longton

45 minutes ago, MBP&O2/O said:

 

You hope

I may have been referring to the old Public School system Buckshees come in many shapes and forms

And for American readers Public Schools in the UK mean private schools in the US!

Silver Spirit is now doing mini cruises from Saudi Arabia. The company obviously needs some money. See this article:

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/silver-spirit-chartered-red-sea-cruises-saudi-summer-campaign

Since the cruises are in Saudi waters only I assume the ship will operate in accordance with Saudi religious and social norms: call to prayer through the public address system 5 times a day,  segregated pools and dining, no alcohol, no casino, no live entertainment, no dancing, no nightclub, halal food.

A cruise I would definitely NOT like to be on!

What a boring itinerary!

It certainly isn't a World Voyage.

Apart from New York where it starts and ends it omits all of North America, all of South America, all of Africa and New Zealand.

More like a Middle East and Asia cruise. The five or so ports of call in the Arabian Gulf are all so similar.

I won't be booking any of the segments.

To add to the cancellation info:

In addition, with Queen Elizabeth having returned to the UK during the pause, and with ongoing uncertainty over the re-opening of ports and countries on her intended routes next year, it is sadly not practical to continue as planned. We have therefore made the difficult decision to cancel Queen Elizabeth's voyages due to depart between 26 March 2021 and 13 December 2021.

The cancelled sailings in and around Australia, Japan and Alaska will be replaced with a programme of shorter duration European holidays ranging from three to 14 nights. Queen Elizabeth will be returning to Australia at the end of 2021 and Japan in spring 2022. We're also excited to announce that we'll be putting new itineraries on sale for all ships through to the end of 2022, later this year. This will include Queen Elizabeth visiting Alaska and Australia once again.

3 minutes ago, blag said:

This is just so, so PROFOUND.

But correct.

Journey is due to arrive in Cape Town on 2 December 2020 and then do one or two week cruises from Cape Town around South Africa and neighbouring countries until 19 March 2021.

Airports and ports in South Africa have been closed to international visitors since March and there is no sign of them reopening. Some say the earliest they will reopen will be 2021.

Covid-19 cases are rising rapidly in South Africa. There is no chance that cruises on Journey will go ahead.

Journey is going into 'cold storage' in Glasgow. Yet Azamara is still selling these cruises. To me it feels dishonest but I guess it wants the money.

On 7/9/2020 at 9:20 PM, Roger88 said:

The worst thing about it that people there are not well informed and the countries that traditionally were helping them with aid are concentrating on their own countries at the moment. I hope they will survive the pandemic.. I mean seriously, you will never get a true statistics from there which makes it even 

That's not correct about South Africa. The country doesn't rely on aid from other countries.

The statistics in South Africa are as reliable or more reliable than those in the US.

You almost certainly won't be travelling by cruise ship to South Africa any time this year.

Corona virus cases in South Africa are rising rapidly and have yet to reach their peak. All ports and airports are closed to international visitors.

If the ships are sailing, we'll be sailing.

I suppose they could avoid ports where tendering is required.

Other lines with smaller ships and a much smaller number of passengers, for example, Seabourn would probably face fewer problems.

We have booked our first Azamara cruise. It's a 12 night cruise leaving Buenos Aires on 9 December 2020. The cruise visits ports in Brazil and Uruguay.  

We paid a deposit of £250 per person and the balance is due on 10 September.

We expect the cruise will be cancelled but in any event we will not be travelling.

We cannot lift and shift since there are no similar itineraries in 2021 or 2022.

Does anyone know if it is likely we will hear if the cruise is or isn't going ahead before we are asked to pay the balance? It would be nice if we would get the deposit refunded but not the end of the world if we lose it.

Thanks.

Dubai airport will reopen to international visitors on 7 July. Visitors must be in possession of a negative Covid-19 certificate issued within 4 days of arrival.

The airport in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has not confirmed an opening date. Road travel into and out of Abu Dhabi remains severly restricted.

No mention of when sea ports will open.

On 6/22/2020 at 1:24 PM, drsel said:

Not in USA, but they may start in south east Asia and middle East where the virus is under control

It certainly isn't under control in the Middle East where many airports and borders remain closed.

Yes, we are doing 14 + 7 day cruises.

When I mentioned we want to do back to back cruises both the P&O agent and the travel agent immediately told me we would get 10% off without any prompting from me.

I agree that the brochure does seem to contradict what we were told and sold.

An update.

I phoned P&O and my travel agent this afternoon.

We do get a 10% discount off both cruises but the discount is only off the Select Fare and not the Early Saver Fare.

With the discount and the onboard credit the fare was only slightly higher than the Saver Fare.

We are happy.

Many thanks for the quick and helpful replies.

The cruises are two weeks and one week.

Geat if we can get a discount. I'll check prices with P&O and my usual travel agent and let you know what transpires.

We are planning our first P&O cruise. We have sailed with Cunard and Seabourn previously.

We like Cunard but their Med cruises begin and end in Southampton and we don't want to spend a few days crossing the Bay of Biscay. 

We want to do 2 back to back Med cruises on Azura which start and finish in Malta.

I have a couple of questions:

Would we keep the same cabin for both cruises?

Is there any discount for booking b2b cruises?

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

No one knows when international visitors will be allowed into the country. I am presently near Cape Town.

Airports and ports closed about three months ago and remain closed for international trips. There are some domestic flights but these are only for business people.

Some are hoping for an opening in September but that is looking optimistic given that cases and deaths from Coronavirus are rising quickly.

At the moment, I think it would be unlikely that South Africa will want 4,000 + passengers and crew wandering around Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban in January.

2021?

We have been thinking of booking a 14 nights Mediterranean cruise (V114) for June 2021. 

Last week we got prices for different categories of Britannia balcony suite and today we were told all prices have increased by about 10%.

7 hours ago, Balticdream said:

The difference is that you are facilitating employment  by using an agent.

I am also facilitating employment by using Cunard.

We have sometimes booked with a travel agent and sometimes directly with Cunard.

Since there is almost no difference in price we have decided that from now on we will only book directly with Cunard. It cuts out an extra layer of admin.

When we used our FCC to book a cruise in November 2021 I found the Cunard agent to be helpful, patient and knowledgeable.

Tipping included with Silversea. We have sailed Cunard, Seabourn and Silversea.

We like Cunard and Seabourn but were disappointed with our Silversea cruise and would not sail with Silversea again.

3 hours ago, kentchris said:

Have you checked prices for your voyage on Cunard's web site to see what the going rate is? There's plenty of anecdotal evidence of people transferring bookings to next year, or rebooking to use their FCC, so if demand is strong prices will have risen.

We have just used some of our FCC to book a cruise in November 2021. Prices were lower than a more or less similar cruise this year and there was availability in ALL grades. We are happy we took FCC.

The Carnival share price had increased 25% this week so clearly some people are optimistic cruising will begin again. I think the company wil survive.

We have FCC of £7,500 and have identified itineraries we like in 2021.