Simple Poll - When Will You Cruise Again

[mrlevin]

1 minute ago, CBWIR said:

With all your incessant criticism of Regent on several boards, guess you will never sail Regent again. 

 

This couldn't be farther from the truth; I still have 106 nights booked with plans to book the 2023 world cruise.  I have not criticized Regent, I have been criticizing NCLH.  

 

Marc

[1982CruzStart]

22 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Sounds as if he has CLL (which is thought to be the best form of the disease since it can go on indefinitely).  My sister has it and did one round a couple of years ago and is doing fine now.  Soon the treatment will be over and you can resume cruising.  Just stay healthy!🙏

You're right it is CLL. I stupidly hoped that after his first round of treatments  and everything was fine for almost 10 years that maybe he had beat it. Just before the 10 year anniversary of ending his treatments, his blood work once again indicated he would need to start treatments again.  I am extremely grateful that it is this type of cancer and that the threat of death from the disease or invasive treatments doesn't exist. 

[jeb_bud]

On 3/29/2020 at 12:12 PM, labonnevie said:

We are scheduled for a short 10 day LA to LA cruise to Mexico on the Mariner in October. No flights for us and largely paid for by the fcc's we received when the Navigator ran aground in Bali in 2018. 

If this pandemic has settled down by then, we'll be on it. Fully expecting it will be ok by then, but who knows?

Also booked an October 2021 Rome to Abu Dhabi to replace the April 16th cruise this is yet to be canceled (expect this week). 

We’re booked on the LA to LA cruise also. If it goes we will go. Otherwise our vote changes to “next year”. 

[pappy1022]

Well, I cancelled my September 2020 cruise today (before my final payment and penalties were due) to the British Isles after seeing that Wimbledon was cancelled (July) and the military tattoo in Edinburgh (August) has also been cancelled. Those are 2 huge events. Other industries recognize that this virus isn't going away any time soon and may even come back in the fall. The cruise industry is in a tough spot and they keep sliding the start back date. I wasn't going to wait any longer and hopefully Regent survives (and I get my deposit back) but this is unchartered waters for everyone. I will wait until at least 2021 to book another cruise and see if this beast comes back late fall/winter. Life has changed for a long time. Keep safe, keep your distance and helpsomeone in need,

[jhenry1]

Pappy,

We live in Georgetown.   I also noticed that mrlevin lives in Georgetown.  I wish regent would add Austin to the gateway list.  Many times we pay the deviation fee and try our best to not have to drive from here to Houston or Dallas.

Hope everyone stays safe and here's hoping our Dec. Africa cruise will take place.  Final payment is due in early Aug so maybe will know more by then.

[pappy1022]

I don't blame you for waiting. My final payment was due early May so I decided to pull the trigger and cancel because I don't think thongs will get better by then.

[Roger88]

Well, I am not rushing at all. We canceled our Alaska tour not that long ago and now we are just saving for 2021. Trust me, there will be good deals pretty soon. We are planning on catching such a deal and enjoy our cruise next year. Those of you who has laready cancelled their cruises, please dont rush. You will have plenty of time to decide on the cruise you and save enough money to enjoy with your family. If you plan to cancel, dont hesitate and cancel as soon as possible. Its better to be with cash at the moment

 

 

[Travelcat2]

4 hours ago, Roger88 said:

Well, I am not rushing at all. We canceled our Alaska tour not that long ago and now we are just saving for 2021. Trust me, there will be good deals pretty soon. We are planning on catching such a deal and enjoy our cruise next year. Those of you who has laready cancelled their cruises, please dont rush. You will have plenty of time to decide on the cruise you and save enough money to enjoy with your family. If you plan to cancel, dont hesitate and cancel as soon as possible. Its better to be with cash at the moment

 

 

 

I'm curious why you cancelled your cruise if it will likely be cancelled?  Isn't it better to get cash back (or 125% FCC''s) from Regent if they cancel?

