cksv

What’s crazy is that there will be two additional Icon class ships launching before this Excel class ship goes into service.

Wow they are really dragging their feet. Meanwhile Royal Caribbean is nearly finished installing Starlink on every single one of their ships. NCL must not have the manpower to install the dishes anytime soon, because there is absolutely no reason to do further testing than they have already done on the Breakaway... which began 6 months ago! The reality is Starlink is a low orbit system, and is going to be leaps and bounds better, especially when it comes to latency, than their existing service from Emerging Markets Communications. I've been on 11 cruises across 6 Norwegian ships the past 5 years, and I'm lucky if I can even get a webpage to load without having to refresh it multiple times, let alone stream any video content.

I concur - I was on the Celebration over Christmas and the WiFi was the best I've had in 25 cruises. Cannot wait to experience Starlink!

Agreed, not a fan of Playa Mia. Had been there once a few years ago, but forgot and took the NCL excursion a couple weeks ago. It was disappointing, so I'll stick with Paradise Beach or Mr. Sanchos in the future.

Sorry if this has been answered before (I'm sure it's buried in a thread here somewhere), but will the Abbott BinaxNOW - 2 Pack for Travel for $69 on the Optum website work for two people? Meaning, can I take one test, and my girlfriend take the other, or do we need to buy two of the two packs ($138 total)?

Thanks!

6 minutes ago, RD64 said:

lots of exotic ports? Nassau and Bimini?

No - not the embarkation ports, but Harbour Island, Great Exuma, San Salvador Island, Long Island are all exotic to me as the mainstream cruise lines never stop at those smaller islands. I strongly considered booking just for that reason alone, but I don't think I'd dig the Crystal vibe.

5 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I am curious to see what pricing is like for these sailings. I bet they charge $5000 per person for a balcony. I think the pent up demand is there and with so few ships sailing, the pricing will be outrageous. But I still might consider it....

Not so sure about that. The recently released Crystal Serenity Bahamas cruises are only $5500 for two and that includes a butler and lots of exotic ports.

Mine were removed too. Thought it was a nice gesture by NCL and was surprised to see them removed a year later.

Check your My NCL accounts! As of today (I've been checking daily) my Future Cruise Credits are showing an expiration date of 12/31/2021. 😃

Has anyone received the mentioned extension for their future cruise credits? Mine still appear with an expiration date of 6/30/2021.

4 hours ago, Indyopie said:

Got an email a few days ago reminding me the CruiseNext cert in my account from a canceled Jan cruise expires in April.  I called today and asked if it could be extended.  I was told I was on the list for it to be automatically extended by the system but she was happy to do it manually while on the phone.  She told me my "Book By" date is June 30, 2021 but "Sail By" date was good until Dec 2022.  This is different than the information casofilia provided above, below is what shows in my account.  Wonder what it will say if I end up getting an email too.

 

I got the email and mine still shows June on My NCL as well. I’m guessing it will take a few days or weeks for them to make the date change on the backend.

Make sure to check pricing with and without the promo. I did a mock booking and the same category was $600 more with the "Free Drinks".

4 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Each unit is leased at $400k, and you need 8-9 units to get the 1000/hr rate, so that is an investment of $3.2-3.6 million per terminal.

A bargain vs posting a 150M loss every month

Looks like the next round of cancellations are on the way.

1 hour ago, pentiumvi said:

In my opinion, what NCL isn't wrong technically, since it's as per their T&Cs.

 

But we are currently in unprecedented times, and one would feel it's not completely unreasonable for NCL to allow for extensions of these expiry dates.

 

I haven't been following along too closely, but what happened in the cases where a certificate was used and the cruise was cancelled by NCL after the certificate's expiration date? Did those at least receive an extension?

Exactly! All the airlines are being very understanding and flexible in these unprecedented times. That’s crummy of NCL not to automatically extend CNDs that are expiring soon. All hope is not lost though. OP should contact the CruiseNext department and plead their case. I think I’ve read of others getting a 1 time extension.

7 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Pretty much, the hurdles are the same as they were under the no sail order, except that the requirement for offshore health care and quarantine have changed to the European model, where local hospitals will have to agree to take on possibly hundreds of patients all at once.  Whether the cruise lines can meet these requirements is still to be determined, they hadn't up until now, not sure what is changed.

