SS Future Re-Open Plan: Timing, Testing Needs??!!

[TLCOhio]

From this below connected website posted this morning, the author had this headline: “7 Reasons You Should Plan 2022 Cruises, Not 2021 For Now” with these highlights: “You are about to discover 7 reasons you should be looking at 2022 and not 2021 cruises, including the surprising news that the cruise lines agree with this too!  I look at why booking 2022 cruising vacations and avoiding committing to 2021 right now and waiting, no matter how eager you are to go cruising, is your best bet by far.Probably the most compelling reason for focusing booking for 2022 is the cruise lines themselves are recommending it.  At a recent travel agent 'Virtual Cruise Showcase', arranged by the Cruise Line Association, the lines were telling agents to encourage travellers to book itineraries earliest from Autumn/ Winter 2021 and to focus more on 2022 cruises.  Why? Because they are more certain that their advertised cruises will actually be able to run by then.   Peter Shanks (the Managing Director of Silversea Cruises), was very explicit and said travel agents should focus on promoting and selling their cruises from the autumn of 2021 and early in 2022, which they could be confident would be operating. This also explains why the cruise lines have been putting 2022, and now 2023 itineraries, on sale to give travellers and agents further out cruises to focus on.  Secondly, cruise lines still do not know for certain when they will be able to resume sailing in 2021. No-one really knows.  There is no agreed date in North America nor in major cruise embarkation countries like the UK and Spain.  No agreement on lifting bans in places like Canada and Australia. Thirdly, even once they can start sailing, all lines have been clear that they will be staggering their fleet return to service through most of 2021. It will not be one Big Bang.  Fourthly, it is also worth considering, as you think about timing, that the major cruise groups have been raising cash to enable them to survive without any cruises running though Summer 2021.”

 

Interesting comments, speculation and background.  Agree or disagree?

 

Full story at:

https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/7-reasons-you-should-book-2022-cruises-and-not-2021/

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 241,114 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

Here was his graphic used to illustrate his column: 

[WesW]

We also don't plan on cruising until January 2023, but will restart with a World Cruise.

[Stumblefoot]

5 hours ago, WesW said:

We also don't plan on cruising until January 2023, but will restart with a World Cruise.

😳😢😰 Never thought I would read this.  To think you’ll be off a cruise ship for nearly 3-years is practically unfathomable to me.

[Lois R]

25 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

😳😢😰 Never thought I would read this.  To think you’ll be off a cruise ship for nearly 3-years is practically unfathomable to me.

Maybe I am in the minority but I have a cruise booked for Oct 2021 and will be sailing on it

if it is allowed.  I also put a deposit down for a cruise in March 2022.

[Bluebelle14]

O

Which cruise did yu book in October 2021?

[Lois R]

1 minute ago, Bluebelle14 said:

O

Which cruise did yu book in October 2021?

I booked it a long time ago.   Lisbon to Lisbon for 12 nights on The Spirit.  I LOVE the 

itinerary because it goes to lots of places I have yet to visit.🙂

[rucrazy]

We canceled on Bermuda cruise for January 2022....We are now looking at returning to the sea 2023...

 

Joseph

[cruiseej]

We're booked on a December 2021-January 2022 Antarctica cruise, and we're hoping it will sail. I feel fairly optimistic that we and fellow passengers will be able to become vaccinated by early fall 2021. The unknowns are the crew and the status of South America. With the cruise lines bringing ships back online little by little, I think it may be possible to assemble enough crew to run a winter Antarctica season. But the status of gateway cities (Rio, Buenos Aires, Lima) and Ushuaia -- who knows? We'll wait and hope. 😉

[Randyk47]

35 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

We're booked on a December 2021-January 2022 Antarctica cruise, and we're hoping it will sail. I feel fairly optimistic that we and fellow passengers will be able to become vaccinated by early fall 2021. The unknowns are the crew and the status of South America. With the cruise lines bringing ships back online little by little, I think it may be possible to assemble enough crew to run a winter Antarctica season. But the status of gateway cities (Rio, Buenos Aires, Lima) and Ushuaia -- who knows? We'll wait and hope. 😉

With all my heart and mind I pray and hope your cruise happens.   It would mean we are in a totally different world than today.   If I have a concern it is the ability of the world as a whole to get the vaccines distributed that widely but it could happen.   If the distribution is somehow slowed or limited all bets are off from the number of vaccinated crew and staff available to man ships to countries open and safe to visit.   

[Lois R]

Here is a new article I read this morning:  

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/11-days-cruising-changed-forever/index.html

[Randyk47]

39 minutes ago, Lois R said:

Here is a new article I read this morning:  

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/11-days-cruising-changed-forever/index.html

Kind of a heart wrenching reminder of the past year.   Not a sweat memory.   

[Randyk47]

49 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

Kind of a heart wrenching reminder of the past year.   Not a sweat memory.   

Darn spell check.....I meant sweet not sweat.   Urgh........

[rucrazy]

8 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

Darn spell check.....I meant sweet not sweat.   Urgh........

Randy don't sweet over the small stuff! LOL

[latserrof]

7 minutes ago, rucrazy said:

Randy don't sweet over the small stuff! LOL

 

My mom used to say "don't sweat the petty things."

 

My dad used to say "don't pet the sweaty things."

[Lois R]

2 hours ago, Randyk47 said:

Kind of a heart wrenching reminder of the past year.   Not a sweat memory.   

