Up next in 10
CRUISE UPDATE: What Do You Need To Know? Restarts, Ports, Ships & Bankruptcy Latest
3K views
Feb 22, 2025
What is going on in cruising and the world of cruises right now? In this latest cruise update the latest cruise news and explore 5 key developments on the progress towards cruising and ocean cruises resuming again out of the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. 3 big cruise updates on ports reluctance to accept cruise ships this year. Carnival selling cruise ships and pushing back delivery of more ships and a popular service used by hundreds of thousands of cruisers goes bust owing them millions. This and more Links mentioned in the episode: Dates cruise lines hope to resume sailing: http://www.tipsfortravellers.com/cruise-line-cancellations BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs --------------------------------------------------------- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore 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 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
View Video Transcript
0:00
what is going on in the world of
0:01
cruising that you need to know about
0:03
and why i'm gary bembridge and this is
0:06
another of my tips for travellers
0:08
cruise updates where i will be unpicking
0:11
the biggest breaking cruise developments
0:14
and news and discuss importantly what it
0:16
means for all of us
0:17
as cruisers now before getting into some
0:20
of the more surprising
0:22
news i do want to update you on the
0:24
latest on the resumption of cruising
0:26
there are
0:27
five big developments that i think you
0:29
need to know about
0:30
so let's talk about those first off
0:32
there is little sign
0:34
that ocean cruising will be resuming in
0:36
the united states the uk
0:38
most of europe and australia any time
0:41
soon
0:41
so what is going on and why virtually
0:45
all of the large popular cruise lines
0:47
have recently pushed their hopeful
0:49
startup
0:50
dates to at least april so lines like
0:53
carnival cruise line
0:54
norwegian cruise line msc cruises but
0:56
increasingly they've pushed them into
0:58
may
0:59
such as has just happened with royal
1:00
caribbean celebrity
1:02
cunard holland america virgin voyages
1:05
princess azamara and so on
1:07
and even further when you start to look
1:09
at the dates by individual ship these
1:11
cancellations are happening i expect the
1:12
outlayers
1:13
to follow those timings as well there
1:16
was
1:16
huge huge optimism when authorities like
1:19
the uscdc
1:20
initially issued their framework for
1:23
conditional selling
1:24
almost three months ago that was then
1:26
followed by the uk government
1:28
agreeing the protocols for cruising
1:30
towards the end of last year now this
1:32
optimism
1:33
has withered it's evaporated over the
1:35
past few weeks and days
1:37
due to the reluctance of any of those
1:39
agencies to commit to
1:41
any specific timing whatsoever
1:44
in fact anything the cases the lockdowns
1:47
have strengthened the resistance
1:49
to setting anything like a firm date and
1:51
we've also seen a real
1:53
slowing down of the process towards
1:56
resumption now this was all confirmed
1:58
by carnival corporations president and
2:00
ceo arnold donald he said this week in a
2:02
call
2:03
which is covering their latest results
2:05
that there is no
2:06
firm timeline of any kind for the
2:09
restart of cruising of the united states
2:11
he did say the dialogue with the u.s
2:13
centers for disease control
2:14
prevention is ongoing but it's moving
2:17
extremely
2:18
slowly for example he confirmed that the
2:21
cruise lines have not yet received from
2:23
the cdc
2:24
any required technical details to be
2:27
able to plan
2:28
let alone schedule the test cruises
2:30
these of course are required as part of
2:32
the framework for conditional sailing
2:34
test cruises
2:35
are critical because they're one of the
2:36
key stages in the return to cruise
2:38
because they're designed
2:40
to check and test all the various new
2:42
protocols
2:43
in fact he said on a quote here the cdc
2:46
will make the determinations in a time
2:49
frame that they
2:50
feel comfortable with we don't have a
2:52
definitive date for any future
2:53
guideline release but we will be
2:55
prepared to act now on that point
2:57
the carnival group have returned to 20
2:59
ships across their various brands
3:01
into u.s waters to be ready to ramp up
3:03
the process when they can
3:04
the second thing to note about timing is
3:06
that even after test cruises are run
3:09
it's important to remember the cdc
3:10
framework has a minimum
3:12
60 day period before the lines will be
3:14
given a license to sale with
3:16
paying passengers this is to give them
3:18
time to kind of evaluate and assess
3:20
all those test cruises so to start
3:22
selling in early april which some of the
3:24
lines have advertised
3:25
the test cruises would have to take
3:27
place sometime in january
3:29
and that doesn't seem particularly
3:31
promising from what arnold donald has
3:33
said
3:34
so far the third thing to note is in the
3:36
uk
3:37