Except that the local hospitals probably wouldn’t have hundreds of patients at once even if there was a large outbreak. Most who contract the virus don’t have serious symptoms that require a hospital visit, so the majority could easily be quarantined at a hotel.

Thanks, seeing it for my Amex EveryDay Card although I probably won't take advantage since I already have a ton of future cruise credits.

17 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Did you read your article? It's 8.5 million. Micky will probably still have 80 million shares left. He takes almost nothing as a salary - a paltry 1.1 million - the lowest paid executive Carnival has.

By the way, that news release is from 2009. The Arison’s aren’t selling any shares. 😂 

1 hour ago, RocketMan275 said:

I rather doubt that R0 number of 15.  Suppose there is one person who infects 15 people.  Those 15 would also infect 15.  That would be 225 infected.  Those 225 infect 15 more each and that's 3375 infected which is more than were on the ship.  

Yeah according to the report:

"Cumulative CDC data from the period of March 1 to July 10, 2020 reveal a total of 2,973 COVID-19 or COVID-like illness cases on cruise ships, in addition to 34 deaths. These data have also revealed a total of 99 outbreaks on 123 different cruise ships, meaning that 80% of ships within U.S. jurisdiction were affected by COVID-19 during this time frame. In addition, 9 ships still have ongoing or resolving COVID-19 outbreaks on board."

So 2,973 cases / 123 ships = 24 cases on average per ship? That doesn't sound all that bad to me.

26 minutes ago, Joe817 said:

Good point D.C.! That has not been brought up, until you did. A workable solution, I would think.

I don't think Carnival will want to spend any more than they need to on capital expenditures over the next few years, so doubt they would refurbish any smaller ships from their sister lines to the Carnival brand. The Fantasy class has more ships than any other class so I'm sure they will keep at least a few around for the smaller markets and booze cruises.

2 minutes ago, 1980dory said:

Wow!  If it was confirmed on social media, then it must absolutely be true!  Thanks for this valuable info!

🙄 Official Press Release: https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/news/2020-press-releases/news-07152020-ShipNewsJuly20.html

On 4/27/2020 at 9:54 PM, cksv said:

One could say the same about every other ship in the fleet, so why haven’t they pulled the bookings for any of those if it’s a capacity thing? My money is on the ship being delayed until early 2021.

Annnnd it's official...

6 minutes ago, blcruising said:

NCL told wall street investors a different story when it removed earnings guidance. Time will tell.

That's not specific to NCL, as nearly every company out there has suspended guidance for 2020, but yes, time will tell!

9 hours ago, blcruising said:

Had I been conducting the interview, I would have asked questions like, why did NCL withdraw earnings guidance less than two weeks ago? Why have you announced 25% workforce reductions? Salary cuts? 401k match eliminations? Why have you announced a reduction of spending by over $500 million? Talk is cheap, look at the actions. The actions are drastic if bookings are off 15%.

Yes of course Norwegian like any other financially responsible company would make those cuts, they currently have ZERO revenue coming in and not by choice! They are shut down from operating until the CDC lifts their no sail order. Those cuts have nothing to do with future bookings and everything to do with the current circumstances. Personally I believe people will want to get out and travel after being cooped up in their homes for so long, so when FDR says that future bookings are only down slightly that seems believable, and even Royal Caribbean came out today and made the same statement.

"Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Company started the year in a strong booked position and at higher prices on a prior year comparable basis.  Given the impact of COVID-19, booking volumes for the remainder of 2020 are meaningfully lower than the same time last year at prices that are down low-single digits.  Due to the suspension in sailings, booking trends reflect elevated cancellations for 2020 and more typical levels for 2021 and beyond.  Although still early in the booking cycle, the booked position for 2021 is within historical ranges when compared to same time last year with 2021 prices up mid-single digits compared to 2020."

https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17865036-royal-caribbean-group-provides-business-update

1 hour ago, datolim said:

After the 8Q statement to the SEC it is damage control.

It is too late now.

Guest now want their money back. Nobody would book any more cruises with NCL.

Actually if you watched the interview you’d know that 50% have chosen to take a future cruise credit and that bookings/pricing is only down mid single digits from a year ago. The disclosure was just a formality presented as a worse case scenario to investors. Don’t read too much into it now that they’ve raised billions of dollars overnight.