peter grant

It's pretty close to impossible to predict what the situation will be by December, but you can bet on two things: rules will be relaxed or non-existent by then (unless there's a serious Covid upsurge) and the more Americans on the cruise, the more relaxed the rules. We cruised to Alaska on HAL in September: all service staff were masked at all times, virtually all passengers masked up when not sitting down, you had to be fully vaccinated and a pre-cruise antigen test was required. But that's all changed now. Personally, I'd buy the best cancellation protection I could find, because if I can't feel safe I won't want to go. Holland America had cut costs (particularly food costs) and jacked up prices; I'd be surprised if other lines aren't in a similar mode.