 

Also, I'm not sure that there will be that many "deals" on Regent.  Regent has so many ways of enticing people to book without discounting fares.  Before discounting anything, they would likely offer passengers already booked the ability to add on the cruise before or after theirs at a substantial discount.  When Regent discounted fares in Europe a few years ago, the results were not great.  They were able to get one-time cruisers onto Regent but it was unlikely that some of the passengers would ever book again (due to the "normal" cost of Regent cruises).  Also, sometimes people think that they want to sail on a luxury cruise line but do not do the research.  They could end up finding Regent too sedate, few or no children/families (except during the summer), and certainly not as much to do as on premium cruise lines.  

 

So, in my opinion, it is best for Regent not to discount cruises (or if they do, perhaps the discount should be for former Regent cruisers only).  This would help Regent keep their loyal customers and they know that the people they are discounting to will likely book another cruise.

[Dolebludger]

According to what has been on CNBC’s website, it is their opinion thar cruise lines will HAVE TO lower their prices after the cruise ban is over. They will have no choice other than sail at less than profitable passenger load. Now this is only the opinion of one financial writer, not set in stone. But we recall after 9-11 deals were abundant. There should have been less rational fear then. Ships weren’t involved in that tragedy. Airlines were things most of us have to use to get to a cruise. As we went to several airports then to get to our cruise, we found them guarded by the military with machine guns. How secure can one get? Now, there is a real fear that the virus will abate, then come back even worse. This virus spreads in crowded conditions. Like the conditions that can exist in airports and on airlines. And if most people have to use them to get to a cruise, their concern is legitimate. And since the virus has spread on crowded conditions on cruise ships, many people fear them. Most people don’t know that there are no crowded conditions on Regent ships, so they will fear Regent too. A fare reduction by all lines will be required to get bookings long after the pandemic is over. The fares had generally become too high for anything but a poor itinerary on a poor line, in an inside cabin anyway. So it is time for a correction, which will come.

[Travelcat2]

Not sure how any television station could put all cruise lines together as if they are all the same.  Surely they are not.  I suspect that what mainstream cruise lines do to get passengers to return would be very different than what Regent would do.  Heck, I do not even expect NCL to do the same thing as Oceania or Regent.

 

Regent rarely discounts.  They have other methods to fill their ships.  You also need to consider that there are thousands of Regent passengers whose cruises were cancelled and they decided to take the FCC’s (like we did).  So, once all of these passengers book cruise in 2020 and 2021, Regent will likely not need to do much to fill their ships.

[sanne]

1 hour ago, Travelcat2 said:

Not sure how any television station could put all cruise lines together as if they are all the same.  Surely they are not.  I suspect that what mainstream cruise lines do to get passengers to return would be very different than what Regent would do.  Heck, I do not even expect NCL to do the same thing as Oceania or Regent.

 

Regent rarely discounts.  They have other methods to fill their ships.  You also need to consider that there are thousands of Regent passengers whose cruises were cancelled and they decided to take the FCC’s (like we did).  So, once all of these passengers book cruise in 2020 and 2021, Regent will likely not need to do much to fill their ships.

Unfortunately you have a short memory. 
 

Regent sailed with ships less than half full in 2009...I know, I was on one of those cruises. Plus they discounted certain cruises heavily when Ebola struck..

 again I know, we were on one of them. Many people cancelled so they just kept dropping the price til it was almost half the original pricing. 

 

Of course Regent will discount if they need to fill their ships just as they have in the past. And the sort of passengers they attract will not matter to them at that time, they just need paying passengers. 

 

At the moment it may look like all those passengers with FCC are rushing to book later this year and the next but I am suggesting that there will be many who already have bookings who will not be paying their final payment when it falls due, with all the uncertainty that will be with us well into 2021. We have already cancelled our 2020 and 2021 bookings. 
 

We are long time Regent cruisers with many hundreds of days of cruising with them. We are very sad that it will be a very long time before we will be cruising again if in fact Regent survive. I fear many in the tourism industry will not be here when it finally becomes safe to travel again. 
 

At the end of the day we all have wonderful memories of our Regent cruises and can pray and hope that at some time in the future we can return to Regent to relive some of those great memories. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Travelcat2]

sanne - nothing is wrong with my memory.  I can go back to 2004 with Radisson.  However, 2009 was two owners ago.  Things have changed (a lot and for the better IMHO).  Regent, under current ownership, has discounted a bit but mostly extends cruises for passengers at a discount or ups the benefits.  The only mistake (again, in my opinion) was when they heavily discounted cruises to people in the U.K.  

