Cruise Critic News: Carnival Cruise Line Limits Capacity on Select Voyages in May and June

[Butterbean1000]

4 hours ago, LadySpoilt said:

While I am sure there are many people that are happy with this scenario and are still wanting to go in May, I am not one of them. I hope Carnival at least gives those of us that are scheduled on one of the first cruises out the opportunity to cancel.  Not interested in being "one of the first" to still go with things as they are.  Also for those with jobs that have been out of work, this will probably be occurring just as some are to return to work.  I am quite sure that many employers are not going to find this acceptable.  And lastly while I do agree that they may/will make a really big effort to contain and control any contagions, with the virus still being quite active in the world there is virtually no way to totally accomplish this.  I want to be able to enjoy my vacation, not continually worrying if I am going to be confined, that only a limited number of people can attend something  (what do you do line up outside of whatever venue to see if we can get in, a ship that is probably not totally staffed or worse yet quarantined because someone thinks  I might be sick.

Again, for those that still want to take their cruise I am happy for you truly, but for myself and our 3 generations going its not the vacation we signed up for and paid thousands of dollars for.  All I want is for Carnival to give us the opportunity to cancel without losing all our money

I am ready to cruise.  Not sure I want to be on the first few sailings only because  I would want to get my money's worth.   However, you made a good point.  How many people that are booked will be able to go if they are scheduled to go back to work.  Will their scheduled vacations still be valid.  Did people take vacation time during the stay at home order so they could get paid? This will all be very interesting. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Butterbean1000

[LMaxwell]

Who are they trying to kid with this? 

[UGACamper]

3 minutes ago, Butterbean1000 said:

I am ready to cruise.  Not sure I want to be on the first few sailings only because  I would want to get my money's worth.   However, you made a good point.  How many people that are booked will be able to go if they are scheduled to go back to work.  Will their scheduled vacations still be valid.  Did people take vacation time during the stay at home order so they could get paid? This will all be very interesting. 

 

I also am questioning the "money's worth" aspect of the trial cruises. I think there would have to be some additional incentive to go, considering the risk (sickness, quarantine, among others).  My initial thoughts are specialty restaurants deals, drink package deals, casino cash, spa deals.  There will be no excursions on private islands so there has to be another way to get some cash flowing. $600 or more OBC only goes so far if not being spent on excursions. Not everyone is a drinker. 

 

Cruise lines know where you live. If you have a PVP, they know who of their clients wants to cruise. If "too many" people cancel these initial sailings, I would expect to get a call from my PVP trying to get me on board.  I am within driving distance (YMMV) from New Orleans around Florida and up to about Baltimore.  That's about 10 ports.

[Smooth sailor77228]

They know better. They have to say something to keep people booking so they can pay out all those refunds. It's like a big ponzi at this point.

[Organized Chaos]

13 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I understand there are reasons for announcing cancellations the way they are doing it, but I wish Carnival, and other cruise lines for that matter, would just state the obvious that no one is going on a cruise any time soon. Articles like this one give people hope that cruises might actually happen in May or June. The chances of that happening are the same as the Bengals winning the Super Bowl next season. 

 

Even if the cruise lines knew they'd be shut down much longer, they wouldn't announce that to the public. If they announced that they're going to be shut down through June or longer, their stocks would nosedive faster & farther than they did last month.

 

Let's not spread hope. That'd be preposterous.

 

Don't worry, the media has been doing a pretty good job of squashing attempts at delivering messages of hope. And for the past month, some of the loudest voices on this forum have been spreading drastic speculations about how long the shut-down will last. Speculations based on nothing more than opinions, without any facts to back them up. Fear and panic can spread just as easily, and it has. There's a lot of people who are making a strong effort to ensure hope & optimism aren't welcome. I tend to be a "glass half empty" type of guy and even I find that to be sad.

[jean87510]

I have a cruise scheduled may 16th out of Mobile for 5 days. Yesterday they offered to move me to an oceanview from an inside for 328. Lol. So I am still staying positive. If we are the first to go back, I have my n95 masks and gloves. Im quite used to social distancing. I will take my chances. At one point, we have to start moving forward. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Cruising is my favorite activity in the world, but even with the social distancing capacity strategy in place, I wouldn’t feel comfortable cruising in May or June. July also seems unreasonable, but I wouldn’t totally rule it out. That’s all based on the cruise itself; you couldn’t pay me to get on an airplane right now! 

[LMaxwell]

If they have half the people on the ship are they still going to have an entire host of activities (multiple seatings, multiple show performances) space between deck chairs, less crew (maintain same ratio but less people) or are they just going to condense everything which would be kind of missing the point? 

[kwokpot]

I think the most important thing is will the cruiseship be allowed to disembark if there's a passenger/passengers that show covid19-like symptoms? Previous to this pandemic there's never really been a situation where cruiseships were routinely being denied docking. As many have said and I can say it's occured on many, many of my cruises sick and/or deceased passengers are a common occurrence. But there has never been scores and scores of cruiseships being denied disembarkation because of illness.  Until the cruiselines and explain to the passengers how this will be handled in the future people aren't going to feel comfortable getting on a cruiseship not knowing if they'll be able to get off as scheduled.

[Purvis1231]

I hope it will be safe to sail but I have my doubts. 

