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When are you willing to sail again on a Celebrity ship?  

571 members have voted

  1. 1. Are you optimistic/pessimistic that Celebrity will return to "normal" by Jan 1 2021

  2. 2. When are you sailing on Celebrity again?



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9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I get the impression that CC doesn't want anything posted that could hurt the cruise industry???

 

You may very well be correct.  However, that's very short-sighted IMHO.  Open and honest discussions that allow for differing opinions and points of view will do nothing to hurt the industry and will make this a better place for those who want balanced and honest information - and not just useless head-in-the-sand pollyanna puff posting. 

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1 hour ago, hcat said:

 Happy Cruiser.....I reached out to you on Summit (cancelled cruise ) roll call  because we are looking into MSC for the future....hope you can help guide us a bit. Heard they have better cust service than X.

 

We filed our credit card dispute today.  Rep said many others are filing for Royal and Celeb unreturned deposits...,same issue.  Cancelled cruises were  removed from our Cruise inventory  yet alleged refunds are not back on the card  Celeb will not give us written canc confirmation or processing data for the refunds,  Card co will investigate.

 

To build their business back up post covid they will have to instill CONFIDENCE in Customer relations.

 

 

Actually, MSC has horrendous customer service.  My long-term TA almost fired me when she had to book two cruises for me on them.  I promised her never again.  The onboard experience in Yacht Club is excellent, however.  In many ways, superior to the suite experience on Celebrity.  I wrote a review after my first YC cruise in 2018.  I currently have another YC cruise booked for this November.  Through another TA who books a lot of MSC.  Even she says their customer service is horrible.  Will see if that's a go or not.

 

I will wait a bit before filing disputes with AmEx.  I do have written confirmation from my TA and her rep at Celebrity that my 3 cruises have been cancelled, the request for a refund is in the works, and that the FCCs I used on those cruises will be re-issued with December 31, 2021 expiration dates.  I'm giving Celebrity a chance to make good on their word.

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14 minutes ago, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

 

Actually, MSC has horrendous customer service.  My long-term TA almost fired me when she had to book two cruises for me on them.  I promised her never again.  The onboard experience in Yacht Club is excellent, however.  In many ways, superior to the suite experience on Celebrity.  I wrote a review after my first YC cruise in 2018.  I currently have another YC cruise booked for this November.  Through another TA who books a lot of MSC.  Even she says their customer service is horrible.  Will see if that's a go or not.

 

I will wait a bit before filing disputes with AmEx.  I do have written confirmation from my TA and her rep at Celebrity that my 3 cruises have been cancelled, the request for a refund is in the works, and that the FCCs I used on those cruises will be re-issued with December 31, 2021 expiration dates.  I'm giving Celebrity a chance to make good on their word.

Thanks for the info. Sorry to hear  re cust svc.

Best cust service we had was with Cunard and Princess but never had a cancellation issue. Also prefer their websites!

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RCL has been involved in many positive results in Australia and sadly, deaths of otherwise healthy people here. Princess of course has been much worse, with 10 deaths from one ship and over 400 positive infections. I don't expect to see any cruiseline being allowed to enter Australia until at least 2021. They are all tainted now.  They will have a lot of marketing to to and currently there is an enquiry as to why Ruby Princess was allowed to berth in Sydney recently. It has caused widespread havoc and death in Australia in the last 2 weeks. People don't stop to think which cruiseline - it is all cruiselines. 

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47 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Carnival Corp, who controls ~45% of the market, paint a pretty clear picture of their expectations in their latest SEC filing. It's not really pretty.

 

https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html

 

"We currently estimate the substantial majority of our fleet will be in prolonged ship layup.  In addition, we expect to incur ongoing selling and administrative expenses, and incremental COVID-related costs associated with sanitizing our ships and defending lawsuits, although we anticipate substantially reducing our advertising spend during 
 

 
the pause in operations. After transitioning to a prolonged pause, we anticipate estimated ongoing ship and administrative operating costs to range from $200 million to $300 million per month."

 

"substantial majority of fleet" ... "prolonged ship layup."

