It's Official - No Cruises for the remainder of 2020

[cocopico]

Viking has officially announced what everyone suspected -- all cruises for the remainder of this year have been cancelled.  Fortunately, they are continuing the 125% voucher if you choose to leave your money with them.  I suspect, though, that future cruises are going to get harder and harder to book as a lot of folks scramble to move their 2020 cruises into 2021 and beyond. 

 

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html

Edited August 12, 2020 by cocopico
correct typo

[Jim Avery]

Yes, not a big surprise but still disappointing.  And you are spot on with all the vouchers.  The good:  Lets Viking keep some cash now.  The bad:  2021 and 2022 will be a huge amount of already spent "funny money".   Trying to compete for space against that will, as you say, probably be expensive. 

[Cienfuegos]

The $64,000 question is how many experienced, older travelers will opt for an early cruise in 2021, etc? 

 

The Hurtigruten situation is a sobering example of how a well thought out program in a country with good testing results, in a company/ship with favorable conditions, with a well tested crew, and a restricted number of passengers from selected countries can still have a problem.

 

Contrast that with a 7,000 passenger ship drawing crew from 20 countries, considerable travel before arrival at the ship, etc.  Assuming many countries want 7,000 visitors coming down the gangway...

[CCWineLover]

6 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

The $64,000 question is how many experienced, older travelers will opt for an early cruise in 2021, etc? 

 

The Hurtigruten situation is a sobering example of how a well thought out program in a country with good testing results, in a company/ship with favorable conditions, with a well tested crew, and a restricted number of passengers from selected countries can still have a problem.

 

Contrast that with a 7,000 passenger ship drawing crew from 20 countries, considerable travel before arrival at the ship, etc.  Assuming many countries want 7,000 visitors coming down the gangway...

You are right.  I wouldn't be surprised if the first few months of 2021 are rather iffy as well...

And if there are cruisers they will be part of the population who is willing to take the risks (younger? ) of being with crowds and/or experiencing a mask-required vacation at pre-virus prices.

As for 2021/22/23 - no doubt the prices will go up, as they are also predicting for hotels, VRBO's, Airbnb's, air fares and more.  We'll just have to see how it unfolds.

I personally am glad that Viking too the large leap and cancelled til January (instead of piece meal month by month as they have been doing).

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

To hedge for cruise prices going up after an effective vaccine is widely available, I’ve bought a ton of RCL, CCL, and NCLH.  Caution:  These stocks have been and will continue to be volatile.  And one or more of them could go bankrupt if a vaccine takes too long to be approved.

 

But ol’ Ragnar has always lived life on the edge 😉

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

PS -  here’s a nice little article that came out a few minutes ago that shows how far along the phase three trials one of the US vaccines is.  It is about a guy that volunteered to be a test subject:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/coronavirus-vaccine-trial-heres-what-its-like.html

 

[duquephart]

The longer this goes the more I wish I'd taken the refund.

[MikeD4134]

Viking has 7 ships, each ship carries 930 guests, the whole fleet carries 6,510 guests.  Why are we discussing what happens on a ship with 7,000 guests??

[Jim Avery]

Mr Hagen puts a little perspective on Viking's operations in his latest TV post.

 

https://email.vikingrivercruises.com/pub/cc?_ri_=X0Gzc2X%3DAQpglLjHJlTQGji5RWgrw3odpKGJKEgqOipTOTJCbBJaFwzbDgirzgNWFqtN9Aum4h3zbsVXtpKX%3DSURRSSWTT&_ei_=ErMaqUL2TjtAsvlcuh1W5ccVQebrvDufzAVF-WDm99GWTkjvQind56rgIQvIRcq1hew-NwvGzdok_2-DAbSWrxphuKuV3KOITV1Y_Ad8TAF-OIMDit8RAcM5T3cD1oExzXSt7ePSGF_FpF7PzPbx-TxYZLdOYHlKqM36jz546ZPJeRYNpj-6Bn3L1W5yz1XqyORwIy1G6bGSIOAP7U4o2PEutSit3n9AltnKA86XCfEQ0r1bkcI0Lqliovi4dfENXg.&_di_=qg5prjtrsruc6qq65v51mcq5cklet6vmnbbtm55jm2o000c5jqf0

[Jim Avery]

5 hours ago, Ragnar Danneskjold said:

To hedge for cruise prices going up after an effective vaccine is widely available, I’ve bought a ton of RCL, CCL, and NCLH.  Caution:  These stocks have been and will continue to be volatile.  And one or more of them could go bankrupt if a vaccine takes too long to be approved.

 

But ol’ Ragnar has always lived life on the edge 😉

Raggy, next time you take Carnival to Ensenada, don't forget to ask for your shareholeder OBC....😎

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:

Raggy, next time you take Carnival to Ensenada, don't forget to ask for your shareholeder OBC....😎

That will be the only cruise I could afford if those three stocks go bankrupt...

[Cienfuegos]

17 hours ago, MikeD4134 said:

Viking has 7 ships, each ship carries 930 guests, the whole fleet carries 6,510 guests.  Why are we discussing what happens on a ship with 7,000 guests??

 

 

It's less about the ships, and more about the ports. 

 

The experience of some people in Key West proposing to ban all cruise ships capable of carrying 500 or more passengers is a view toward what could happen if individual countries / ports decide that 935, or 6935 passengers coming down the gangway is a bigger risk than they want to undertake.

 

Look at the hysteria in the US when several cruise ships / large Petri dishes spent a week or two off the US coast, with passengers, while county, state, and federal authorities floundered about, seeking any solution.

[OnTheJourney]

On 8/12/2020 at 1:35 PM, CCWineLover said:

 

As for 2021/22/23 - no doubt the prices will go up, as they are also predicting for hotels, VRBO's, Airbnb's, air fares and more. 

 

Been thinking about this. Which is more likely to happen? Rock-bottom sale prices on cruises to try to entice people back onboard, or significantly higher prices to start recouping for at least some of the lost revenue? The random (yet most critical) element is how the public reacts when it starts reopening again. As is implied by what you mention - cruises will assumedly have to proceed in tandem with the entire travel industry. It all has to work together. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by OnTheJourney