are they doing this is this because
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they're going to be starting
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up cruising in europe it doesn't appear
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so what they have said
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is a couple of reasons obviously there's
9:21
a bit of hurricanes coming through
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hurricane season
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moving those out of the way of
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hurricanes secondly it's a way of
9:27
reducing costs
9:28
apparently it's cheaper it's going to be
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cheaper for them to actually go into a
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longer layup
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in europe also because they are able to
9:34
very easily then repatriate
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crew particularly the crew that's coming
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to the end of their contract
9:40
at the moment in the us it's pretty much
9:42
impossible to get crew off
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on land and send them home in europe
9:47
it's easy to get people off the ship
9:49
onto planes and back to their home
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country
9:52
also there's some discussion about
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whether in fact there's also an
9:54
opportunity for some of them to have
9:55
maintenance because of course all the
9:56
shipyards
9:57
are in europe but it doesn't appear to
9:59
be anything linked to the ability to
10:00
start cruising in europe
10:02
also in that call when the discussion
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was had frank
10:05
del rio who's the ceo also again
10:08
stressed the point
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that when cruising starts in the u.s and
10:12
everywhere it is going to be very slow
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and very steady a couple of ships coming
10:17
on stream probably very short
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cruises and what he said very explicitly
10:21
is don't expect
10:22
all of say the norwegian fleet to be
10:24
back until
10:25
at least quarter to 20 21 no matter even
10:28
if cruising starts because it's going to
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take
10:30
a while to get back on stream and have
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the demand
10:34
etc to start cruising full on so we're
10:36
definitely seeing a lot of action
10:37
happening in europe as more and more
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cruise lines more and more countries
10:40
open to cruising of course we'll keep an
10:42
eye on that and hopefully it'll run
10:44
a little bit more smoothly than has done
10:46
in some of the cases in norway where
10:47
there's some incidents
10:48
with covert 19 breaking out and the
10:51
ramifications it had i have a whole
10:52
separate video about that if you want to
10:54
know more about what exactly happened
10:56
river cruising is keeps growing in
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europe there's almost around 50
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river cruise ships now sailing in europe
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and many of the other cruise lines
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on rivers will start coming to service
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as we head more into the end of
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september october
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again many of them are very reliant on
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the u.s traveler and with the eu borders
11:13
closed
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to us it makes it very difficult for
11:16
them to start selling and
11:17
filling those ships that's the latest
11:19
cruise updates and news
11:20
remember you keep watching out for more
11:22
updates and as
11:23
important updates happen i will keep you
11:25
posted and really importantly what i
11:26
think it means
11:27
for cruising
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