Chairman of Carnival UK on Sky News NOW

[jeanlyon]

Yes totally agree.  We had considered a Round Britain the other day until I realized the same problem occurs.  One person infected, all in quarantine and no insurance cover.  No thanks1

[wowzz]

37 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

When it is completely safe to cruise again (18 months time?)

I think you are being too optimistic - getting a vaccine that is 100% effectivective is virtually impossible, especially as the virus can mutate.  Look how ineffectual the winter flu jab can be against  new strains.

The best we can hope for is a combination of some sort of vaccine,  herd immunity and social distancing. Even then, as you say, cruising would not be high on my list of holidays. Back to private villas in Europe for us!

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, davecttr said:

Can you make a profit if there are 1000 passengers on a 3000 passenger ship?

Not at current price levels I imagine. So the cruise lines will be looking closely at how many current services can be scrapped to help reduce staffing numbers, and keep costs down, but I doubt they can avoid having to increase prices.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes totally agree.  We had considered a Round Britain the other day until I realized the same problem occurs.  One person infected, all in quarantine and no insurance cover.  No thanks1

There will be insurance if you have deep enough pockets.

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

There will be insurance if you have deep enough pockets.

If your pockets are that deep, you will be able to afford a lot better holiday than a cruise around the UK.

[cublet]

3 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

 

 

From what I've been told, one of the most expensive cost to running a cruise ship is fuel (apart from initial cost of the ship of course and crew wages).

 

<snip>.

 

Whether this saving on fuel will be sufficient to offset against less passengers?...maybe the bean counters at Carnival House and it's rival equivalents will know.

Hello,

 

A statistic that I remember from an RCI ship was that it burned (on average) 7 tonnes of fuel to the mile @ $129 - $235 per tonne (depending on blend) times the distance cruised and there's the cost.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[zap99]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

If your pockets are that deep, you will be able to afford a lot better holiday than a cruise around the UK.

All relative. If you pay,say £5000 for a holiday a few hundred extra for insurance is peanuts. If you want to go out of the country you will need to consider risk/reward as in everything else in life.

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

A statistic that I remember from an RCI ship was that it burned (on average) 7 tonnes of fuel to the mile @ $129 - $235 per tonne (depending on blend) times the distance cruised and there's the cost.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

Well then maybe with just a little chug around fewer ports it might help to defray the cost and help them to live with fewer passengers

[wowzz]

26 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Well then maybe with just a little chug around fewer ports it might help to defray the cost and help them to live with fewer passengers

I remember a post that stated that 30% of revenue came from on board spending [including tours]. I imagine you could halve the number of pax, by leaving all the cheaper internal and sea view cabins empty, and thus keep the  fare revenue relatively high, but the discretionary spend would take a significant hit.

Cruising half full may cover your overheads, but operating on marginal costing is not a long term business strategy!

[Harry Peterson]

I rather like the idea of the round Britain cruises - any number of interesting places.  But it’s going to be an expensive way of doing it, particularly if the ships can’t run at full capacity.

 

And given the increased vulnerability to Covid of typical cruise passengers, due to age, you have to wonder just how they’re going to get people cruising again. A wholly new, younger market perhaps.

 

Unless there’s a cure or an effective vaccine (neither is by any means a certainty) most older people are going to be pretty wary about putting themselves at risk.

[zap99]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

I think you are being too optimistic - getting a vaccine that is 100% effectivective is virtually impossible, especially as the virus can mutate.  Look how ineffectual the winter flu jab can be against  new strains.

The best we can hope for is a combination of some sort of vaccine,  herd immunity and social distancing. Even then, as you say, cruising would not be high on my list of holidays. Back to private villas in Europe for us!

So you won't need insurance for Europe?.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, cublet said:

Hello,

 

A statistic that I remember from an RCI ship was that it burned (on average) 7 tonnes of fuel to the mile @ $129 - $235 per tonne (depending on blend) times the distance cruised and there's the cost.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

Having just done the maths on that it seemed way too high, so I did a bit of googling and I think the fuel consumption that you quote might be per hour and not per mile. Still a bill that I wouldn’t want to have to pay myself! 

[wowzz]

35 minutes ago, zap99 said:

So you won't need insurance for Europe?.

I think I would risk not being covered for CV19 for a trip to Europe, (especially if travelling by car)  where I would be able to distance myself from large numbers of people,  whereas I would not take that risk on a cruise ship. 

[zap99]

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I think I would risk not being covered for CV19 for a trip to Europe, (especially if travelling by car)  where I would be able to distance myself from large numbers of people,  whereas I would not take that risk on a cruise ship. 

