MADflyer

The world is upside down. Now the Cadiz paper is quoting a Cruise Critic interview with Ben Bouldin from RCI UK as there source of a possible future contract with Navantia. They state that it is not finalized and decided just yet. 

The note to crew was of more value. 

It will be some time before we know what exactly is happening at drydock. 

https://www.diariodecadiz.es/noticias-provincia-cadiz/coronavirus-Cadiz-Royal-Caribbean-Allure-seas-Navantia_0_1461454267.html

Interview with RCI's Ben Bouldin:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5326/

27 minutes ago, Hawkeye Mark said:

The Majesty of the Seas was seen off Surfside Beach in Texas by a friend of mine who owns a condo there. anyone know where it was going.

Liberty is in port at Galveston now, Majesty will come in to Galveston tomorrow and Enchantment also off the coast. They have been there for a while. 

Finally a confirmation. It appears that Allure will be going to Cadiz sometime after May 20th for the needed drydock. 

I doubt we will get much confirmation soon of what they will be doing, but very happy they are moving forward. 

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Manila airport, NAIA, closed all international flights as of 8 AM Sunday, 5/3/20.  There has been no indication when there will be flights again.  The city is on extreme Luzon Lockdown until at least 5/15/20 and it appears that even if they go to the next level as some of the northern provinces travel will still be restricted.  Good chance anyone getting off a ship will spend 14 days quarantine in local hotels.

Did I catch that US Residents from the Philippines will have to fly to Manila and then at some point in the future get to fly back to the USA? 

I am guessing they might also be taking Celebrity and Azamara crew on the sailings. 

Just like NCL, the ships are probably all going into 'cold layup' for substantial cost reduction during the down time. I am somewhat surprised they did not start the process a bit earlier. 

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

These might be one way TAs:

 

I am going with that this is capacity related as they have analyzed exact numbers needed for a proper social distancing crossing. 

Even if the ships were ever to be transferred to Pullmantur they would still be RCL's problem with fully owned subsidiary. 

Marella with TUI did announce they were taking their oldest vessel out of service permanently and could be a possibility. 

Their biggest challenge is actually going to come on the crew side. I would think most countries might be concerned about these conditions with a global pandemic going on. 

There are Chinese and other  crew that never have passenger above deck contact. There are other cleaners among them that are only allowed up in the middle of the night and then the deck workers that only come up when doing projects or repairs. Many of these reside in 6 bunk cabins on the lowest decks with only shared facilities available in each corridor. 

These conditions allow for an outbreak in crew areas even more easily than in passenger areas of the ships. 

24 minutes ago, bigeck said:

Norwegian is putting 3 ships, Bliss, Encore and the new Spirit in Portsmouth.

Just temp.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/22865-portsmouth-marine-terminal-to-host-trio-of-norwegian-ships.html?fbclid=IwAR3c7N5Uhi--0ZWxzhJapIUIB4YEZO4fY4X3D1YGK-P3OkeI5MKiD7aHNPg

They are going into cold layup for the near future and this will be much less costly overall for the line. 

37 minutes ago, bigeck said:

Have you noticed any changes in Transatlantics at the end of the year. Only Allure and Jewel in Europe.

Not sure if they will send more over just to send them back. Suppose it depends on how much of a summer season they will get.

It does look like Scandinavia will be the fist out of lockdown.

RCI have cancelled everything at Gibraltar except current Anthem and Jewel sailings from July. 

Amsterdam cancelled all cruises until end of June, but while RCI cancelled the 5th of June call they did not cancel the calls for the 12th and 22nd of June. All other lines have cancelled all cruises for June with the port. 

Riviera Ports has no news for this year but can report for next deployment season the Jewel, Vision, Anthem and INDY are booked for summer of 2022. 

Anthem, Jewel and Brilliance still standing bookings at Le Havre 

4 hours ago, LXA350 said:

 

One of their new Hanseatic expedition ships is aimed at a English speaking crowd? Europa 1 or 2 is probably only aimed at a german speaking crowd on all cruises I guess.

Europa2 is now sailing bilingual on all sailings. 

12 hours ago, OHCruisinDad said:

 The port schedules posted above were likely from port reservations requests filed months or even a year ago

Hawaii only releases actual standing bookings and if there is a change or cancellation it is moved or removed. I found the Quantum , Victoria B.C. bookings just a couple of months prior to the release by RCI. I would say these bookings are updated as of February.   

Anything posted on this thread is always subject to change. RCI adapt and re-deploy with great frequency now. 

3 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Any firm bookings for Quantum or Ovation beyond 2021?
 

Can Q class fit through the Panama Canal, more specifically under the bridge.

 

Rumours about Anthem going to Galveston to replace Allure due to the terminal delay.

 

I would have thought that it would make more sense to use Quantum or Ovation and leave Anthem in NJ as they have already released her sailings there for winter 2021 or leave Liberty in Galveston as her winter 2021 itinerary hasn’t been released. 

Victoria. B.C.  had posted through 2023 and are now just showing 2021. Ovation was definitely booked for 2022.