[sanne]

Ebola cruises were late 2015. Was that with previous owners, I don’t follow that. 

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, sanne said:

Ebola cruises were late 2015. Was that with previous owners, I don’t follow that. 

 

I do not recall big discounts during the time of Ebola.  What I do recall is that passengers did not wat to visit certain countries in Africa and Regent accommodated them.  What discounts were offered?

 

 

[UUNetBill]

10 hours ago, sanne said:

Unfortunately you have a short memory. 
 

Regent sailed with ships less than half full in 2009...I know, I was on one of those cruises. Plus they discounted certain cruises heavily when Ebola struck..

 again I know, we were on one of them. Many people cancelled so they just kept dropping the price til it was almost half the original pricing. 

 

Of course Regent will discount if they need to fill their ships just as they have in the past. And the sort of passengers they attract will not matter to them at that time, they just need paying passengers. 

The 'cruise deals' that were advertised back around '08 and '09 were what got my wife and I into Regent in the first place.  She read an article that said if you'd ever considered cruising, now was the time.  So we started looking into it.  Ended up booking Regent Navigator to the Med for a week.

 

As I recall, that cruise ran us somewhere around $7,000 per person.  In 2009.  With coach airfare included.  The cruise we just booked to the Med for May was around $8,000 per person.  With Business Class airfare included.  Figuring for inflation, this cruise was actually less expensive than our first one, especially when you add in the air upgrade.

 

So I don't know if there were huge deals in 2009, but if there were, I didn't find them.  Oh, and Navigator was sailing pretty close to capacity if I remember correctly.

 

Bottom line is the price will be set at whatever the market will bear, plain and simple.  Prices too high, people don't sail, cruise line goes belly up.  Prices too low, even full ships don't generate enough profit to maintain the fleet, cruise line goes belly up.  It's a fine line, and flexible.

[Dolebludger]

Yes, we too never found any cruise “bargains” in ‘08 or ‘09. When we did find them was soon after 9-11. And indeed, nobody really knows if there will be bargains when cruising resumes. Maybe yes (due to the stock market decline and continuing fear) and maybe no (due to pent up demand). There are two conflicting economic drivers at work here, and nobody can predict which will prevail. 

[dreamercruise]

I voted not until a vaccine is available, even if I have to pay higher fare for both cruises and air.

Some side questions for those who plan to cruise before a vaccine is available - do you expect your government to send a ship and/or plane to transport you back to your home country?  If so, do you expect someone (govt or taxpayers or cruiseline) other than yourself and/insurance to pay for expenses of evacuation and medical expenses outside of your home country?

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, dreamercruise said:

I voted not until a vaccine is available, even if I have to pay higher fare for both cruises and air.

Some side questions for those who plan to cruise before a vaccine is available - do you expect your government to send a ship and/or plane to transport you back to your home country?  If so, do you expect someone (govt or taxpayers or cruiseline) other than yourself and/insurance to pay for expenses of evacuation and medical expenses outside of your home country?

 

One thing you won't have to worry about if air since it is included.  I also doubt if cruise fares on luxury lines will increase (based on Regent's previous quarterly increases on some cruises).  We did notice that there was no increase March 31st.  

 

I don't think that anyone expects Regent to pay for evacuation or medical expenses (whether inside or outside of our home countries).  

[Gray Eagle02]

23 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

One thing you won't have to worry about if air since it is included.  I also doubt if cruise fares on luxury lines will increase (based on Regent's previous quarterly increases on some cruises).  We did notice that there was no increase March 31st.  

 

I don't think that anyone expects Regent to pay for evacuation or medical expenses (whether inside or outside of our home countries).  

 

23 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

One thing you won't have to worry about if air since it is included.  I also doubt if cruise fares on luxury lines will increase (based on Regent's previous quarterly increases on some cruises).  We did notice that there was no increase March 31st.  

 

I don't think that anyone expects Regent to pay for evacuation or medical expenses (whether inside or outside of our home countries).  

