Cunard

[molecrochip]

Due to the international nature of the Cunard passenger base, they have extended their pause again.

• sailings up to 25 March 2021 for Queen Elizabeth,
• 18 April 2021 for Queen Mary 2 and
• 16 May 2021 for Queen Victoria.

 

There are also significant itinerary changes which I'll post in a second.

Edited August 25, 2020 by molecrochip

[molecrochip]

Queen Elizabeth Australia, Japan and Alaska seasons up to 13 December 2021 are all cancelled.

New Queen Elizabeth short European holidays from Southampton and Mediterranean sailings from Barcelona.

New voyages go on sale on 29 September 2020 and are available to view now.

 

Queen Mary 2's season from 3 January 2022 to 3 April 2022 cancelled and replaced with a 104 night world cruise. This acknowledges that both the 2020 and 2021 world cruises have been partially or fully cancelled.

New voyages go on sale on 8 September 2020 and are available to view now.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by molecrochip

[jeanlyon]

Goodness, I can only think that P&O will follow suit.  I know it's mostly Brits, but I can see them pausing until March 2021.  Just don't think they will do it in the same way.

 

No country appears to be totally safe.

[molecrochip]

Just now, jeanlyon said:

Goodness, I can only think that P&O will follow suit.  I know it's mostly Brits, but I can see them pausing until March 2021.  Just don't think they will do it in the same way.

 

No country appears to be totally safe.

I think its very much the international passenger mix on Cunard that is the issue here. P&O is very high 90s% British. I do think that P&O will restrict themselves to Europe/Norway and the Caribbean.

 

If P&O were going to cancel fleetwide through March 2021, they would have done so already when they cancelled the world/South American cruises.

[molecrochip]

Couple of additional tidbits:

 

Queen Elizabeth's itineraries around Britain appears to be offering "scenic cruising" with "uninterrupted sailing from departure to disembarkation"

 

Queen Mary 2 will sail via the Med and Singapore both to and from Australia on her 2022 world cruise. So no, Caribbean, North America , South America or Pacific crossings. That gives me hope that Aurora's 2022 world cruise will survive.

[molecrochip]

Last week Arnold Donald did an interview with Bloomberg radio in the US where he spoke about there being a plan for every cruise (essentially in case a large Covid outbreak occurs or at worst it needs to be abandoned).

 

What you see from these itineraries is that certain ports are being utilised for multiple cruises. A kind of make-shift home-port arrangement.

 

• Southampton (dedicated Carnival facilities)
• Barcelona (dedicated Carnival facilities)
• Genoa (dedicated Carnival facilities)
• Singapore
• Hong Kong
• Melbourne

[Britboys]

11 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Couple of additional tidbits:

 

Queen Elizabeth's itineraries around Britain appears to be offering "scenic cruising" with "uninterrupted sailing from departure to disembarkation"

 

Queen Mary 2 will sail via the Med and Singapore both to and from Australia on her 2022 world cruise. So no, Caribbean, North America , South America or Pacific crossings. That gives me hope that Aurora's 2022 world cruise will survive.

They don't appear to have updated the website yet. Still says pause until November and QE cruises for 2021 not showing.

Re Aurora's 2022 Worldie - do you think they will change the itinerary as she is due to go down through the Caribbean & USA? Or did you just mean that the QM2 Worldie will not be doing a similar itinerary to Aurora, hence making Aurora's Worldie likely to survive?....

[molecrochip]

16 minutes ago, Britboys said:

They don't appear to have updated the website yet. Still says pause until November and QE cruises for 2021 not showing.

Re Aurora's 2022 Worldie - do you think they will change the itinerary as she is due to go down through the Caribbean & USA? Or did you just mean that the QM2 Worldie will not be doing a similar itinerary to Aurora, hence making Aurora's Worldie likely to survive?....

If you click on latest travel information its now there - they've not updated the front page yet.

 

I was referring to your later suggestion rather than a route change.

[Dermotsgirl]

I think this is a very good move from Cunard, to give their passengers some certainty.  My friends were due on the QV Christmas cruise, and were getting anxious about it when I spoke to them last week, so I think they will be delighted when they hear today's news.