 

The specific details about short- and mid-term cruising aren't clear, but there's a very obvious big picture here. And these are Carnival's words.

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9 minutes ago, Pushka said:

RCL has been involved in many positive results in Australia and sadly, deaths of otherwise healthy people here. Princess of course has been much worse, with 10 deaths from one ship and over 400 positive infections. I don't expect to see any cruiseline being allowed to enter Australia until at least 2021. They are all tainted now.  They will have a lot of marketing to to and currently there is an enquiry as to why Ruby Princess was allowed to berth in Sydney recently. It has caused widespread havoc and death in Australia in the last 2 weeks. People don't stop to think which cruiseline - it is all cruiselines. 


Widespread havoc?  What is going on?  Looting?

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17 minutes ago, zitsky said:


Widespread havoc?  What is going on?  Looting?

30% of all our Covid deaths in Australia have come directly from cruises that ported into Australia. 
 

This is occurrence rate (Australia has One of the the highest per capita test rate in the world). I'll try find similar for deaths. The light blue from 12 - 4 represents positive results from all cruise ship passengers. 


EB0C3EAF-7C6A-4B9A-958F-0E7895FB579C.thumb.jpeg.0a657c07a2bc84aeadfb99939fcfe264.jpeg

 

Edited by Pushka
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44 minutes ago, EscapeFromConnecticut said:

 

"We currently estimate the substantial majority of our fleet will be in prolonged ship layup.  In addition, we expect to incur ongoing selling and administrative expenses, and incremental COVID-related costs associated with sanitizing our ships and defending lawsuits, although we anticipate substantially reducing our advertising spend during 
 

 
the pause in operations. After transitioning to a prolonged pause, we anticipate estimated ongoing ship and administrative operating costs to range from $200 million to $300 million per month."

 

"substantial majority of fleet" ... "prolonged ship layup."

 

The specific details about short- and mid-term cruising aren't clear, but there's a very obvious big picture here. And these are Carnival's words.

I think this is the entire industry in a nutshell.

Expect 100+ ships worldwide to be sitting not utilized for most of 2020.  If you are thinking of sailing anytime this summer, I would begin to make alternate plans.

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On 4/3/2020 at 12:40 PM, JanineM said:

We were supposed to board on Sunday. And yes, I think cruising will be different but so will everything else!

 

My husband and I talked about it the other night. We're prepared to book a cruise for the fall. 

 

Right now people need to continue to dream and plan. That's how my mom and her family of prairie dirt farmers got through the Depression. They always knew things would get better ... they did then and they will now. 

You are correct.  Just like how things changed after 9/11.  We all adapted to it and now going thru security, no liquids, etc are all second nature to us. 

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Your unabashedly provocative thread starter has certainly led to a great deal of good discussion and thoughtful commentary. I have enjoyed it. When I read #10 on your list I thought to myself that we Canadians really ARE foreigners although we share a continent. I'll leave it to all individuals to decide if this is a good thing or not. There will be a new normal when we get back to cruising, but I haven't given up on it yet and am looking forward to 2021. 

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5 hours ago, Host Anne said:

 

Following the news is everyone's first mistake.....I promised myself I will not say anything negative at this point in time....but there have been SO many inaccurate reports in the media that I am truly not watching/reading any of them at this point.

 

Lives are at stake here, especially the the friend and families of those who've disembarked.  I'm sure any news outlet that makes up a story about an infected ship, will be pressured to quickly retract.  This is no time to be uninformed.

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47 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Lives are at stake here, especially the the friend and families of those who've disembarked.  I'm sure any news outlet that makes up a story about an infected ship, will be pressured to quickly retract.  This is no time to be uninformed.

 

There are many, many ways today to "be informed."  The mainstream media isn't the way I chose to stay informed.

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2 hours ago, calicakes said:

Just like how things changed after 9/11.  We all adapted to it and now going thru security, no liquids, etc are all second nature to us.

Not just C19. Don't forget the global recession coming soon.

Edited by OuiOnboard
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I have a friend that was on the Grand Princess and I read his emails as they floated off the coast of California. I was especially sobered when one of the last emails discussed running out of food before the ship docked in Oakland. 

