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Cruise Shutdown Questions #1: What To Do About Cruise Bookings And Plans?
3K views
Jan 28, 2025
With the developments we are facing, I will not be posting regular cruise tips and cruising videos until it looks like life and the way we live is returning back to more normal, and the cruise shutdown is able to be lifted safely. However, as I am getting many questions and asking for my opinion about what travellers should be doing or thinking about related to the cruising shutdown which I have been answering by email and online, I am going to post videos occasionally which includes these answers as long as people find these helpful. If you have questions you would like me to try and answer please leave a comment or email me gary (at) tipsfortravellers.com In this I cover the main questions I am getting about booking and cruise plans including (1) what about April, May and June cruising where final balance has been paid, (2) what should you do if final balances for cruises become due over the coming weeks and (3) should travellers be booking cruises for this year with the many deals and offers available. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise 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 #CruiseShutdown #CruiseTips #CruisingTips
View Video Transcript
0:00
with everything going on increasing at
0:01
the moment and the crusing shutdown I've
0:03
decided I'm not going to post any
0:04
regular cruising content until the
0:07
shutdown ends and life starts to come
0:09
back to normal however I'm getting lots
0:11
and lots of questions from people asking
0:12
around what should they be doing about
0:14
their bookings future bookings and a
0:17
whole bunch of questions which I've been
0:18
happy to answer and very willing to
0:20
answer and I've been doing that so far
0:22
by email but I thought what might be
0:24
helpful is to share the thoughts that I
0:26
have and the answers some of those
0:27
questions that I'm getting and post
0:29
those out here for people that might be
0:31
also interested so in this very first
0:33
video I wanted to address the question
0:35
I'm getting asked the most and it's
0:37
really around how soon can people go
0:40
back cruising and what specifically
0:41
should they be doing around their
0:42
bookings for April May June later in the
0:45
year as they start to be paying which is
0:47
coming up now final deposits and also
0:49
should there be booking to take
0:51
advantage of some of the deals and
0:52
offers that are in the offering at the
0:55
moment I have lots of cruise bookings
0:58
for April May June and in fact for the
1:00
rest of the years so this is a very live
1:02
issue for me and also some of the things
1:03
that I've been thinking about so let's
1:05
take a look at where we are at the
1:06
moment very briefly before I answer that
1:08
so I thought might be good to recap
1:10
first of all as we know cruising is
1:11
shutdown the initial period that most
1:14
cruise lines have shut down is to around
1:16
about the middle of April a couple of
1:18
others have gone even further than that
1:19
you've got princess already having
1:21
announced at the start they were going
1:22
through to may for example MSC to the
1:24
end of April you've also got virgin
1:27
voyages that are now only going to
1:28
launch right at the end of July secondly
1:31
mostly airlines have closed down
1:33
operations largely and fleets grounded
1:36
right through into may at least quite a
1:39
long way into May third of course
1:41
governments are asking people to come
1:42
home if their residents they're not
1:44
letting non-residents in and a lot of
1:46
borders are being closed travel
1:48
insurance of course is largely locked
1:50
down it's very hard to get and of course
1:52
ports all around the world are closed
1:53
down so that's kind of where we are at
1:55
this particular time as we look ahead I
1:57
think that this cruising shutdown will
1:59
of course lasts longer than April for a
2:01
whole bunch of reasons first of all
2:03
because as we can see the lockdown and
2:06
the things that are happening in terms
2:08
of movement of people getting around
2:10
staying at home the importance of
2:12
staying at
2:12
self-isolation and lockdowns is
2:15
something that government have been
2:17
really clear it's gonna carry on for a
2:18
period of time so I think it's very
2:19
unlikely that by April people gonna be
2:21
moving freely again also airlines are
2:24
not gonna be around to get you to
2:25
cruisers in April and May probably
2:27
you're not gonna be able to get travel
2:28
insurance think government advisories
2:30
gonna stay in place for their residents
2:32
to stay they're not gonna let foreigners
2:34
in and also important of course crew
2:36
it's really if they start moving back
2:38
home off the ships that are there it's
2:41
gonna be very difficult to get crew back
2:42
and Manning ships another reason that
2:44
the shutdown probably won't be coming
2:46
back that earlier is quite a few regions
2:48
are closed so if you take a look
2:50
Canada for example had already announced
2:52
that all their ports were closed to
2:53
ships over 500 passengers until the end
2:56
of June New Zealand was the same
2:58
Australia was putting restrictions and
3:00
most of the ports in Asia were closed
3:02
with no plans to reopen and ports the
3:04
basic close I think we're going to see
3:05
increasingly that the timeline for ports
3:08
opening is going to be more like the
3:10
Canadian and New Zealand timeline then
3:12
perhaps everybody else is hoping which
3:15
will be much quicker also the ships as