 

We are due on the QV sailing to Venice next October, and today's news has also encouraged me. I will be able to make an informed decision about whether to go or not by seeing how Cunard's procedures work in practice, and if it doesn't go well, I feel happier that Cunard are more likely to cancel well in advance.  

 

I think Cunard are being quite bold in planning a world cruise for early 2022, but time will tell 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

Goodness, I can only think that P&O will follow suit.  I know it's mostly Brits, but I can see them pausing until March 2021.  Just don't think they will do it in the same way.

 

No country appears to be totally safe.

Yes, I'm afraid that P&O will now keep doing their cancellations in bite sized chunks, just after the due date of the final balance.

 

I understand why they would do this..... but from a customer perspective I don't like it 

[Dermotsgirl]

58 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Couple of additional tidbits:

 

Queen Elizabeth's itineraries around Britain appears to be offering "scenic cruising" with "uninterrupted sailing from departure to disembarkation"

 

Queen Mary 2 will sail via the Med and Singapore both to and from Australia on her 2022 world cruise. So no, Caribbean, North America , South America or Pacific crossings. That gives me hope that Aurora's 2022 world cruise will survive.

Any thoughts on Arcadia's 55 Night Cruise in January 2022 to the Amazon and Caribbean?

 

I'm due to go on that cruise and as things stand at the moment, I would be more than happy for it to be cancelled.

 

Perhaps they would take out the Amazon section, which of course is the main reason I booked the cruise! 

 

 

[Selbourne]

I’m really struggling to understand the logic of ‘U.K. scenic cruises’ where you don’t leave the ship. Other than when cruising down fjords (which we don’t have in the U.K.), even the smallest ships are always too far from the shore to really get decent views.
 

Furthermore, it makes no sense at all from a Covid-19 perspective. The risk issues with cruises concern the nature of cruising, the design of the ships and passenger behaviours. None of this is lessened with this type of cruise. In fact, it’s worse, as we always find that ships can feel quite overcrowded on sea days, especially when in Northern Europe when it’s too cold to sit on deck. Add to all of this the fact that the U.K. has comparatively high infection rates, you are no safer joining a ship with thousands of Brits all in close proximity than you would be if you disembarked in many locations overseas!

[jeanlyon]

Yes I agree.  Not my idea of a cruise at all.  Half the fun is exploring new places and for us, definitely not on an excursion.  So I think until there is a real vaccine, not the Russian or American kind (unproven) we will not be cruising. 

 

Our balance for next April is due in January and I doubt we shall be paying that.  Luckily we only lose £50 per head as we booked on board.

[wowzz]

19 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Add to all of this the fact that the U.K. has comparatively high infection rates,

Comparative to where. Certainly not the US, Spain, Italy, France.

And the infection rate per se is only one criteria. More people in the UK are currently dying from "common flu" than CV19 . Yet this figure is being conveniently ignored.

[Esprit]

31 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I’m really struggling to understand the logic of ‘U.K. scenic cruises’ where you don’t leave the ship. Other than when cruising down fjords (which we don’t have in the U.K.), even the smallest ships are always too far from the shore to really get decent views.
 

Furthermore, it makes no sense at all from a Covid-19 perspective. The risk issues with cruises concern the nature of cruising, the design of the ships and passenger behaviours. None of this is lessened with this type of cruise. In fact, it’s worse, as we always find that ships can feel quite overcrowded on sea days, especially when in Northern Europe when it’s too cold to sit on deck. Add to all of this the fact that the U.K. has comparatively high infection rates, you are no safer joining a ship with thousands of Brits all in close proximity than you would be if you disembarked in many locations overseas!

Blimey! Your skill set wouldn't include Public Relations work I guess 😂 

[Dermotsgirl]

42 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I’m really struggling to understand the logic of ‘U.K. scenic cruises’ where you don’t leave the ship. Other than when cruising down fjords (which we don’t have in the U.K.), even the smallest ships are always too far from the shore to really get decent views.
 

I think these scenic cruises are designed for the ‘ I just want to be on a ship’ crowd, who aren’t worried about no ports and lots of restrictions 

[Dermotsgirl]

22 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Comparative to where. Certainly not the US, Spain, Italy, France.