Same here, of course We would still take annual insurance for the other risks. I would take the risk on a car holiday. Once a plane journey is involved probably not. I think that once the first insurance company offers CV, others will follow. Market forces and all that.

[Presto2]

Just found this, not sure if anyone else has seen it. It may be the same as the one above but it is from msn

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/cruise-passengers-must-pass-rigorous-medical-checks-before-being-allowed-to-board-ships/ar-BB13mnhH?ocid=msedgdhp

[IDB37]

Interesting debate.

 

We've often wondered about taking an 'around Britain' cruise, but have been put off by the fact that the itineraries seem largely to visit only Scottish & Irish ports, plus maybe Liverpool & Southampton.

 

There are some wonderfully scenic areas up the north coast of Cornwall (e.g. St. Ives, Padstow, Boscastle, Bude), Devon (e.g. Clovelly, Woollacombe, Lynton & Lynmouth) & across to West Somerset (e.g. Minehead, Porlock & Exmoor) & I wonder why these places don't feature ?

 

I'm not sure which if any Ports would be large enough, but one would think tendering could be an option. The only other thing I can think of is whether the tidal flows are unduly difficult ?

 

 

 

 

 

[Clodia]

19 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Round Britain cruises hugely appeal to me, and I’ve wanted to do one for a while, but they don’t address the key issue as far as I am concerned, which is that cruise ships are Petri dishes for the spread of viruses. For as long as there remains a risk of an undetectable infected person boarding you won’t even get me on a Round Britain cruise until we are vaccinated. When it is completely safe to cruise again (18 months time?) my fantasy Round Britain cruise would include Falmouth, Bristol, Liverpool, Belfast, Glasgow, Several of the Western Isles of Scotland, Orkneys, Shetland, Edinburgh, Newcastle & London. However, by the time it’s safe to cruise again I guess the foreign ports will be open again and Round UK cruises will be as rare as hens teeth again!

I'm actually booked on Arcadia for a similar itinerary in JulyAugust 2021.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, IDB37 said:

Interesting debate.

 

We've often wondered about taking an 'around Britain' cruise, but have been put off by the fact that the itineraries seem largely to visit only Scottish & Irish ports, plus maybe Liverpool & Southampton.

 

There are some wonderfully scenic areas up the north coast of Cornwall (e.g. St. Ives, Padstow, Boscastle, Bude), Devon (e.g. Clovelly, Woollacombe, Lynton & Lynmouth) & across to West Somerset (e.g. Minehead, Porlock & Exmoor) & I wonder why these places don't feature ?

 

I'm not sure which if any Ports would be large enough, but one would think tendering could be an option. The only other thing I can think of is whether the tidal flows are unduly difficult ?

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the smaller cruise lines used to visit some of the smaller ports. Saga springs to mind.

Personally, I hope that none of the places you mention are ever visited by a ship carrying more than, say 900 pax. The whole ambience of the destination would be ruined, as has already happened to many places in Eurooe.  

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, Clodia said:

I'm actually booked on Arcadia for a similar itinerary in JulyAugust 2021.

I’ve just looked it up and that’s a great itinerary. Sadly, Arcadia is our least favourite ship in the P&O fleet, although we had a nice aft corner wrap suite which, if we went on her again, we would book. We won’t feel safe going on any cruise ship until we are all vaccinated though, so next summer may still be too soon for us.

[BillieJeanKaraokeKing]

If touring Britain, I'd personally rather just drive around and do it independently, to my spec, although I appreciate it would cost more however it was planned. 

[Harry Peterson]

8 minutes ago, BillieJeanKaraokeKing said:

If touring Britain, I'd personally rather just drive around and do it independently, to my spec, although I appreciate it would cost more however it was planned. 

I agree.  It might cost more, but you’d get a considerably better overall experience. Cruising with P&O has its good points, but it doesn’t compare with decent hotels.

[terrierjohn]

18 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

I rather like the idea of the round Britain cruises - any number of interesting places.  But it’s going to be an expensive way of doing it, particularly if the ships can’t run at full capacity.

 

And given the increased vulnerability to Covid of typical cruise passengers, due to age, you have to wonder just how they’re going to get people cruising again. A wholly new, younger market perhaps.

 

Unless there’s a cure or an effective vaccine (neither is by any means a certainty) most older people are going to be pretty wary about putting themselves at risk.

A British Isles cruise would not really be warm enough for us, plus as wheelchair users some of the more interesting places would not be accessible to us via a tender, unless P&O were to invest in the ramp type apparatus that RCI have on Independence of the seas.