Update(s) on Grand Princess Summer 2021 Deployment (...and Crown, too?)

[LT Hambone]

Well......

 

It's been almost two weeks, doesn't look like anything is changing? Let's take a look!

 

First, the San Pedro cruise schedule for summer 2021 is still showing the Crown visiting next July -

 

 

 

But, the Le Havre cruise terminal schedule is also showing the Crown visiting next July -

 

 

And, adding to the mystery, the Princess Cruise search is still showing no cruises for the Grand next summer -

 

 

In my opinion, Princess is most likely taking care of the cancelled world cruises and extend pauses first, then might announce what's going on with these ships.

 

Never a dull moment!

[snoozecrooze]

[UPDATE!]

It doesn't directly address anything about Grand specifically yet. But here's something to chew on.

So that means Crown, Grand, and Star are all in question, without having been listed in any specific announcements just yet. My very speculative thoughts for summer 2021 are that:

• Crown deployed to San Pedro
• Grand deployed to Alaska (Vancouver), replacing Star (this bit now confirmed)
• Star deployed to Southampton for British Isles cruises
  • possible Suez Canal transit in fall 2021?
  • OR Star just disappears earlier than scheduled (like this year or in early-2021) and there basically won't be much of Star left as we know it when cruising resumes?

San Pedro's cruise schedule still doesn't show any changes yet, so Crown stays there. What I still don't understand is why Princess feels the need to rip out Crown's schedule in the first place. Surely lots of headaches for the travel agents and PVPs who have to deal with this. 

[Cruise Wonderland]

On 8/19/2020 at 10:56 PM, Cruise Wonderland said:

@snoozecrooze

I have also heard that Grand will replace Star to sail for the Alaska northbound / southbound itineraries. But same as you, I can't really confirm if this is true or not.

 

If your info and my info are both correct, then the puzzle will become

Los Angeles: Grand changes to Crown
Vancouver: Star changes to Grand

 

And then in Southampton, will Crown change to Star? Or even more ships will be involved for a more large-scale redeployment?

Let us wait for the announcement from Princess later today, hopefully.

So my predictions two weeks ago about Grand were correct 😄

[madmacs]

Don't forget Regal is supposed to be in Southampton replacing Grand - long way from Sydney to Southampton in 21 days

[cr8tiv1]

The Regal "IS" replacing the Grand in Southampton for my June 2021 sailing.  I am becoming very doubtful that Princess knows which ships will be where.  If they are willing to swap out ships and spend the time moving everyone over, what will prevent them from making another switch?  

 

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the room that all of these decisions are being made.  

[Busy Mum]

5 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

The Regal "IS" replacing the Grand in Southampton for my June 2021 sailing.  I am becoming very doubtful that Princess knows which ships will be where.  If they are willing to swap out ships and spend the time moving everyone over, what will prevent them from making another switch?  

 

I would love to be a fly on the wall in the room that all of these decisions are being made.  

@cr8tiv1

 

It sure would be fun to be in  that ‘meeting room’!! Hopefully someone knows what they are doing!! 🤣🤣🤷‍♀️😊

[Cruise Wonderland]

To summarize the information which is already CONFIRMED:

MAJESTIC: leave Taiwan and move to Alaska, replacing Regal
REGAL: leave Alaska and move to UK, replacing Grand
GRAND: leave UK and move to Alaska, replacing Star
STAR: leave Alaska and move to...??

 

Possible ship(s) that will also be involved, but not yet confirmed:

CROWN

 

[snoozecrooze]

It is crucial to make sure some of the readers passively browsing through the threads understand that Southampton normally has 2-3 ships (at least for the past few years) and not just 1, like we might have inadvertently emphasized here:

• 1 doing specifically British Isles round-trip voyages 
  • STILL FOR NOW (as in, it's still being sold on the website) for Summer 2021: Crown 
  • SPECULATION: Who knows? Could be Star! Or simply nothing's changing after all.
• 2 doing everything else (such as "Land of the Midnight Sun" or "Mediterranean Adventurer")
  • FOR NOW for Summer 2021: Regal (replaced Grand) and Island
  • SPECULATION: Please no more changes.

[dog]

Someone posted On fb they just had their cruise cancelled. Rome to Southampton UK for April 2021 on Grand. Saying cruise was not moved to another ship. 
 

I am booked on Crown April 24/21. Will wait for Princess to announce any changes. Not gong to be concerned at this point. 

[susancruzs]

This is all interesting, I'm on Crown in Oct. 2021, if the ship is switched to the Star doesn't matter.  I actually would prefer Star over the Grand, which was the initial speculation.  As we know, much can change before 2021 is set.

[1emerald1]

I asked my Princess vacation planner if he had any insight on the Crown, and he would not give me a definitive answer but he did say that they were told a ship would be based in San Pedro for the summer.

[Ombud]

11 hours ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

To summarize the information which is already CONFIRMED:

MAJESTIC: leave Taiwan and move to Alaska, replacing Regal
REGAL: leave Alaska and move to UK, replacing Grand
GRAND: leave UK and move to Alaska, replacing Star
STAR: leave Alaska and move to... P&O Australia as Pacific Encounter replacing Pacific Aria (was HAL Ryndam, leaving P&O by May 2021)

 

Possible ship(s) that will also be involved, but not yet confirmed:

CROWN

 

[TeaBag]

9 hours ago, dog said:

Someone posted On fb they just had their cruise cancelled. Rome to Southampton UK for April 2021 on Grand. Saying cruise was not moved to another ship. 
 

I am booked on Crown April 24/21. Will wait for Princess to announce any changes. Not gong to be concerned at this point. 