And the infection rate per se is only one criteria. More people in the UK are currently dying from "common flu" than CV19 . Yet this figure is being conveniently ignored.

I’ve got a strange sense of deja vu here, but you seem to be conveniently ignoring (again) the 65000 excess deaths this year, mostly from April and May, when the current wave of the pandemic was at its height 
 

We’ve got to do everything in our power to stop that happening again 

[Selbourne]

22 minutes ago, Esprit said:

Blimey! Your skill set wouldn't include Public Relations work I guess 😂 

 

Just one of my many skills. Being able to bury my head in the sand isn’t one of them though 😉

[wowzz]

7 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I’ve got a strange sense of deja vu here, but you seem to be conveniently ignoring (again) the 65000 excess deaths this year, mostly from April and May, when the current wave of the pandemic was at its height 
 

We’ve got to do everything in our power to stop that happening again 

I know we have been over this before, but the 65,000 that died will not die again.

We need to do everything in our power to reopen the economy, knowing that CV19 will be ever present, but that it is not necessary to keep locking down the economy. 

[Selbourne]

13 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I think these scenic cruises are designed for the ‘ I just want to be on a ship’ crowd, who aren’t worried about no ports and lots of restrictions 

 

Im sure you are correct. There are quite a few on here. I still struggle with the Covid-19 aspects though. Strikes me as about the most risky type of cruise you could do. Being ashore in a foreign country, even with a higher infection rate than us, would be less risk (if you stuck to outdoor areas) than being cooped up in a crowded ship on endless sea days. 

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I know we have been over this before, but the 65,000 that died will not die again.

We need to do everything in our power to reopen the economy, knowing that CV19 will be ever present, but that it is not necessary to keep locking down the economy. 

 

I completely agree with you on the need to get the economy moving, but cruising remains the highest risk holiday activity, unfortunately. If it wasn’t, they would be operating. 

[Britboys]

50 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I’m really struggling to understand the logic of ‘U.K. scenic cruises’ where you don’t leave the ship. Other than when cruising down fjords (which we don’t have in the U.K.), even the smallest ships are always too far from the shore to really get decent views.
 

Furthermore, it makes no sense at all from a Covid-19 perspective. The risk issues with cruises concern the nature of cruising, the design of the ships and passenger behaviours. None of this is lessened with this type of cruise. In fact, it’s worse, as we always find that ships can feel quite overcrowded on sea days, especially when in Northern Europe when it’s too cold to sit on deck. Add to all of this the fact that the U.K. has comparatively high infection rates, you are no safer joining a ship with thousands of Brits all in close proximity than you would be if you disembarked in many locations overseas!

Whilst I agree with you about the whole concept of a cruise without ports, I would also say that from memory of my one cruise aboard Queen Elizabeth in 2016, she somehow felt much more spacious than her cousin, Arcadia. Whilst both are Vista Class ships, the interiors are very different and QE seems to have more rooms in which people can sit. The cruise was an 'around Britain' itinerary, so certainly not all fine weather!

[wowzz]

Just now, Selbourne said:

 

I completely agree with you on the need to get the economy moving, but cruising remains the highest risk holiday activity, unfortunately. If it wasn’t, they would be operating. 

Yes, I wasnt suggesting that  cruusing is risk free, but just that in general terms, the risk from CV19 are now significantly less than the risks from not reopening the economy, getting children back to school, etc. 

 

[jeanlyon]

If this is what cruising will be like - no thanks 😞

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cruise-ships-coronavirus-recovery?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

[Selbourne]

14 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Whilst I agree with you about the whole concept of a cruise without ports, I would also say that from memory of my one cruise aboard Queen Elizabeth in 2016, she somehow felt much more spacious than her cousin, Arcadia. Whilst both are Vista Class ships, the interiors are very different and QE seems to have more rooms in which people can sit. The cruise was an 'around Britain' itinerary, so certainly not all fine weather!

Thats good to hear as we will be considering Cunard once all of this is a distant memory. We have only been on P&O ships and find that all of them can feel crowded inside on sea days, unless the weather is such that all the sun worshippers are on deck!