[coevan]

I would not hold my breath for May

[Butterbean1000]

1 hour ago, UGACamper said:

 

I also am questioning the "money's worth" aspect of the trial cruises. I think there would have to be some additional incentive to go, considering the risk (sickness, quarantine, among others).  My initial thoughts are specialty restaurants deals, drink package deals, casino cash, spa deals.  There will be no excursions on private islands so there has to be another way to get some cash flowing. $600 or more OBC only goes so far if not being spent on excursions. Not everyone is a drinker. 

 

Cruise lines know where you live. If you have a PVP, they know who of their clients wants to cruise. If "too many" people cancel these initial sailings, I would expect to get a call from my PVP trying to get me on board.  I am within driving distance (YMMV) from New Orleans around Florida and up to about Baltimore.  That's about 10 ports.

BTW , Go Gawgs!

[kwokpot]

13 hours ago, Coopdog08 said:

Any cruise company would have to answer a plethora of questions before I got on my cruise in May.

what specific cleaning is being done daily?

who will serve food?

what ports and what happens if they are closed?

will there be any restrictions on how many people can be in one area?

what happens if one person shows symptoms, is everyone on quarantine then? This would have to be a specific answer, I want no grey.

how do I get home and who is responsible for getting me home if ship quarantine? 
are there even any hotels open in Miami? 

I could ask several more but this is just the tip. Pretty risky to run a cruise out of Miami when the convention center is a make shift hospital, that right there should tell you something. More to lose than gain in my opinion. Hopefully, when they decide to return cruising, especially this early in the game, they will give u the option to cancel using the same terms as what they provided for all people with cancelled cruises. 

 

I've been voicing the same thing. You'd think ALL the cruiselines would be issuing statements on how they [lan to keep passengers safe so we would ALL feel comfortable booking and actually going on a cruise but they've been silent on that front.  

[mizLORInj]

5 hours ago, UGACamper said:

. . . Do the cruise lines band together and use each others private islands? I wouldn't mind checking out CoCoCay, Great Stirrup Cay, Harvest Caye, etc. 

 

IMO:   Coco Cay is AWESOME and additional bonus is a DOCK (no tender,) Harvest Caye would be second best as the beach was quite nice and there was a lot of space, didn't, and still don't care much for Great Stirrup Cay (which is next door to CocoCay).

 

HMC still has the best beach.  

[Saint Greg]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

This would need to be an agreement on changes in policy between Department of State (visas) and Homeland Security (CBP and who can enter the US).

Can you get around it by docking ships at say Nassau and Cozumel for a day but not letting anyone off of the ship?

[seaman11]

16 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I bet they don't  have a number. I bet it's reduced to the number of tickets they've already sold. And it's "select voyages" because if they sold it out they aren't reducing the number.

they sold out in 1 day.  many here just dont realize, the need for them to get going, and the many that are willing to go ,once this curve starts coming down. 

[chengkp75]

4 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Can you get around it by docking ships at say Nassau and Cozumel for a day but not letting anyone off of the ship?

Nope.

[Saint Greg]

5 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Nope.

Interesting considering there are people who don’t ever get off of the ship and that is fine.

[chengkp75]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Interesting considering there are people who don’t ever get off of the ship and that is fine.

That is their choice, the port has to be advertised as a port of call, with the ability of passengers to get off and see the port.  The old "technical" stops are not allowed.

[Saint Greg]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

That is their choice, the port has to be advertised as a port of call, with the ability of passengers to get off and see the port.  The old "technical" stops are not allowed.

Guests ashore: 8am

Back on board: 8:01am

[chengkp75]

5 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Guests ashore: 8am

Back on board: 8:01am

If guests are allowed ashore, then why do you need to make it a cruise to nowhere?  Either the port allows passengers or they don't, allowing for one minute would not make any difference.  Either they clear the ship through immigrations or they don't.

[MsTabbyKats]

No cruises out of NYC showing for the 2020 season.

[HxFx]

It seems the biggest concern for many (that are willing to cruise by May/June) is the potential for being stuck at sea for weeks while not being allowed to dock at the home port. I wonder if they could manage this with a proper plan upon returning home (that the home port would agree to ahead of time not to deny docking). Perhaps for those ports where they can set up a large testing area upon return. Have passengers get off a few hundred at a time (or however many recommended based on ability to spread out) and give each passenger the quick response test. If negative they can leave, if not they have to go somewhere for quarantine. Shoot, maybe they have another ship docked just for those quarantined. I know this would delay the start of another cruise, but that is probably a good thing in order to properly clean. They could cut all the upcoming cruises short a day. Just brainstorming, I don't have a lot of cruise experience and I am sure there are a ton of logistics to consider!

[tonit964]

6 minutes ago, HxFx said:

It seems the biggest concern for many (that are willing to cruise by May/June) is the potential for being stuck at sea for weeks while not being allowed to dock at the home port. I wonder if they could manage this with a proper plan upon returning home (that the home port would agree to ahead of time not to deny docking). Perhaps for those ports where they can set up a large testing area upon return. Have passengers get off a few hundred at a time (or however many recommended based on ability to spread out) and give each passenger the quick response test. If negative they can leave, if not they have to go somewhere for quarantine. Shoot, maybe they have another ship docked just for those quarantined. I know this would delay the start of another cruise, but that is probably a good thing in order to properly clean. They could cut all the upcoming cruises short a day. Just brainstorming, I don't have a lot of cruise experience and I am sure there are a ton of logistics to consider!

This is why I don't think these limited capacity cruises will actually sail. It's just too soon.

[MsTabbyKats]

People seem to forget....Carnival doesn't have the final say about "when to sail" or "how many per ship".  It's up to the govt.