the government maritime minister has
3:40
completely rebutted any calls
3:42
from the cruise line association
3:44
alliance to set a specific timeline
3:46
for cruising to resume there and of
3:47
course there is a ban on cruise ships
3:50
entering places like australia
3:51
canada and spain these are in force and
3:54
of course you're waiting for news
3:55
when they're going to be lifted so
3:56
already we're seeing some impact with
3:58
things like celebrity cruises they've
4:00
cancelled their entire
4:01
2021 summer european season for
4:04
celebrity edge and celebrity
4:06
consolation already the fourth thing to
4:08
note about cruises resuming
4:09
is there are actually less cruisers
4:11
operating now
4:12
than there were in the last quarter of
4:14
2020 because the rapid growth
4:16
of the virus and resulting lockdowns has
4:19
meant that lions
4:20
that were already running have cancelled
4:22
a lot of sailing so
4:23
for example the italian lines msc
4:25
cruisers and costa cruisers
4:27
and german lines like mine shift and
4:29
naida they put
4:30
their cruisers on hold now they do hope
4:33
to return
4:34
towards the end of january for psalm
4:36
some in february some in march so there
4:38
are actually fewer cruisers
4:39
going now than there were at the end of
4:41
last year the only cruisers
4:43
still operating consistently at the
4:45
moment are the cruises to nowhere in
4:46
singapore
4:47
japan and taiwan and also arunui in
4:50
french polynesia
4:51
and of course some of the hutu gruden
4:53
coastal services in norway
4:55
the fifth thing to note which i think
4:57
also shows more about what the lions
4:59
think
5:00
around the actual return date will be is
5:02
a recent move by cunard
5:05
the cruise line has reduced their final
5:07
balance payments to just
5:08
30 days before departure for all cruises
5:12
due to depart up to the 30th of june now
5:14
of course by
5:15
taking final payments close to the
5:16
departure date it means
5:18
if they cancel these there will be fewer
5:21
fully paid fares they need to be
5:22
offering
5:23
bonus future cruise credit to and of
5:25
course less funds
5:26
to handle in and out however the end
5:28
june date
5:29
which they said was due to the ongoing
5:31
situations cover 19
5:32
and u.s and uk health departments to me
5:35
does suggest a lack of confidence
5:37
that they will be able to resume queen
5:39
victoria on the 17th of may
5:41
queen mary on the 28th of may and queen
5:43
elizabeth on the 4th of june
5:46
now to get the very latest on planned
5:48
return dates which
5:50
do chop and change you can visit my site
5:52
at tipsfortravelers.com
5:53
and you'll find at the top of the site
5:55
an article which is constantly updated
5:57
with the current dates by month by line
6:00
and increasingly by ship for both
6:02
ocean and river cruising so that's a
6:04
good resource to dip into whilst many
6:06
cruisers are focusing on the date that
6:08
cruise lines
6:09
are allowed to sail again as important
6:11
is also increasingly
6:13
the amount of news on what countries and
6:16
popular cruise ports are
6:17
saying on the matter too so even when
6:20
cruise lines
6:21
start to get the okay to sale out of say
6:23
for example u.s ports
6:24
they face a challenge on delivering and
6:27
sailing advertised cruisers unless
6:29
of course ports open to them now there
6:31
are three developments
6:32
in this area that i think are worth you
6:35
knowing about and noting
6:36
first off if you recall key west
6:39
voted to place limits on the size and
6:41
the number of ships
6:42
that could call there excluding
6:44
basically most medium and large
6:46
ships and yet it still remains
6:50
key west as a port on many many of the
6:52
itineraries on sale today
6:54
this whole ban is about to be challenged
6:57
in a bill submitted by senator jim boyd
7:00
to the florida senate it's called bill
7:02
426 the state preemption of seaport
7:04
regulations
7:05
it was filed on january 5th and it aims
7:07
to give the state of florida
7:09
a final say over all the port
7:11
regulations in the state
7:12
so it would prevent a local government
7:14
like key west from restricting or
7:16
regulating you can
7:17
and cannot call on any port in florida
7:21
now if this bill is accepted for
7:23
discussion it's going to take some
7:25
place sometime after about march the
7:27
second so definitely something to watch
7:28
out for
7:29
but for now the lines seem to be keeping
7:31
key west on advertised artilleries but
7:33
really important to bear in mind as you
7:34
look at cruises ahead secondly
7:37
some caribbean ports are coming out
7:39
saying they do not intend
7:40
nor expect to open to cruise ships
7:43
during this year 2021
7:44
the most significant of these so far is
7:47
grand
7:47
cayman now the premier alden mclaughlin
7:50
he told
7:51
the local news there that the return of
7:52
cruise ships to the cayman islands
7:55
is not on the government radar at all
7:58
and that cruisers are unlikely to be
8:00
allowed back until
8:02
2022. now he said i'm going to quote
8:04
here
8:05
the world would have to be very
8:07