That is correct.  We all got emails Wed to say the Singapore to Southampton on Grand sailing has been cancelled with nothing being offered in return except $15 OBC for some other booking.  

[susancruzs]

The Star going to Australia was announced last year before the virus crisis, question is, are those plans still in play or have they changed?

[coo359a2]

3 hours ago, TeaBag said:

That is correct.  We all got emails Wed to say the Singapore to Southampton on Grand sailing has been cancelled with nothing being offered in return except $15 OBC for some other booking.  

Based on my cancellation notices the new booking has to be made by 28 Feb 2021.  I've already booked a cruise to replace the cancelled Grand Princess not for the OBC but to get the same cabin we have for our cruises in Aug & Sept.

 

Also curious about where the Crown P will be located.   We have a 10 day  Panama Canal   cruise booked  in Feb out of Fort Lauderdale..

[Cruise Wonderland]

6 hours ago, Ombud said:

STAR: leave Alaska and move to... P&O Australia as Pacific Encounter replacing Pacific Aria (was HAL Ryndam, leaving P&O by May 2021)

 

The original plan was Star Princess would sail in Alaska in May - Sep 2021, then have a farewell reposition cruise from North America to Asia in Sep - Oct 2021. She would then be converted to P&O Pacific Encounter in Singapore drydock. Maiden voyage of the "new" ship will be in Nov 2021 from Singapore to Australia.

 

Hence I am not sure whether Star Princess will leave the fleet earlier in May 2021, or she will sail in another region in summer 2021 then enter drydock on schedule in fall 2021?

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

 

The original plan was Star Princess would sail in Alaska in May - Sep 2021, then have a farewell reposition cruise from North America to Asia in Sep - Oct 2021. She would then be converted to P&O Pacific Encounter in Singapore drydock. Maiden voyage of the "new" ship will be in Nov 2021 from Singapore to Australia.

 

Hence I am not sure whether Star Princess will leave the fleet earlier in May 2021, or she will sail in another region in summer 2021 then enter drydock on schedule in fall 2021?

My guess since Star will not sail to Alaska in summer 2021 is that she does not return to service and any cruises schedule prior to her summer Alaska season will eventually be cancelled. 
 

Even when cruises do resume it will not be the whole fleet all at once it will take 6-12 months to get every ship back in service. We can expect rolling cancellations we’ll into 2022 as a result. 

[nreeder]

Looking at the schedule, Grand Princess will do Alaska next Summer, come down next September, and do LA cruises for 21/22 winter season.  Not involved with the other ships.

Norm

[snoozecrooze]

On 9/5/2020 at 3:43 PM, nreeder said:

Looking at the schedule, Grand Princess will do Alaska next Summer, come down next September, and do LA cruises for 21/22 winter season.

Yes, you're correct. So much for Princess trying to drum up enthusiasm for Grand's "summer in LA" itineraries a few months back ,when her Alaska schedule has now been quietly put online to replace Star's Alaska schedule. I actually have to agree with another poster above that Star will probably be cut from the fleet without ever restarting ops, but I think we won't hear about that much because of negative publicity. Probably also same with Sun/Sea after whatever they're scheduled to do (if they end up sailing at all). Meh. 

[nreeder]

Actually, I know where Sun will be because we looked at her as a possibility when there were no 7 day transitions in September from the end of the Alaska 2021 Season to LA (now solved by this week’s addition of Grand to do that).  Sun is going to Alaska for 2021 Summer including one 14 day turnaround from LA.  I don’t know where she goes after Alaska.

Norm

[eamondzhang]

On 9/3/2020 at 5:20 PM, Cruise Wonderland said:

To summarize the information which is already CONFIRMED:

MAJESTIC: leave Taiwan and move to Alaska, replacing Regal
REGAL: leave Alaska and move to UK, replacing Grand
GRAND: leave UK and move to Alaska, replacing Star
STAR: leave Alaska and move to...??

 

Possible ship(s) that will also be involved, but not yet confirmed:

CROWN

 

Add to that list is Sea and Sun, I know Sun is doing Summer'21 in US but nothing after that. 

 

Looks like Sea and Sun might be heading outwards from Princess as well - they were featured as part of the fleet for latest AU/NZ release for 2021-2022 season, although Sea is listed for its Australian journeys till Nov'21.

 

Michael

[eamondzhang]

1 hour ago, eamondzhang said:

Add to that list is Sea and Sun, I know Sun is doing Summer'21 in US but nothing after that. 

 

Looks like Sea and Sun might be heading outwards from Princess as well - they were NOT featured as part of the fleet for latest AU/NZ release for 2021-2022 season, although Sea is listed for its Australian journeys till Nov'21.

 

Michael

Can't edit anymore but was meant to say "NOT featured"

 

Dang!

 

Michael

[EllieinNJ]

I've been looking at the Star for B2B 10 Day LA to LA then 7 day LA to Vancouver 4/23 thru 5/10/21.  Do you think they will replace this cruise with another ship or just cancel?

[Kamloops50]

The Grand has replaced the Star in Alaska for 2021. The last Star cruise is a coastal to Vancouver in May . All cruise after this one on the Star have been cancelled.

[Kamloops50]

On 9/3/2020 at 12:20 AM, Cruise Wonderland said:

To summarize the information which is already CONFIRMED:

MAJESTIC: leave Taiwan and move to Alaska, replacing Regal
REGAL: leave Alaska and move to UK, replacing Grand
GRAND: leave UK and move to Alaska, replacing Star
STAR: leave Alaska and move to...??

 

Possible ship(s) that will also be involved, but not yet confirmed:

CROWN

 

The Diamond is replacing the Sapphire for South America for 2021 and 2022. This means there will be two transpacific cruises on the Diamond in 2021 and 2022 .