How many more times does RCCL suspends cruises before they say enough is enough for 2020 ?

[Jimbo]

Well another month has gone by since I last brought up this topic.

 

Has anybody else's view on this changed in the last 30 days? I know mine have.

 

Some people still seem pretty gullible they will continue to book cruises for 2020 when reallistically there are way to many guidelines for the cruiselines to achieve for that to ever happen this current year.

 

It's one thing to board the ship virus free but another thing when you go onto one of the foreign ports not to bring the virus back onto the ship and infect everyone and have a ship full of sick passengers.

 

It's a vicious cycle that won't be able to be handled without a vaccine that will help all ages, until then going to be really hard to control by cruiselines or any other entity,

 

It's  a really sad situation that we all have to understand and handle. Until that happen's going to be alot of unhappy people here on CC.

 

I have 2 cruises booked right now...September 2020 and September 2021..............when the time comes the September 2020 cruise will be moved to April 2022...........so that would mean 17 months and  24 months from now when there is a vacine available. I'm good with that.

 

Don't expect to cruise in 2020 and only reschedule for cruises in 2021 if you need to have something scheduled. That's my take and I'm sticking to it.

[strathcona]

fully agree with your assessment. As a business entity, RCI needs to sail to make an income. They cannot just call it quick for 2020 even if we all come to the same assessment. Many brokerage firm give them 10 to 12 months cash flow. They need to sail. The situation is fluid so who knows how they can deal with the CDC guidelines. Shorter cruises, less passengers, testing, hospital ships. Guess they are going to go with 30 days cancellation to give themselves that option of finding that solution. 

 

I know the executives are trying to not antagonize their loyal customer and yet keep the company running so it will survive. If there was an easy course of action, they would have taken it. This is not an easy fix. 

 

I hate this reality. 

[rimmit]

I totally agree.  If you have been following my posts, I do not see any solution that will allow the cruises to take off without a vaccine outside of a miracle drug that the FDA just happens to have already approved.

 

Most on here are just in denial about the situation which is totally understandable.  For many on this forum a very dear friend has been put into a coma, and the doctors say that there is little chance of coming out that coma in the next 12-18 months until a treatment comes about.  Even when that treatment brings them back from that coma so much damage will have been done we don’t know how our friend will be. They clearly won’t be the same.  That much is for certain.  Too much damage has been done to them already.  Will we even recognize them?  Will we still enjoy their company.  We are all grieving for the loss of a friend here.  For some it was their best friend and they practically lived with them most of the year.  It’s hard to accept and will take many quite a while to accept what has happened.  

 

To answer your question, it will take 7 more rounds of cancellations before they get to the end of 2020, given they only are cancelling a month at a time.

Edited April 18, 2020 by rimmit

[suzyluvs2cruise]

I know RCI is cancelling in small increments for many reasons but feel the biggest reason is to try and keep cash in the bank. Do I want to see them sail again.....of course but my DH and I are both in the group of over 70s who would need a Dr's note if that's still required. We have final payment coming up at the end of May for a long awaited Radiance cruise from Vancouver-Tokyo-Singapore. Booked in a GS with NRD so can't cancel now and, if Cruise with Confidence date is extended that would give us an FCC that we might not be able to ever use. We're not sure the cruise will even be a go but, at this point, do we put out any more $$$ on a cruise and then wait for it to be cancelled or told we can't sail due to the Dr's order. .  

 

Has anyone heard or seen anything about the cruise lines response to the CDC No Sail order. I thought they had 7 days to respond. 

[Jimbo]

6 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

I know RCI is cancelling in small increments for many reasons but feel the biggest reason is to try and keep cash in the bank. Do I want to see them sail again.....of course but my DH and I are both in the group of over 70s who would need a Dr's note if that's still required. We have final payment coming up at the end of May for a long awaited Radiance cruise from Vancouver-Tokyo-Singapore. Booked in a GS with NRD so can't cancel now and, if Cruise with Confidence date is extended that would give us an FCC that we might not be able to ever use. We're not sure the cruise will even be a go but, at this point, do we put out any more $$$ on a cruise and then wait for it to be cancelled or told we can't sail due to the Dr's order. .  

 

Has anyone heard or seen anything about the cruise lines response to the CDC No Sail order. I thought they had 7 days to respond. 

To not lose the deposit money, wasn't there something about you could sell the FCC to someone else if you couldn't use it? I know it sounds like throwing bad money at more bad money but it maybe a way of not losing all your deposits if you can find a buyer? How much was deposits for those cruises?

Edited April 18, 2020 by Jimbo

[suzyluvs2cruise]

1 minute ago, Jimbo said:

To not lose the deposit money, wasn't there something about you could sell the FCC to someone else if you couldn't use it? I know it sounds like throwing bad money at more bad money but it maybe a way of not losing all your deposits if you can find a buyer? How much was deposits for those cruises?