different place
8:09
relating to coronavirus before the
8:11
government here would give
8:12
any consideration to the return of ships
8:14
to local waters
8:16
the cruise ship business is not really
8:18
within our contemplation
8:20
at this stage the third noticeable and
8:23
telling development to work around this
8:25
is carnival
8:26
cruise line they've just launched a
8:28
brand new marketing campaign
8:30
in the united states that actually
8:32
promotes the benefits
8:33
of their half moon key private island
8:36
and it doesn't refer to
8:38
any other caribbean ports of call at
8:41
all this is really interesting i think
8:42
because there are of course those two
8:44
big questions
8:45
this year one is around when ships will
8:47
be allowed to sell again
8:49
and then once they do where they will
8:51
actually be
8:52
able to sell to private islands provide
8:54
a really good caribbean experience
8:56
they have beaches they have dining they
8:58
have activities
8:59
while of course keeping guests and
9:01
everyone they interact with
9:03
within a cruise created bubble so the
9:05
lions can control
9:06
everything they also as they're counted
9:08
as foreign ports
9:10
they fall within the u.s requirement
9:11
that all cruisers have to go into a
9:14
foreign port
9:14
before returning back to the u.s looking
9:17
at
9:18
recently released 2022-2023 season
9:21
itineraries for
9:22
carnival group of lions there are also a
9:24
lot of short caribbean cruises with
9:26
private island stops
9:27
featuring really prominently so
9:29
definitely this seems to be a trend so
9:31
the issue
9:32
of which ports will welcome cruises
9:34
certainly as cruising starts up
9:36
initially is
9:36
in my view going to become a really big
9:40
topic
9:40
once we get much more clarity on when
9:42
cruising can run it's also why many of
9:45
the return to cruise plans
9:46
appear to be involving lines scrapping
9:48
advertised cruises
9:50
and running local ports for local
9:52
resident cruises
9:53
for example around uk for uk residents
9:55
around australia
9:56
for australians now this is of course
9:58
what we saw costs to do in italy
10:00
for italians panant do around france for
10:02
french and
10:03
so on so the sydney president as
10:04
cruising opens up carnival corporation
10:06
announced this past
10:08
week that i record this that they will
10:09
now be disposing of
10:11
19 ships across their nine brands now
10:14
they've disposed of
10:15
15 so far and so that is four more to
10:18
leave and we wait to hear the
10:19
final list of those all of the ships
10:21
being disposed of they say
10:23
are much less efficient than their more
10:25
modern ships
10:26
within the fleet and so it does help
10:28
them cut their costs
10:29
per passenger they're also slowing down
10:32
delivery of new ships they
10:33
only took delivery of two ships in 2020
10:37
which i guess was enchanted princess and
10:38
piana
10:39
piano iona but they're now saying they
10:41
only expect
10:42
one more ship to be delivered in 2021
10:44
versus those that have been delivered
10:46
so far compared to five ships they're
10:48
originally scheduled for delivery so
10:50
definitely something to watch out for as
10:52
they did not say
10:53
which of the ships planned for 2021 will
10:55
be delayed as of yet once i know of
10:57
course
10:57
i'll include in a future update of
11:00
course with cruising being shut down
11:01
soon for an entire year and longer it's
11:04
looking
11:05
like the impact is huge money for the
11:08
cruise lines
11:09
who have been able to raise funds to
11:11
survive
11:12
there is big impact on supply chain
11:14
associated companies of course crew
11:16
have all been suffering recently one of
11:18
the
11:19
most popular independent cruise
11:21
excursion companies
11:23
this is used by hundreds and hundreds of
11:25
thousands of cruise passengers every
11:27
single year
11:28
as an alternative to cruise line tours
11:30
they basically went into receivership
11:32
owing a staggering 4.8 million dollars
11:35
to passengers for excursions that they
11:37
paid for but
11:38
did not happen now the company is called
11:42
shoretrips.com they file for protection
11:45
from the creditors including the
11:47
passengers in wisconsin and the owners
11:49
barry and julie carp they're working
11:51
with the court
11:52
appointed receiver a company called
11:54
dizzard to try and find a
11:56
buyer as a going concern and they're
11:57
hoping they'll find a way of
11:59
keeping the business going on
12:02
once they get through this whole mess
12:03
however where the passengers who had
12:06
booked trips and are waiting for refunds
12:08
with shoretrips.com
12:10
we'll get all part of their money back
12:11
isn't set in the stage so i'll keep an
12:13
eye on that
12:13
and of course let me know if you are one
12:15
of them now if you found
12:17
this update and what it means for you
12:19
helpful i have loads more
12:20
tips for travellers episodes packed full
12:22
of cruising advice and tips
12:24
so why not enjoy another one right now
#Cruises & Charters
#Hospitality Industry
#Transportation