Princess suspends all cruises for 60 days

[caribill]

Ports that currently have restrictions on cruise ships.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5097/

[Skai]

There are people still considering cruising right now?

[AF-1]

Unless things calm down by May; I don't see river or ocean cruises starting up until at least Aug/Sep.  I may be wrong but it seems like that is probable.  

[springfire]

3 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

Unless things calm down by May; I don't see river or ocean cruises starting up until at least Aug/Sep.  I may be wrong but it seems like that is probable.  

Far from probable, very likely this situation will last much longer.

[AF-1]

springfire,  based on reading about China cases (where the virus began),  they are down to single digit cases.  Their first case was in Nov and this is Mar.  They have twice the people than we do.  So I am optimistic.  

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

springfire,  based on reading about China cases (where the virus began),  they are down to single digit cases.  Their first case was in Nov and this is Mar.  They have twice the people than we do.  So I am optimistic.  

then August 1 to resume cruising might be realistic/optimistic  - hurricane season … 

[AF-1]

voljeep,  hurricane season in the caribbean;  but not europe or alaska

[Coral]

8 minutes ago, voljeep said:

then August 1 to resume cruising might be realistic/optimistic  - hurricane season … 

There is more to cruising than the Caribbean.

[voljeep]

27 minutes ago, Coral said:

There is more to cruising than the Caribbean.

yes - west coast cruises also - forgot about those 

 

and all depends on what ports open , when

 

Do you think all cruises to all ports will be open at the same time … or a organized rollout by cruising regions ?

[Jetstreamer]

Logged into my 16th May Japan cruise today and it says cruise has been cancelled (although is still for sale on the website).  Don't know whether they are just cancelling DP cruises right now or whether a sign of more widespread cancellations to come.

 

I imagine the latter as I can't see anyone cruising in May in any part of the world.

[cruisegal415]

11 hours ago, caribill said:

 

What "hope" involves (besides the ship actually cruising again):

a) Airlines flying again from USA to the UK

b) Ports on that itinerary allowing cruise ships again

Exactly. And excursions happening assuming tourist places are open. We have a May 28 cruise to British Isles with non-princess booked air to London May 24 and excursions to castles and other popular places (Guinness Storehouse). England has already announced the Beatles Private Homes tours are cancelled till June 30th.  The question is, even if Princess is cruising May 28, will we be able to fly to London (travel restrictions)? Will the flight be cancelled or moved? (Our flight from Fort Lauderdale to JFK in April has been changed three times and will probably be cancelled). Will we be able to see any of our planned sites? Windsor Castle, Edinburgh Castle and most others are closed “until further notice”. 
 

I’ve been playing the waiting game since we have non-refundable hotel reservations and I read my travel insurance which does not cover pandemics so we may be out the air fare too.  I think we would be in a better position to cancel the air, hotel and excursions if the cruise cancels, but even if it doesn’t, I don’t want to take the cruise if the whole point of the trip was to see the sites which may be closed. 

Edited March 23, 2020 by cruisegal415
Typo

[Ken the cruiser]

Here's an interesting scenario. We have a 16 day Princess cruise booked in July 2020, a 30 day cruise booked in October 2020, a 16 day cruise booked in Jan 2021 and a 21 day cruise booked in July 2021. If we make full payment on the July 2020 cruise and it is subsequently cancelled, we plan to use the 125% FCC refund to help pay for the Oct 2020 cruise.

 

Now taking this scenario one step further. If our October 2020 cruise, which includes 2 ports in China with one being our Shanghai disembarkation port where we fly home, is also cancelled, we plan on using the resulting 125% FCC to completely pay for our Jan 2021 cruise and roll any of the remaining "accumulated" FCC refund over to our July 2021 cruise. 

 

Since we booked all of these cruises in 2019, do you think Princess is going to give us the full 125% FCC on each of these two 2020 "cancelled" cruises even though part of the Oct 2020 cruise was paid for using the extra 25% FCC perk we got from the cancelled Jul 2020 cruise for not taking a cash refund?

 

My guess is no one really knows what Princess or for that matter this pandemic is going to do, but I thought is was an interesting scenario to think about.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[Aus Traveller]

Ken, I think it will work out the way you have outlined in the first two paragraphs of your post.

[AF-1]

 Ken,  if Princess cancels the July cruise; the FCC amount is good for a year; so you could apply it to any of the other cruises.

Edited March 24, 2020 by AF-1

[susancruzs]

I'm thinking along the same lines.  My Grand Adventure on the Sky is Aug./Sept., if canceled close to the leave date I'll put the FCC towards my Enchanted 35 day TA + Med cruise.  I don't want to cancel but really have to see how this goes.

[springfire]

We have a 25 day med/TA cruise scheduled on the Enchanted for October 25.  I am becoming more concerned about this cruise and now believe Princess will likely cancel this cruise.  The ship being built in northern Italy is mostly done but she sits empty, as all the workers continue to stay home by Gov't orders.  Not really worried about my cruise but more about the people.

[cltnccruisers]

1 hour ago, springfire said:

We have a 25 day med/TA cruise scheduled on the Enchanted for October 25.  I am becoming more concerned about this cruise and now believe Princess will likely cancel this cruise.  The ship being built in northern Italy is mostly done but she sits empty, as all the workers continue to stay home by Gov't orders.  Not really worried about my cruise but more about the people.

We rescheduled our April on Regal to December on Enchanted.  Thanks for the info on her being built in Italy.  We'll have to keep an eye on it.  Good luck.

[sunonfire]

This is very concerning.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-found-on-diamond-princess-surfaces-17-days-later/

[jennybenny]

19 minutes ago, sunonfire said:

This is very concerning.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-found-on-diamond-princess-surfaces-17-days-later/

Google how long does norovirus last on surfaces

It's about two weeks. I didn't realize it was that long before either. 

[richsea]

Here’s a link to an article in Seatrade Cruise News which goes into more detail without the hyperbole of the NY Post. At the end of the article is a link to the CDC report.

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/print/38509

[K.T.B.]

On 3/23/2020 at 7:36 AM, AF-1 said:

Unless things calm down by May; I don't see river or ocean cruises starting up until at least Aug/Sep.  I may be wrong but it seems like that is probable.  

Selfishly speaking,  August 1 would be perfect.  My cruise leaves on the 9th.

 

But I'd rather have a cancelled cruise and a 100% chance of not catching COVID-19 than a cruise and a "small chance".

[AF-1]

That article is eye opening;  keep the faith

[Cruise Raider]

2 hours ago, sunonfire said:

This is very concerning.

 

https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-found-on-diamond-princess-surfaces-17-days-later/

 

If you look at the actual CDC report, it states:

 

SARS-CoV-2 RNA was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated on the Diamond Princess but before disinfection procedures had been conducted (Takuya Yamagishi, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, personal communication, 2020). Although these data cannot be used to determine whether transmission occurred from contaminated surfaces, further study of fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 aboard cruise ships is warranted.

 

It definitely did not conclude the RNA virus was viable or transmissible after all that time.  These journalists love sensationalism and scare tactics .... I would much rather count on the conclusions of epidemiologists on this.