 

$900 per cruise - total $1800.  I read where you can "gift" the FCC. I guess selling wouldn't be that much different but doubt anyone would want to pay full value. Uncharted waters for sure. 

[bonsai3s]

46 minutes ago, rimmit said:

I totally agree.  If you have been following my posts, I do not see any solution that will allow the cruises to take off without a vaccine outside of a miracle drug that the FDA just happens to have already approved.

 

Most on here are just in denial about the situation which is totally understandable.  For many on this forum a very dear friend has been put into a coma, and the doctors say that there is little chance of coming out that coma in the next 12-18 months until a treatment comes about.  Even when that treatment brings them back from that coma so much damage will have been done we don’t know how our friend will be. They clearly won’t be the same.  That much is for certain.  Too much damage has been done to them already.  Will we even recognize them?  Will we still enjoy their company.  We are all grieving for the loss of a friend here.  For some it was their best friend and they practically lived with them most of the year.  It’s hard to accept and will take many quite a while to accept what has happened.  

 

To answer your question, it will take 7 more rounds of cancellations before they get to the end of 2020, given they only are cancelling a month at a time.

 

rimmit...agree.

Yes, I've followed your posts.

Yes, I was in denial.

My wife finally said: "Stop re-booking".

I got the final word: "Yes Dear".

Acceptance.

 

Note: If you've followed my posts, I'm hoping you can learn from my mistakes. Not sure when we'll ever see those refunds or FCC's.

[Jimbo]

7 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

$900 per cruise - total $1800.  I read where you can "gift" the FCC. I guess selling wouldn't be that much different but doubt anyone would want to pay full value. Uncharted waters for sure. 

I bet you could get some takers on here if you sold them like $300 less the total package(Deposit + Final Payments)  value. So at least you would get $1500 back of that $1800.

[stevea36]

13 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

I know RCI is cancelling in small increments for many reasons but feel the biggest reason is to try and keep cash in the bank. Do I want to see them sail again.....of course but my DH and I are both in the group of over 70s who would need a Dr's note if that's still required. We have final payment coming up at the end of May for a long awaited Radiance cruise from Vancouver-Tokyo-Singapore. Booked in a GS with NRD so can't cancel now and, if Cruise with Confidence date is extended that would give us an FCC that we might not be able to ever use. We're not sure the cruise will even be a go but, at this point, do we put out any more $$$ on a cruise and then wait for it to be cancelled or told we can't sail due to the Dr's order. .  

 

Has anyone heard or seen anything about the cruise lines response to the CDC No Sail order. I thought they had 7 days to respond. 

Both the "over 70" letter and the response to the CDC are being handled by CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) on behalf of all cruise lines that sail from/to US Ports.   The letter originally came out of the discussions between CLIA and VP Pence and was a "temporary" fix until a final one was found to relieve the US Coast Guard and ports from being responsible for emergency evacuations, sick passengers, and the like.   This letter was approved before the shutdown.

 

As for the CDC 100 day extension, that was finalized by publication in the Federal Register on April 16th (prior versions were withdrawn and replaced by this one), the immediate CLIA response was to question why Cruise Lines were being singled out while the flying petri dishes (airliners) weren't even mentioned in the ruling.   You have a better chance of getting sick from air travel than on a ship but since incubation times are a lot longer than flight times this is rarely ever noticed or mentioned.   In fact the only reason you find out about norovirus on a cruise is because cruise lines have the strictist reporting regulations of all.  In truth, most norovirus cases happen because of food served in local restaurants but by the time you get sick they trail of where it came from is dried up.

 

Let's wait a week and see how the official CLIA response pans out and how the CDC responds..

 

Steve

10 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

$900 per cruise - total $1800.  I read where you can "gift" the FCC. I guess selling wouldn't be that much different but doubt anyone would want to pay full value. Uncharted waters for sure. 

 

The FCCs for cruise cancellation. either under Cruise WIth Confidence or because of the cruise line cancelling the cruise,

 are specifically labelled non-transferrable.

[Jimbo]

6 minutes ago, stevea36 said:

 

 

The FCCs for cruise cancellation. either under Cruise WIth Confidence or because of the cruise line cancelling the cruise,

 are specifically labelled non-transferrable.

That's no longer true...........They changed that because to many people were getting FCC stock piled. To many cruises already scheduled to fit in more cruises by expired date of FCC. You can gift  them or sell them now.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Jimbo

[rimmit]

25 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

That's no longer true...........They changed that because to many people were getting FCC stock piled. To many cruises already scheduled to fit in more cruises by expired date of FCC. You can gift  them or sell them now.

That’s great!  Where is this policy change?

[Bibblejw]

I do wonder what their projected costs for mothballing ships is. There must be a cost to keep the current skeleton staff running them, and someone must (I hope) have a projected cost for mooring them up somewhere reasonable (even if it is off Coco Cay) and just leaving them for a while. Not sure when the tipping point is that makes the latter more feasible than the former, though. The calculation must exist somewhere, though.