Nope, not sweaty or sweet.........but it was a big part of this freaking 2020.......we really only

have 2.5 days left?  Lets get it overwith😲

[TLCOhio]

18 hours ago, Lois R said:

I booked it a long time ago.   Lisbon to Lisbon for 12 nights on The Spirit.  I LOVE the itinerary because it goes to lots of places I have yet to visit.🙂

 

Having done in 2017 on the Silver Spirit from Lisbon to Rouen, agree that this itinerary does sound very good and interesting.  Congrats!!  Have you done Lisbon previously?  So many great options in and around Lisbon.  That's especially true if you love food, spirits, architecture, history, culture, etc.   Hopefully you can allow a decent number of days for exploring these areas either before and/or after your Silversea cruise around for this various island locations.    

 

From the respected financial publication, Bloomberg News, last week, they had this interesting headline: “Vaccines Arm Hotels, Airlines With New Power to Jack Up Prices” with this subhead: "Shots bring optimism of pent-up demand for cruises as well.  Fares are likely to increase following cuts to capacity."

 

Here are some of their story highlights: “The arrival of a coronavirus vaccine has the U.S. travel industry preparing for a rebound in demand following a historically terrible year. After months of deep discounts, prices are set to make up at least part of the ground they lost. Trip providers have   slashed capacity, so any gains in bookings will tend to boost rates. And as vaccines take hold, they’re poised to unleash a torrent of pent-up vacation demand as people emerge from months of being cooped up at home. That’s leading to optimism within the industry for an upswing in the spring and summer.  'No one’s getting ready to pop open a bottle of champagne yet,' travel consultant Henry Harteveldt said of airlines and hotel groups he has polled. 'But there is hope right now that summer 2021 will come in and be certainly not only much stronger than this year, but at or above 50% of where we were in 2019.'  Already, some affluent travelers have begun making reservations for blow-out vacations.   The pandemic has caused would-be vacationers to wait much closer to their travel dates before booking plane tickets or hotels, giving those businesses less visibility into their ability to boost rates. Any recovery in demand will need to be sustained before airlines consider raising prices, said Lacey Alicie, director of data analytics at Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting and a former revenue executive at American Airlines Group Inc.”

 

Here is more from this analysis: "There are other reasons a recovery may not be swift. The depth of this year’s collapse has been unprecedented and risks abound, from vaccine distribution bottlenecks to virus mutations. And any rebound will only come after a brutal winter as Covid-19 continues to tear through the country. Early 2021 will bring 'really rough months,' Southwest Airlines Co. Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said.  'We expect next summer to be a lot better than this year but not normal,' Andrew Nocella, chief commercial officer for United Airlines Holdings Inc., said in an interview. 'We think 2022 is probably the bigger year.' "

 

Full story at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-23/covid-vaccines-mark-end-of-pandemic-era-s-sizzling-travel-deals

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Sydney to NZ/Auckland Adventure, live/blog 2014 sampling/details with many exciting visuals and key highlights.  On page 23, post #571, see a complete index for all of the pictures, postings.  Now at 232,060 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

[Lois R]

Hi Terry, nope, I have never been to Lisbon......it was on my "BIG RETIREMENT CRUISE" that 

got scrapped earlier in the year.........I hope it will come to fruition this time around.

[Randyk47]

Here’s an eye opening and somewhat depressing tweet about the pace of vaccinations now and where we need to be.  

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Randyk47

[QueSeraSera]

This is like a wake up call, isn't it?  I think most would grant that vaccination would start off a bit slowly, but the numbers above indicate the rate of vaccination needs to increase by a factor of 25 times.  Is that possible?  As Randyk found, at least one limitation is a shortage of qualified staff.  Time to get on to finding solutions.  Identify and clear bottlenecks.  Wish I was knowledgeable enough to offer help but am standing by as a cheerleader.

[tosteve1]

Considering only 3-4 million doses were in the initial shipment I don’t think they are doing too badly. Close to miraculous actually. Criticism for criticism sake is not very helpful but that’s what the news cycle depends on, I guess.

[cruiseej]

13 hours ago, tosteve1 said:

Considering only 3-4 million doses were in the initial shipment I don’t think they are doing too badly. Close to miraculous actually. Criticism for criticism sake is not very helpful but that’s what the news cycle depends on, I guess.

 

Nope. The CDC reported earlier this week that more than 11 million doses had been distributed, and only 2.1 million had actually been administered to people. Even building in some lag in reporting (the excuse offered by government officials), it's clear there's not the infrastructure in place to effectively deliver doses as quickly as received. Hopefully this will improve fairly quickly, or hopes for starting to get back to normal by summer will be dashed.

[Lois R]

Well, there went the "20 Million by the end of December" theory..................

[tosteve1]

I’m betting a lot of folks won’t take the shot anyway. In my conversations with patients and acquaintances a majority are planning to wait. If case counts come down in the spring as I expect, they will have even more reason to avoid getting it. Education doesn’t stand a chance against the internet!

[Lois R]

Let us hope science/education does play a positive part. I plan on getting a shot and hope others will too.

 Isn't that the whole point? Just because cases come down does not mean

skipping the vaccine is a good thing.   I don't know when one will be available for my "age group" but I will definitely get one.

 I am 62 and have various underlying conditions but the way Florida

is going right now? I am not waiting on line for 8 hours..........the pictures of the sr citizens down in South Florida are awful---they were waiting on line for hours

and hours..........

[tosteve1]

Currently at our local hospital only 30% of folks in group 1a have taken the opportunity to get the shot. Not sure why but there is certainly no stampede to get vaccinated. As for traveling that’s a whole different issue and I would hope cruise lines will be requiring proof of vaccination before boarding.