Is there additional information about Princess restarting their cruise schedule?

[Boiler Cruiser]

The best information that I can find, at the moment, is that Princess is waiting until after the Alaska cruise season (in the fall) to restart their cruise schedule.  Does anyone else have additional information?  Any details behind what has been published so far?

[voljeep]

additionally - what will Princess have to do to restart cruises ?

 - restaff ships, since most crew have gone back home or will have soon, hopefully 

 - coast guard, or other regulatory inspections/ certifications ?

 - maintenance ? ( and I hope this doesn't evolve into a technical discussion )

 - of course, cruise ports have to re-open to cruise ships

 - what about international flights ?

 

In a perfect world, ships with minimal staff on board, vaccine , testing, 'cure' all in place... How long would it take Princess

to crew, supply, etc ?

[voljeep]

August cruises - Majestic - Japan - does anyone really believe that will happen ??

 

September - Austrailia - that ain't happening either

September - West Coast , including Vancouver  Victoria as a port ??

September - CA Coastal - with Ensenada, Mexico as a port - that looks at least like a possible ??

September - Panama Canal - RT Los Angeles ??

September - Hawaii ? also includes Vancouver

 

Canada / New England - see ya in fall 2021  -  no 2020 on schedule per Princess website

 

Caribbean - November 4th start-up ?

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

additionally - what will Princess have to do to restart cruises ?

 - restaff ships, since most crew have gone back home or will have soon, hopefully 

 - coast guard, or other regulatory inspections/ certifications ?

 - maintenance ? ( and I hope this doesn't evolve into a technical discussion )

 - of course, cruise ports have to re-open to cruise ships

 - what about international flights ?

 

In a perfect world, ships with minimal staff on board, vaccine , testing, 'cure' all in place... How long would it take Princess

to crew, supply, etc ?

IMHO that's one of your best posts - only because I've been thinking along the same lines. 😁

What a logistical nightmare!

[dog]

No info. Just opinions. Slow restart. Few cruises in regions with open ports and flights. Wait and see. 2021. Carnival being guinea pig this summer. 

[JT1962]

Will Princess even survive, at least as we have known it? I can see some of the Carnival Corp brands being merged, sold, shut down or having their ships rebranded under other corporate lines. Princess and Holland America had many of the most publicized issues and seem most likely to be up for consideration of changes.

[cdrmer]

Don't know where I should ask this question. Booked on the 11/5/2020 repositioning cruise out of NY. The Sky Princess seems stuck in Europe with the New England  cruises cancelled. Wondering if the Sky will just sail to NY and then the repositioning cruise to the Carribean?????

[voljeep]

1 hour ago, cdrmer said:

Wondering if the Sky will just sail to NY and then the repositioning cruise to the Carribean?????

i'm guessing that there is NO WAY, that the State/City of New York will allow any cruise ships to dock until well into 2021..

 

SKY will go directly to PE/FLL to begin the Caribbean season , if anything ...

[spyro1952]

1 hour ago, dog said:

No info. Just opinions. Slow restart. Few cruises in regions with open ports and flights. Wait and see. 2021. Carnival being guinea pig this summer. 

Serious doubts about Carnival reboot in August 

[dog]

55 minutes ago, spyro1952 said:

Serious doubts about Carnival reboot in August 

We will see. Would not catch me on any ship in 2020. 

[joe d]

In my opinion, not until there is a vaccine. There is just no way to social distance on a cruise. 

[land lover]

On 5/16/2020 at 9:04 AM, voljeep said:

August cruises - Majestic - Japan - does anyone really believe that will happen ??

 

September - Austrailia - that ain't happening either

September - West Coast , including Vancouver  Victoria as a port ??

September - CA Coastal - with Ensenada, Mexico as a port - that looks at least like a possible ??

September - Panama Canal - RT Los Angeles ??