3:18
we head into April May normally the
3:20
cruising season moves out of the
3:21
Caribbean which is where the bulk of the
3:23
ships actually are and moves to the
3:25
Mediterranean that's really where the
3:26
cruising season is and it can be very
3:27
difficult I think to be moving ships
3:29
around when you can't kind of restock
3:32
and guarantee that you can actually get
3:33
up and running in the Mediterranean in
3:35
Europe which of course is facing many
3:37
many challenges another absolutely
3:39
critical thing is in the whole run-up to
3:41
the shutdown and everything that was
3:42
going on the world there was a very
3:44
strong advice for people over 70 not to
3:47
go cruising and I don't think there's
3:49
any sign that that's going to be lifted
3:50
any time soon so certainly if you're
3:52
over 70 or heading towards the age of 70
3:54
cruise lines were already asking that
3:56
you get medical certificates saying that
3:58
it was okay for you to travel so
3:59
certainly things gonna be a big lockdown
4:01
around people over seventy or close to
4:03
the age of 70 cruising so there's a
4:05
whole bunch of reasons that I think
4:06
actually we're going to see that
4:07
actually the lockdown is gonna last much
4:10
longer than we think
4:11
so let's get really specifically if you
4:12
have a booking in April May or June what
4:15
should you do and I have bookings for
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all of those three months what I'm doing
4:19
is just sitting tight and waiting we
4:21
have no idea what's gonna happen with a
4:22
shutdown everything is up in the air
4:24
it's very uncertain but what we do know
4:26
is that the cruise lines are absolutely
4:28
inundated with people trying to chop and
4:29
change and cancel cruise lines are
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offering up to 48 hours before you
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embark to cancel Airlines as well our
4:36
offering for those flights they haven't
4:38
cancelled you can cancel and move at
4:40
really short notice so what I'm actually
4:42
doing is I'm not doing anything about my
4:43
bookings in April and May I'm just
4:45
letting them sit there and wait to see
4:46
what happens it also means that I'm not
4:48
putting more stress and strain on the
4:50
crew zones which are meri trying to
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solve the problems they've got and
4:53
really focusing on cruises as they come
4:54
up so basically I'm just holding those
4:56
and waiting to see what happens
4:58
personally I'm pretty convinced I will
4:59
not be cruising in April I also think
5:01
May is looking really unlikely but in
5:04
this stage I'm just waiting and seeing
5:05
and holding on and we'll make decisions
5:07
much closer to time because I am able to
5:09
because I do have the flexibility and
5:11
also the cruise lines and Airlines which
5:14
connect me to all of those are basically
5:16
saying you can cancel at short notice so
5:18
I would say just hold back and just wait
5:21
and let things calm down as it gets
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closer to your cruise make a decision
5:24
perhaps set of dates I've set myself a
5:26
date sort of a week to ten days before
5:28
each of those where I would make a
5:29
decision of course if you're over the
5:31
age of 70 or you do see that you've got
5:34
financial concerns I would go in and
5:36
cancel those right now just to give you
5:37
the reassurance that that's happening
5:39
and that's all underway I've had a lot
5:42
of emails a lot of questions around
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people who are about to pay their final
5:46
deposit you know normally you pay 90
5:48
days before a cruise your last slug of
5:51
money and historically that has not been
5:53
really refundable you've often lost 75
5:55
to a hundred percent of that so people
5:57
saying what should I do and actually one
5:58
of the big concerns that people have and
6:00
have asked me a lot is should I pay
6:02
because I'm concerned with everything
6:04
going on that these cruise lines are
6:05
gonna go bust they're going to go out of
6:07
service personally I'm less concerned
6:10
about the bankruptcy thing and I'll tell
6:12
you why if you look at the three biggest
6:13
companies you've got Carnival
6:15
Corporation which of course control and
6:17
owned many of the brands from Holland
6:19
America princess Aida Carnival of course
6:22
Pinot Pinot Australia just loads and
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loads of cruise lines you've got draw
6:27
Caribbean which of course it's Royal
6:29
Caribbean it's got silver see it's got
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celebrity it's got as Amara then you've
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got the Norwegian Cruise Line which of
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course has Norwegian Oceania region
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seven seas
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very big large corporations and in fact
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Carnival is the biggest travel company I
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believe in the world if you look at it
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what it's worth in its assets so not
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only the biggest cruise company it's the
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biggest travel company these are vast