I turn 70 in July, and yes, I had a cruise scheduled for mid-July. It's with Fred Olsen and they aren't especially customer friendly. I have until June 1 to choose an alternate cruise to apply my deposit or I lose the deposit. I've lost more money in the last few weeks than the deposit, so the deposit may be lost. I doubt if it will be clear what the state of the world will be in June. 

I live in New York City and we are watching the tragedies of 2020 unfold a few miles from home. I hope to be able to ride the subway again for my birthday and my travel goal for 2020 is to leave New York State. 

As I remember 1987, I think it's way too early to buy any stock to hold.  

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On 4/3/2020 at 3:50 PM, EscapeFromConnecticut said:

yet some folks on CC are still asking if the June cruises will sail. I suspect most of them are the same ones who dismissed real news reports of this virus in January and February (and dear God, even into March) with the witless "Fake News!" and "lamestream media hype!" replies. They swallowed the lies.

 

It appears to be that you are quite correct - not only on CC, but throughout the US too.  Personally, I believe the medical experts who saw this early and said this is not just like the flu and that it's now going to be a long time before we're through this.

 

We have a transatlantic scheduled on the Apex  starting in late October.  We'll be cancelling that before final payment is due in July.

Edited by 1SGCruiser
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1 hour ago, Host Anne said:

 

There are many, many ways today to "be informed."  The mainstream media isn't the way I chose to stay informed.

 

There are more than one.  Take your pick.

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Not sure if other countries have got the same message from X. Wonder if it is just routine maintenance or something more? 
Then when I try to go further, get the second screen.

CF55A5B5-01D9-4A0D-B55E-840713D72793.jpeg

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Edited by downsmead
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14 hours ago, Argo. said:

Is the Miami Herald more accurate concerning events in Florida ?1E886C37-17AC-4A6B-AC58-82ABFA2EC6AC.thumb.jpeg.dc392864152af8e81f338bca6468ca59.jpeg

 

 

Yes, he said that and yet they took the time while Zaandam sailed north to figure out how to do it and they docked just three hours late.   In addition a 3rd ship, Coral Princess, docked in Miami yesterday with 2 dead and many ill on board.  So Florida has taken them all in once a plan gets worked out.  Publishing only the original statements and not what happened in the 3 days after while a plan to bring them in at Ft Lauderdale is an injustice to Florida.  We have 11,500 cases the vast majority in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and W.Palm Beach.  Completely understandable that a plan had to be in place to bring these ships in, and it was and they did. 

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9 hours ago, 1SGCruiser said:

 

It appears to be that you are quite correct - not only on CC, but throughout the US too.  Personally, I believe the medical experts who saw this early and said this is not just like the flu and that it's now going to be a long time before we're through this.

 

We have a transatlantic scheduled on the Apex  starting in late October.  We'll be cancelling that before final payment is due in July.

Last month, we cancelled an APEX  Carib cruise  for Nov.  Still waiting for refund of our deposit .....as well as a partial refund for a May Summit cruise we also cancelled.  We  should  have waited a bit on that as the cruise was cancelled by X with a 100% refund.

 

Our realistic target for cruising would be early 2021... but alot can happen before that..even as the crisis slows. 

 

 

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Hi Argo,

As a fellow Canadian, you may find this article of interest:

Cash-strapped Royal Caribbean draws down its revolving credit lines as coronavirus pandemic tests the cruise industry

 

One of the credit lines is from ScotiaBank!!

To read it do a copy and paste. It's from CNBC and likely not "fake news"

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This quote from a NYT discussion with medical folks is prescient.  Its going to be a relatively long time before any form of cruising returns.  Best optimistic scenario for a vaccine is Spring 2021 and that doesn't include the time to produce and deliver 7.7 billion doses nor does it take into account the "anti-vaxers."

 

"Even when the number of new cases starts to fall, travel barriers and bans in many places may persist until a vaccine or treatment is found." 

 

This is the new reality.  

Edited by Ride-The-Waves
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