September - Hawaii ? also includes Vancouver

 

Canada / New England - see ya in fall 2021  -  no 2020 on schedule per Princess website

 

Caribbean - November 4th start-up ?

 I think Australia might begin sooner than you think...many cruises don't need international travelers ...with all ports in Australia and all Australians on board, why wouldn't that work?...just sayin'...

[land lover]

Don't think a vaccine will make a difference, it will be the delivery of it and how effective it  is,  that will have an impact...I  believe cruising will begin faster than many think...

[PrincessLuver]

13 minutes ago, land lover said:

Don't think a vaccine will make a difference, it will be the delivery of it and how effective it  is,  that will have an impact...I  believe cruising will begin faster than many think...

 

Please tell me you have tomorrow's Winning Lotto Numbers too!!! 🙏

[land lover]

23 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

Please tell me you have tomorrow's Winning Lotto Numbers too!!! 🙏

LOL....No, but I have been pretty fortunate, so you might want to cruise with me....even though I have had many difficulties...which have been overcome, those experiences have make my outlook far more positive.

[npcl]

1 hour ago, land lover said:

 I think Australia might begin sooner than you think...many cruises don't need international travelers ...with all ports in Australia and all Australians on board, why wouldn't that work?...just sayin'...

The ships and the crew would have to get through quarantine period before anything else.  Suspect Australia is going to be rather cautious after Ruby Princess.

[Ken the cruiser]

We're curious about our late 30 day October cruise booked on the Grand from LA to Hawaii to Guam to South Korea to Japan and then finally Beijing and Shanghai before it heads south after we disembark to Vietnam and Singapore. We're giving it a 10% chance of sailing, but our big decision will be when the FPDD arrives in late June.

[jrblach]

hopefully here is a link to a list of bookable princess cruises

 View the list of available voyages ❯.

you can download an excel file -and unzip it

Edited May 17, 2020 by jrblach
add more info

[loge23]

On 5/16/2020 at 11:47 AM, voljeep said:

additionally - what will Princess have to do to restart cruises ?

 - restaff ships, since most crew have gone back home or will have soon, hopefully 

 - coast guard, or other regulatory inspections/ certifications ?

 - maintenance ? ( and I hope this doesn't evolve into a technical discussion )

 - of course, cruise ports have to re-open to cruise ships

 - what about international flights ?

 

In a perfect world, ships with minimal staff on board, vaccine , testing, 'cure' all in place... How long would it take Princess

to crew, supply, etc ?

May I add another: supply chain.

Over the past few long cruises that we've been on, we have become attuned to the resupply issues that a ship experiences. 

The cruise lines have a robust international supply chain that delivers fresh foods, spirits and wines, paper goods, and a whole host of other goods to the ships on an on-going basis - at a variety of ports. These purveyors, in turn, rely on their own supply chain to have these goods in stock for exactly when they needed. Recently, on a Hawaiian/Tahitian RT out of LA, we were amazed at the number of fully loaded containers that met the ship in Tahiti - God knows where the goods came from to get to Tahiti! It took the crew all day to unload these containers aboard.

On another cruise, we missed a port that was deliver goods to the ship - some of the staff shared their concerns about this us, although short-lived; the goods were somehow moved to our next port to greet us.

Point is, there's a whole network of buyers, producers, purveyors, and transport people involved and these folks haven't seen a cruise ship in months - some may be out of service permanently.

Not an exaggeration to suggest that whole new network will have be cobbled together to support the return of cruising. 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by loge23

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

On 5/16/2020 at 11:25 AM, Boiler Cruiser said:

The best information that I can find, at the moment, is that Princess is waiting until after the Alaska cruise season (in the fall) to restart their cruise schedule.  Does anyone else have additional information?  Any details behind what has been published so far?

That would depend. I show them starting November 4 for their first cruise out of Florida.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

Aug 8 Taiwan, Aug 29 Hong Kong, Nov 4 Fort Lauderdale

[Coupe]

What changes everything is herd immunity. That can be reached through natural means of contact or a vaccine. That is the only thing that defeats a virus. 