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complicated big businesses and I believe
6:55
that not only do they have the resources
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there and will have the resources but I
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think it's very unlikely that
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governments and institutions are all
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going to want or let these companies go
7:05
bust because the amount of people they
7:07
employ the value to the economy is so
7:10
vast I think a way will be found if they
7:12
do get tight to keep those going a bear
7:15
in mind that these companies have
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massive big ships they have huge big
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assets which of course that they can
7:20
have as collateral up against loans
7:22
government loans or whatever side that
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that's not my concern I think take a
7:26
look at your company that you're booked
7:28
with and see if they're one of those
7:29
really big corporations now I do have a
7:31
whole video which I did a couple of
7:32
months ago around who owns what so that
7:34
video may be particularly helpful if
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you're not sure if you're cruising on
7:38
one of the smaller independent lines
7:40
that are independently owned you may
7:42
want to be more cautious because of
7:43
course they don't naturally have the
7:45
same degree of resources and you may
7:46
want to take a slightly more cautious
7:47
approach but if you're one of the big
7:49
corporations personally I am pretty
7:51
comfortable and relaxed about that of
7:53
course again you have to make up your
7:55
own mind this is just what I'm doing and
7:57
what my perception is so if you've got a
7:59
final balance to pay and you're really
8:01
looking at cruises which are heading out
8:03
June July all this time I think probably
8:05
by then we may be back to more normal it
8:07
cruises may be going so you may feel
8:09
more comfortable again because you can
8:11
cancel it really short notice and it
8:13
looks like also flights you can cancel a
8:15
short notice again the proviso before
8:18
you pay those big deposits does it make
8:20
financial sense and also time sense to
8:22
then be going away on vacation really
8:24
really important and again I think if
8:26
you're over 70 I would also again
8:28
consider putting cruising or pausing
8:31
until it all comes back to normal and
8:33
that advice gets removed and all the
8:36
people contact me they've got cruises
8:37
towards the end of the year not sure
8:38
what to do my advice would be the same
8:41
the other thing I get asked a lot is
8:42
should I book cruises now for this year
8:45
with all these deals going personally
8:47
I'm not sure that's a great idea now I
8:49
don't want to upset people in the travel
8:51
industry because of course they're
8:53
desperate
8:53
they trying to get back to normal trying
8:55
to make a living but what I would say is
8:58
it's still too uncertain we really don't
8:59
know what's happening at this stage in
9:01
time so I would actually hold back
9:03
particularly because travel insurance
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could be a real challenge it's quite
9:06
hard to get travel insurance at this
9:08
period of time and there's lots of
9:09
restrictions now about what it does
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doesn't cover so I don't almost hold
9:12
back I would spend some time perhaps
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looking at the cruises you want to go on
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perhaps agree the ones you want to go on
9:17
and as things calm down and settle book
9:18
however if you do want to really support
9:21
the industry and show support what about
9:24
looking at next year when I was on a
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cruise that just happened as the
9:28
shutdown was coming in place the future
9:30
cruise people were really busy but they
9:32
were busy with people booking for next
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year because the view was actually
9:35
things would calm down we've probably
9:37
got on top of the situation things will
9:39
be back to normal I feel much more
9:40
comfortable the deposits aren't that
9:42
large at this point of time there's
9:43
still a degree of flexibility so if you
9:45
do want to make some sort of commitment
9:47
also give yourself something to look
9:48
forward to why not actually look at the
9:50
deals for next year lock those in now
9:52
while you can
9:53
pencil and perhaps a couple for this
9:55
year and reassess I guess the key thing
9:57
that I'm saying to most people is
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obviously forgot to make decision based
10:00
on yourself your financial situation
10:01
your age where you are and when you
10:04
believe things will return to normal I
10:06
think we going to see the lockdown lasts
10:08
much longer than it is currently
10:11
reflected so those are my thoughts about
10:13
some of the questions I've got if you
10:14
have any other questions please do send
10:16
those to me I will try and answer them
10:18
in forthcoming episodes and additions
10:21
till then please stay safe look after
10:23
yourself and be very cautious and I
10:25
guess we can dream when we were back to
10:27
normal cruising and normal cruising tips
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