Why is NCL still letting you book May/June Canada cruises knowing they won't happen?

[PortFees45]

What am I missing here? Canada said no cruise ships with 500+ pax until July at the earliest, yet right now on NCL's website you can book (at an insanely inflated price) Canadian cruises for May and June?

 

Is there ANY good reason why NCL wouldn't just take down those sailings, aside from hoping uninformed dopes book them?

[luv2kroooz]

No good reason I can think of, but at the end of the day, it's really a moot point. Cruising is shut down for the foreseeable future. Outside of us fanatics here on cc, the general public has no interest in cruising right now. It's already a problem, and it's not likely to resolve anytime soon.

They can market the cruises for $1 and still have very little, if any, interest. The whole travel industry is in big trouble, in my opinion.

[waterjock]

I would think they would welcome cruises booked with final payment due on the cruise.They get to keep the money and issue a FCC for a future cruise. They can assume that Canada might resin their July status if the virus is under control.

[megansdad1]

Yeah, it is a cash grab.  Hoping to get your money to help their bottom line right now

  

[mugtech]

27 minutes ago, PortFees45 said:

What am I missing here? Canada said no cruise ships with 500+ pax until July at the earliest, yet right now on NCL's website you can book (at an insanely inflated price) Canadian cruises for May and June?

Check Royal Caribbean, their cruises that aren't gonna happen going to Canada are very cheap, 11 day to Montreal for $399pp inside cabin, some 7 days for $299pp.

[PortFees45]

26 minutes ago, megansdad1 said:

Yeah, it is a cash grab.  Hoping to get your money to help their bottom line right now

  

Shame on them. 

[mugtech]

3 hours ago, megansdad1 said:

Yeah, it is a cash grab.  Hoping to get your money to help their bottom line right now

  

Getting cash now helps their cash flow, but the deposits and final payments do not become income until the ship sails.  Today it just adds to the current liabilities.

[sanger727]

I think that they are planning on one of two things happening.

1. Things leveling out sooner than expected and Canada changing their policy early or

2. changing the itinerary. So that northeastern coast/Canada cruise just became a Bermuda cruise or the Alaska cruise just became a pacific coast cruise.
 

Is it right for them to keep selling a product that they know they can’t deliver? No, but I do think that if cruising is back up by then they will do everything they can to be sure every cruise that is booked continues to sail. And I do think at this point they believe they will offer a sailing if they can; they just don’t know what it will be yet. Their software probably wouldn’t allow them to offer a cruise to ‘who knows’

Edited March 22, 2020 by sanger727

[tallnthensome]

Like others have said, just looking to get cash coming in. They are also hoping that the average new cruiser isn’t aware of the closure Canada has in place. Funny that they don’t mention that when booking. Uh huh ......

[phillyguy31]

Unfortunately until they actually cancel the cruise it will be offered for sale. If they took it down but didn't say it was canceled then another uproar will be started. How much of a cash grab can it be, since they will have to refund everything once they cancel the cruise. We are talking 3 months and almost no one is looking at booking anything in April or May at this time. I really think the line are hoping that things resume to almost normal by June and Canada removes the restrictions. They are going to play this one month at at time or unless the government says another 60 days then they'll cancel the next 2 months.

[Tutontow]

They need cash

[Named-Tawny]

Looks like all the lines I've checked are still selling Alaska and Canada/New England cruises.  They're probably trying to find a workaround, or hoping that the gov't will change their mind.

I'll say one thing though, I'm really glad that my cruise (in the autumn) has NCL air attached to it as a freebie - if they change my embarcation port, I'll hopefully still be covered

[zqvol]

18 hours ago, PortFees45 said:

What am I missing here? Canada said no cruise ships with 500+ pax until July at the earliest, yet right now on NCL's website you can book (at an insanely inflated price) Canadian cruises for May and June?

 

Is there ANY good reason why NCL wouldn't just take down those sailings, aside from hoping uninformed dopes book them?

Because they anticipate things changing between now and then.

[PortFees45]

35 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Because they anticipate things changing between now and then.

Canada obviously doesn't. They didn't say no cruise ships with 500+ pax until after April. They said July. 

[Loucat]

As time passes and we continue to see changes in Covid 12 in  the New York metro area, I wonder what ports in the US would be willing to accept  a ship to dock that comes from an area with a  high prevalence of Covid . Our sailing is a Canada/NE sailing in late May.

Metro NY pax flying to Florida have to " self quarantine for 14 days" per request of DeSantis. 

Would the current US ports including Bar Harbor, Portland and New Port be willing to have ships dock there?

Canada as already stated will not allow ships to dock until July 1st.

When will NCL stop marketing these cruises and let booked pax know of any changes in ports or if they choose to cancel the sailing? I do not see Bermuda as an option.