A lot of variables now and assume the offices for port bookings have had layoffs at moment, but do not know. 

6 hours ago, LXA350 said:

 expedition cruise on Hapag Lloyd Cruises would be something.

Hapag Lloyd is actually half owned since February of this year by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. through their joint venture with TUI.

Unless you speak German, you just need to make sure you book a bilingual sailing. 

5 hours ago, later said:

I am satisfied with Royal but would like to do the Norwegian coast line all the way North which means Hurtigruten I guess.

 

Maybe Viking Sea cruses.

If you want to just go to Honningsvag for a North Cape sailing you can do that with Holland American, Princess, MSC, Hapag Lloyd (Europa2 is bilingual) and Seabourn allong with Viking Ocean. 

There is a lot of activity this week for the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, SN Brussels) 

Switzerland has already agreed to bailout. Germany, Austria and Belgium still working on bailout. 

The German $11 billion bailout is set to have Germany take a 25.1% stake in the airline. 

The group states loosing $1.1 million per hour due to pandemic. 

Autumn 2021 restart at the earliest. Normal conditions not expected until 2023

Switched to requiring passenger having own face mask policy from departure terminal entrance to point of exit of arrival terminal.  They eliminated the middle seat vacant policy that was first established. (can not survive with empty seats stated)

Pilots offer 45% reduction in salary for 2 years to keep job security. 

12 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Southwest has a plan inforce now :  "Southwest Promise" 

I will want the social distancing confirmed much longer than June of 2020 to begin planning future travel. 

Southwest promise states: 

We are limiting the number of people onboard each flight to provide Customers more personal space to spread out and there will be no need for the middle seat to be occupied. (Currently through June)

5 minutes ago, squadron said:

Who opens the ports in Hawaii - Federal or State gov"t?     

I think in a public health state of emergency either jurisdiction could influence movements through the ports. Some states even have systems where sets of counties can have more restrictive public health policies than their own state government. 

I have no idea which system internally Hawaii has, but due to it being a set of islands I would assume the islands have some form of autonomy on public health emergency issues and could close or restrict a port if it was viewed as a public health issue. If they have a system like Georgia, then the state would have total control. 

1 hour ago, MichellePerth said:

I love cruising, but I love Australia more.  A lot of Aussie cruisers think that we should have cruising come back in the ANZ bubble.  

It certainly becomes more and more evident of the difficulties that will be facing the cruise industry all the way into 2022 at the minimum. This will become a very challenging couple of years. 

Even certain regions of the USA would like to establish bubbles if they could, but would definitely face legal challenges if an attempt were to be made. It really makes sense that a more limited region can plan and apply restrictions. 

The cruise industry has become so accustomed to limited restrictions and control that it might be a very difficult environment for them to function. 

3 minutes ago, R & T said:

Thank you.  How long  do you think, before Royal will post these sailings?

 

This will be a very difficult year to predict. Cruising in Australia and New Zealand may turn out to be even more restrictive, depending on how things develop. 

6 minutes ago, R & T said:

Is this what you think will happen or is this real.  I could not find it on Royal site.  Thanks

These are all actual bookings with the port, as stated. They would show other Hawaii port bookings, but I only listed the Honolulu bookings. 

23 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

So, if there is no international travel until October, does it make any sense to send ships over for 4-6 weeks?

For RCI it would seem that only Jewel and Allure that are both still in Europe could sail. 

It seems the push is now on to get tourism up and running for September, but still too late to bring in eastbound TAs. 

There is a little news out of Malaga this week. The source so far is a magazine for Swedes and Scandinavians living on the Costa del Sol. They state their source is the Port of Malaga. 

There is a big push for Seatrade Cruise Med to be the first international event in Malaga in September of 2020. The government has been pushing for an October resumption of international travel and the Labor Minister stated last week that there would be no international tourism until the end of the year. 

There seems to be a considerable amount of push back this week both in Spain and at the EU level. 

This event would have over 4000 attendees from the cruise industry, ports and destinations along with the tourism sector.  

https://www.svenskamagasinet.nu/nyhet_15329_de-stora-evenemangen-i-spanien-startar-upp-till-hosten

https://www.seatradecruiseevents.com/med/en/home.html

6 hours ago, mugtech said:

Wondering if anyone knows or has any ideas where Ovation is headed in September, 2021, after the Alaska season?  

Looks like they have all 4 ships currently doing Hawaii. They should all be headed to Australia. 

Honolulu bookings : 

Radiance of the Seas  20 Sept 2021

Ovation of the Seas    28 Sept 2021

Serenade of the Seas  7 Oct  2021

Quantum of the Seas 13 Oct 2021

Add Sweden to the list of countries not expecting tourism in the summer. 

PM states the he does not expect domestic or international tourism to be able to take place in the summer months. That is another country pushing all tourism to October at the earliest. 

According to Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, it can be difficult to make trips this summer because of the corona crisis - both foreign and domestic.  (google translate) 

https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/stefan-lofven-osannolikt-att-det-gar-att-resa-i-sommar/