MSC cruise starts up, what cruise line next?

[onetimearoundtheworld]

There is a much more important reason: there is no profit.

MSC had to postpone the start of the second ship due to low booking numbers. Pricing for the MSC and TUI ships is low and last minute staterooms available. MSC started to include their drink package for some departures as well. Aida wanted to start weeks ago and is now preparing for November. 

 

 

[chengkp75]

30 minutes ago, CruiseMH said:

 

thanks for the info. I didn`t have the cabotage laws imind. Well,in general there are the cabotage laws, but the cruise lines could ask for an exception in the country they want to cruise in/at. If Costa gets the exception for Italy,why shouldn`t the US lines get any as well? There are almost no differences regarding nationality of 95 % of the crew and other important factors.

Also it would be an option to make it one country(e.g. Italy) and one additional stop in Malta or Corfu or Ajaccio. Then it would be an multi-nations cruise. Greece has opend some of its ports and Italy has as well.So it should work.

 

But i can understand that it is extremely complicated and many cruise lines don`t want to put too much efforts in such planning.

But in case cruises from US ports are not possible for a longer period they have to think about this option.

 

 

Costa is flagged in Italy, so it is flagged as an EU member nation, so no exception for Italy.  Cabotage within the EU is slightly different from the US, in that voyages within one EU nation can be done by any ship flying the flag of any EU member.  So, HAL ships (Dutch flag) could do cruises with just Italian ports, or Aida could do cruises with just Spanish ports, but Bahamian and Panamanian ships could not.  Once you have a second nation's ports involved, even if they are also EU members, then the Bahamian and Panamanian ships can do those cruises.  As I say, though, only MSC has started cruises to more than one country, and lines are waiting to see the results before committing their ships to those cruises.

 

EU nations would be leery of granting exemptions to foreign flag ships, since just like the US's PVSA, the cabotage laws apply to many more types and sizes of passenger vessels than just cruise ships.

[CruiseMH]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

Costa is flagged in Italy, so it is flagged as an EU member nation, so no exception for Italy.

 

Costa is registered in Italy,but not in the "normal" register but in a special one. It saves up to 80% of the taxes and has much less strict regulations regarding crew. Therefore the company has not all rights it would have if it would be a "real" italian company. So in case they want to do Italy-only cruises they have to get a special permission.

The EU countries can give exemptions to specific companies.They don`t have to give the excemption to all ships of a specific country at the same time. The cruise ships are the only ones which need an exemption cause most of the regular ferry traffic or near-coast commercial traffic is done by companies/ships registered in Italy or at least the EU.

But as i already suggested they just need to stop at corfu or Ajaccio and they would have a second nation`s port in their itineraries. 😉 But i guess they do have reasons not to do so or not to try. Or maybe they are planning already but did not publish anything yet.

I don`t think the planning is the problem.the bigger problem will be the nationality of the passengers. Most US-cruise lines (especially celebrity or NCL) don`t have enough reputation and market share in the EU to be able to operate the ships profitable in the current situation.

 

[mpk]

On 8/18/2020 at 9:15 AM, Laszlo said:

Not to mention the added room and time required at the terminal to do this.

 

My understanding is that MSC has appointment times for embark.  I presume that these appointment times are strictly enforced to prevent overwhelming the port.  Their corona test has a 90 minute turnaround time, so there is not a lot of leeway for people that show up late, etc.

[mpk]

On 8/31/2020 at 8:15 AM, sanger727 said:

And once someone in the family has a positive test, the entire family will be denied boarding. Yes, it will be a tough pill to swallow. And why I won't book a cruise now.

 

There's an easy solution-  no more large group cruises   🙂     A great way to excuse oneself from traveling with too many people  🙂 

[All-ready2cruise]

I guess for me, it's an easy solution; I cruise solo, however, just how alone I'll be is the question.  I love meeting people so not being allowed to converse or dine with others will be a problem.   We'll see how the cruising schematic for 2021 works.  Good luck everyone.