I do not see any great improvements on the horizon but will not stop hoping. 

[shof515]

58 minutes ago, Loucat said:

 

Would the current US ports including Bar Harbor, Portland and New Port be willing to have ships dock there?

 

Bar Harbor and Newport is both tender ports. if the weather or sea is bad, they can cancel the port like what they do with the private islands

 

Portland has two cruise piers, the ship can dock at either one if needed

[mugtech]

1 hour ago, Loucat said:

As time passes and we continue to see changes in Covid 12 in  the New York metro area, I wonder what ports in the US would be willing to accept  a ship to dock that comes from an area with a  high prevalence of Covid . Our sailing is a Canada/NE sailing in late May.

Metro NY pax flying to Florida have to " self quarantine for 14 days" per request of DeSantis. 

Would the current US ports including Bar Harbor, Portland and New Port be willing to have ships dock there?

Canada as already stated will not allow ships to dock until July 1st.

When will NCL stop marketing these cruises and let booked pax know of any changes in ports or if they choose to cancel the sailing? I do not see Bermuda as an option.

I do not see any great improvements on the horizon but will not stop hoping. 

Just pulling in a few more dollars while they can.  The fact that Royal and Celebrity suspended all cruises until 5/12/20 and any cruises that include Canada until 7/1/20 is the handwriting on the wall for NCL, just holding on to your cash as long as they can.  RCI still offering refunds in 30 days or less, just filed a few minutes ago, will report back when received.........

[kristinp36]

We are booked on the Joy re-positioning cruise from LA to BC embarking on 04/19. Still being sold yet CA isn't going to allow embarking and BC is not allowing debarking during that time frame.  They are just holding our money hostage hoping we will cancel for FCC instead of waiting for them to cancel so we can get a refund.

[LaCal]

Royal announced total No Alaska or Canda/New England cruises till July now 

 

Carnivals making a new announcement on Friday 

 

I’m sure NCL will as well 

Edited March 25, 2020 by LaCal

[mugtech]

12 minutes ago, LaCal said:

Royal announced total No Alaska or Canda/New England cruises till July now 

 

Carnivals making a new announcement on Friday 

 

I’m sure NCL will as well 

Like politicians sensitive to the news cycles, will wait until the end of the day on Friday.

[momofmab]

Part of this is on the buyer of the May/June cruises.  Anyone who is seeing/reading what is happening with the virus on a day-by-day basis and still thinking that a May/June cruise is happening is kidding themselves.

 

Even if the curve is flattened sometime this summer, there is still a number of months afterward that we will still need to practice social distancing in order to keep the virus from flaring up again.  Cruising has proven to be a rapid spreader of the virus.  Realistically, I don't think you'll see mass market cruising resume for at least a year. 

[DuckTollerFans]

We are booked for a late May cruise to Canada/NE which we know won't happen.  I looked at the rates for our same category and they are $900 more/pp, though with their sale it's "only" $400ish more!  And, we could still book excursions in Canada if desired, or upgrade our room.

 

I can't imagine living in such a vacuum that I would book a cruise to a country whose ports are closed out of a city with such a high rate of infection.  

 

Maybe at the end of February when I booked this I should have had better sense that the virus would spread so far.

[Loucat]

Momofab- I have NO expectation that we need to go anywhere near a ship for some time to come. We cannot even get the social distancing act right on shore.  I do not kid myself over this.  We booked this cruise WAY before there was any concern about Covid 19.

I am a nurse who monitors each state Covid stats as I can volunteer to go to states where nurses are needed.

I posted  early into this and as each week goes by, we see the growing magnitude of the issues in our towns and states.

I just checked the NCL sailings today and I could book the same cruise we planned for May. No change of ports given Canada not allowing ships to dock. I know they want to hang onto our money, but I am wondering if and when NCL will take a position and either cancel our cruise or change the ports that would accept this NYC sailing. 

[mugtech]

3 hours ago, Loucat said:

 No change of ports given Canada not allowing ships to dock. I know they want to hang onto our money, but I am wondering if and when NCL will take a position and either cancel our cruise or change the ports that would accept this NYC sailing. 

Last minute, make you wait longer than RCI, Celebrity, Princess already cancelled into May and expecting a Friday announcement from Carnival.  NCL too busy trying to figure which ships will be used to secure projected bailout loans.

[momofmab]

Loucat-  thank you for your work with those suffering from COVID!

 

I think the cruise lines are trying their best to "stay afloat" during this shutdown and part of the PR in that is giving people hope (albeit false, in my opinion), that cruises will resume in 30 days time.  Some people may feel comforted by seeing cruises listed as active, and being able to physically book them - even though logic tells us that they can't sail to a closed port.  The worst thing they can do is resume cruising before we are absolutely sure that the virus is contained.