The government required both Holland America an Princess to provide both chartered air and private transport home to all passengers on the most recent ships docked in Miami. These conditions ( set by CDC)were agreed upon prior to docking. The Coast Guard refused to medivac very ill patients and required ships to clear all emergency evacuations prior to contracting private agencies. Maybe the cruise lines will bill individuals but since these were the conditions set to allow docking, I doubt they can collect. The passengers had no input into these decisions.
 I think all the old rules may go to the wayside. There is simply no way to predict what will happen. But one thing is for sure. It won’t be as it was.

The virus will not go away and the vaccine is at least 12-18 months away. The head of Infectious Disease at NIH (Tony Fauci) has said once it comes on line it will have limited availability and will initially go tho health care workers, then very high risk personnel. For most of us were looking availability at maybe 24 months. 

[ronrick1943]

For us, as soon as "we" think it's safe to cruise again.

[Travelcat2]

Marc - thank you for the information about fare increases.  We had not seen their normal “ads” stating that we had better book because prices were going up effective 3/31/2020.

 

I think that we should discuss the “vaccine” so I’ll start another thread.

[labonnevie]

FYI, we booked the October 2021 Rome to Abu Dhabi Voyager cruise to replace the just cancelled April 16 Abu Dhabi to Rome (changed to Athens) cruise. We used the onboard booking program available within 30 days of embarkation.

The two cruises have virtually the same itinerary (both 20 days), we booked the same category. Even using the onboard booking savings, we are paying about $950 pp more for the 2021 cruise. So no price reduction there.

If the prices go down we do have price protection from the onboard booking.

We shall see what happens.

[greykitty]

5 hours ago, dreamercruise said:

I voted not until a vaccine is available, even if I have to pay higher fare for both cruises and air.

Some side questions for those who plan to cruise before a vaccine is available - do you expect your government to send a ship and/or plane to transport you back to your home country?  If so, do you expect someone (govt or taxpayers or cruiseline) other than yourself and/insurance to pay for expenses of evacuation and medical expenses outside of your home country?

I think any of the first cruises out should have passengers signing in virtual blood that they understand they will not receive repatriation from their governments and that all expenses will need to be paid by themselves.  Especially if any cruise line is foolhardy to set sail before verified, legitimate medical treatments and/or vaccines are available.  

 

And, maybe more than time that crew receive compensation more in line with their duties and risks - based on US salaries, since the cruise lines seem to like to headquarter here at least.

[Travelcat2]

4 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

For us, as soon as "we" think it's safe to cruise again.

 

Rick - please know that the question is being asked very respectfully.  Are you waiting for a vaccine or waiting to see when you feel that it is safe to cruise agaiN?  Based on your post, I am assuming that you are not waiting for a vaccine.

 

For those waiting for a vaccine, cruise lines would likely go bankrupt before a vaccine is approved in the U.S. If another country developed a safe alternative to whatever the U.S. comes up with, we would have no problem flying to that country to get the vaccine.

[dreamercruise]

1 hour ago, greykitty said:

I think any of the first cruises out should have passengers signing in virtual blood that they understand they will not receive repatriation from their governments and that all expenses will need to be paid by themselves.  Especially if any cruise line is foolhardy to set sail before verified, legitimate medical treatments and/or vaccines are available.  

 

And, maybe more than time that crew receive compensation more in line with their duties and risks - based on US salaries, since the cruise lines seem to like to headquarter here at least.

I asked the question, because I think it is unfair for cruisers to expect someone else (such as taxpayers) to pay for their risk taking decision.  I like your idea of the cruiseline making a rule for the passengers to bear the expenses.  Perhaps, the rule would encourage more people to stay quarantined at home and help stop the spread of the virus.  As much as I sympathize the cruise industry and staff for loss of revenue and jobs, I feel very sorry for the hospital workers, public transportation workers, and all those who are potentially exposed to the virus due to infected cruise passengers.

When the danger of Coronavirus is over, I expect the cruise fare to be higher, and am willing to pay the higher price.  After all, the cruiselines need to recuperate the loss from the virus disruption.  Just hope that the cruiselines can hold on longer and stay in business.