 

Life is full of risk. If you don't want to cruise - don't. If you are unhealthy - stay home.

 

I believe most people will stick their heads up this Summer and realize that things are not nearly as bad as the media was portraying. Either get out there and live your life or hide under your bed - your choice. Vaccine or not - you will most likely come in contact with the virus sometime in the next year just from living your life.

 

 

 

[harkinmr]

34 minutes ago, Coupe said:

Why is that the best study? Who says so? Who's talking about Spain in particular? Who says there will be 10 times the current fatality count? None of these things are provable. 

 

people who are not at risk should stop their social distancing. Get out there.

 

If you want to stay home. Do it. 

Two things:

 

1.  Do you honestly believe that there will be no social distancing or other mitigation measures on cruise ships to reopen?  Do you also believe that if YOU "get out there" and cruise that you will have the option to not abide by those measures?  Good luck with that!

 

2.  There are lots of us willing to venture out with mitigation measures in place and it's because of the attitudes and lack of respect/concern of people like you that we will remain reluctant to do so.  Especially on a cruise! 

[PrincessLuver]

22 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

Two things:

 

1.  Do you honestly believe that there will be no social distancing or other mitigation measures on cruise ships to reopen?  Do you also believe that if YOU "get out there" and cruise that you will have the option to not abide by those measures?  Good luck with that!

 

2.  There are lots of us willing to venture out with mitigation measures in place and it's because of the attitudes and lack of respect/concern of people like you that we will remain reluctant to do so.  Especially on a cruise! 

 

Well said and you hit the crux of the problem that those denying there is a problem are the ones who are the problem unfortunately!!

[Hlitner]

41 minutes ago, harkinmr said:

Two things:

 

1.  Do you honestly believe that there will be no social distancing or other mitigation measures on cruise ships to reopen?  Do you also believe that if YOU "get out there" and cruise that you will have the option to not abide by those measures?  Good luck with that!

 

2.  There are lots of us willing to venture out with mitigation measures in place and it's because of the attitudes and lack of respect/concern of people like you that we will remain reluctant to do so.  Especially on a cruise! 

While I would not hold myself to be an expert, I have spent more then 1200 days cruising on over 75 different ships...so do have a little knowledge of being on ships, both mass market (i.e. Princess) and ultra luxury.  Social distancing on mass market ships is a near impossibility primarily because of the design of ships.   Just consider the elevator situation for starters.  Princess theaters are designed somewhat smaller then many of their competitors which often has the theaters full or near full.  If they were to limit folks to every other seat it would take 5-6 shows to give everyone a chance to see a particular show.   Many of the princess Lidos are designed with minimal serving stations which are crammed into relatively tight areas.  The new Royal Class does have a much nicer open design (which would help support some social distancing) but the seating it too limited.  Deck chairs/loungers are located within inches of each other.  The only way to improve that situation would be to sale the ship's about half full which would mean losing money on each sailing....so that is not going to happen.   And lets not forget the bars/lounges.  The business model for mass market ships is to maximize onboard revenue....part of which comes from booze.  Maintaining social distancing in bars/lounges would be very difficult to impossible.

 

The cruise lines have tried all kinds of mitigation measures to minimize the risk or Norovirus and yet, Noro was still relatively common on ships.  Like COVID-19, these bugs are brought aboard by passengers/crew and there is no effective way to guarantee that nobody is carrying those bugs.

 

What can Princess do?  I have no solution.  Even quarantining passengers to their cabins on the Diamond Princess did not stop the spread of COVID-19.  There are apparently several ongoing studies trying to determine how COVID-19 kept spreading on the Diamond Princess and we have read a few theories.  But they are just that....theories.   They will likely stat cruising again with only some theories on how to mitigate COVID-19.  But cases are still going to happen on some ships.  What then?

 

Hank