[Ourusualbeach]

58 minutes ago, stevea36 said:

The FCCs for cruise cancellation. either under Cruise WIth Confidence or because of the cruise line cancelling the cruise,

 are specifically labelled non-transferrable.

It was announced by Vicki Freed on a TA webinar that they would allow people over 70 who cannot sail due to the Drs note requirement to transfer them to someone else. 

[Ourusualbeach]

54 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

They changed that because to many people were getting FCC stock piled. To many cruises already scheduled to fit in more cruises by expired date of FCC.

Only applies to those over 70 who cannot sail because of the Drs note requirement. Has nothing to do with people having too many piling up. 

[Ourusualbeach]

Royal is no different than all the other cruise lines and will keep cancelling 30 -45 days out unless they know for absolute certainty that no sailings will happen.  This would only apply to specific geographic areas like they did with the Alaska sailings. Even then, Princess had not cancelled Alaska up to July until  a couple days ago. 

[Jimbo]

35 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Royal is no different than all the other cruise lines and will keep cancelling 30 -45 days out unless they know for absolute certainty that no sailings will happen.  This would only apply to specific geographic areas like they did with the Alaska sailings. Even then, Princess had not cancelled Alaska up to July until  a couple days ago. 

Pretty sure ALL Princess Alaska cruises starting and ending in Canada for the WHOLE season are canceled for 2020, including all of their cruise tours.........they are not even opening up their Princess Hotels this season.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alaska/articles/2020-04-15/virus-concerns-lead-holland-princess-to-nix-alaska-cruises

 

Only Alaska cruises they said still have a chance are the ones from RT from Seattle, but I would guess they are pretty much shot too.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Jimbo

[karena1]

I am an optimist and will continue to believe that I will cruise until I am notified it is canceled.  I can get hit by a truck tomorrow.  I live every day to the fullest and believe I will be on another cruise soon.  

[John&LaLa]

Deja vu' 🤔

[Charles4515]

They will keep canceling in 30 day or 60 day increments until they either can restart cruises or they run out of money and liquidate.


Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

Deja vu' 🤔

lol

[Ourusualbeach]

14 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Pretty sure ALL Princess Alaska cruises starting and ending in Canada for the WHOLE season are canceled for 2020, including all of their cruise tours.........they are not even opening up their Princess Hotels this season.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alaska/articles/2020-04-15/virus-concerns-lead-holland-princess-to-nix-alaska-cruises

 

Only Alaska cruises they said still have a chance are the ones from RT from Seattle, but I would guess they are pretty much shot too.

 

14 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Pretty sure ALL Princess Alaska cruises starting and ending in Canada for the WHOLE season are canceled for 2020, including all of their cruise tours.........they are not even opening up their Princess Hotels this season.

 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alaska/articles/2020-04-15/virus-concerns-lead-holland-princess-to-nix-alaska-cruises

 

Only Alaska cruises they said still have a chance are the ones from RT from Seattle, but I would guess they are pretty much shot too.

Yes, Princess did cancel all the one way Alaska trips for the season and only left Seattle.  My point was that each cruise line is cancelling to a different schedule with most being 30-45 days.  Up until a few days ago Royal had cancelled sailings much further ahead than Princess.  It’s just back and forth between the cruise lines as to who has cancelled sailings further out.  This week it might be Carnival in two weeks it will be Royal.  They are all being cautious and don’t want to cancel too far out then have cruising resume. 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Only applies to those over 70 who cannot sail because of the Drs note requirement. Has nothing to do with people having too many piling up. 

 

So Vicki Freed is saying it's only for those over 70 who can't sail because of the Dr's note requirement. At what point does this start since sailings were cancelled by RCI and those over 70 were not denied sailing due to lack of a Dr's note? 

Edited April 18, 2020 by suzyluvs2cruise

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

You're saying it's only for those over 70 who can't sail because of the Dr's note requirement. At what point does this start since sailings were cancelled by RCI and those over 70 were not denied sailing due to lack of a Dr's note? 

I would imagine that it would start once sailings resume and those over 70 could not use the FCC’s that they were issued. No details were given other than what I mentioned. 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

2 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I would imagine that it would start once sailings resume and those over 70 could not use the FCC’s that they were issued. No details were given other than what I mentioned. 

 

That sounds right to me too but there is a lot of chatter that FCCs for those over 70 can be gifted or even sold now. I'd hope Vicki.....or someone at RCI.....clarifies that soon. 

[deepcman]

1 hour ago, Bibblejw said:

I do wonder what their projected costs for mothballing ships is. There must be a cost to keep the current skeleton staff running them, and someone must (I hope) have a projected cost for mooring them up somewhere reasonable (even if it is off Coco Cay) and just leaving them for a while. Not sure when the tipping point is that makes the latter more feasible than the former, though. The calculation must exist somewhere, though.

This link provides some insight to the costs of mothballing ships different ways.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/cruise-lines-could-store-ships-months-coronavirus/