When May River Cruise Lines Resume Service? [final edition]

[NMTraveller]

Watching this thread as we are hoping for an AMA cruise to go in August...

[CoolNickname]

I believe American Queen Steamboat Company may have their first ship cruising since shutdown right now. They said the Duchess cruises were canceled until March 14th and now the ship looks to be following the route for the cruise which should have boarded last weekend. They are definitely heading for Memphis which is where the next cruise boards this coming Sunday heading up from New Orleans which is where it was supposed to board passengers on the 14th. They were saying they planned to keep the ships under the 250 passengers and crew cut off set by the CDC and start sailing about two weeks ago when I spoke to them.

[AF-1]

CoolNickname;  thanks for that update.  Have a nice day

[notamermaid]

On 3/1/2021 at 7:17 PM, notamermaid said:

TUI River Cruises will now begin operations on 31 May, but the TUI Isla only on 1 November: https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/info/coronavirus

 

notamermaid

 

Another postponement, now to June and July: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/tui-river-cruises-extends-pause

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

This may not come about in exactly all the details, but the river cruise lines look towards a restart late May. Note that this was uttered during a meeting on 12 March and in these times news change fast:

 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/europe/late-may-start-projected-european-river-cruising

 

notamermaid

 

[Ritabob]

Just read an email from Uniworld...they have a deal for 50% off of certain cruises in June of this year...and no single supplement!   Deal is good for one week only.

Yipee!  Now I have to wait for my vaccine maybe in April and then the second shot in August, ...ooops, cruise in June  not going to happen.  Will anybody be able to make it?  So sad.

RB 

[gnome12]

11 minutes ago, Ritabob said:

Just read an email from Uniworld...they have a deal for 50% off of certain cruises in June of this year...and no single supplement!   Deal is good for one week only.

Yipee!  Now I have to wait for my vaccine maybe in April and then the second shot in August, ...ooops, cruise in June  not going to happen.  Will anybody be able to make it?  So sad.

RB 

I don't think you are really missing out. I doubt that any European cruises will go that early. The current dates for reopening in certain European countries are in June, but it is only mid-March. No one knows what is going to happen in June, but I don't think that things will get remarkably better.

[Ritabob]

The cruise company is overly optimistic,  and oh, such a tease.  I would love to get a 50% discount.  I've saved so much money this past year by not being able to go anywhere, and then to have a great offer dangled in front of me and know it isn't realistic.  Not fair..  I am pouting. 😉

[notamermaid]

It is realistic of Uniworld to think they can sail in June as their ships are now available on the German market and dates in May and June are bookable. I cannot link this as it is an online agency. But what a tease, 50% off for US customers. Not fair psychologically at all.

 

That nine nights from Frankfurt to Strasbourg on the River Queen starting 15 June looks so inviting. It costs from 3,829 euros per person. A bit more than is in my kitty... Would be nice if they offered three night cruises.

 

notamermaid

 

[acwmom]

1 hour ago, Ritabob said:

The cruise company is overly optimistic,  and oh, such a tease.  I would love to get a 50% discount.  I've saved so much money this past year by not being able to go anywhere, and then to have a great offer dangled in front of me and know it isn't realistic.  Not fair..  I am pouting. 😉

I see it more as a marketing ploy. Payment in full at time of booking, and current cancellations only being able to get FCC. Thus, you book, they cancel, they keep your money, and anything in the future you book is going to be a lot more. If they would have made this good for more than just June, I would think otherwise, but I think they realize that cruising in June is unlikely, and this is a way to make money.

While the deal is good (and actually one they offered years ago, in non-pandemic times, to RHC members) I'm not inclined to book.

Robin

[jklc123]

I was surprised a couple days ago to receive an email from Uniworld offering 50% off the price of four European cruises embarking in early June 2021. Would seem a bit early to me to be allowed.

 

watching and waiting with all of you.

[ural guy]

20 hours ago, acwmom said:

I see it more as a marketing ploy. Payment in full at time of booking, and current cancellations only being able to get FCC. Thus, you book, they cancel, they keep your money, and anything in the future you book is going to be a lot more.

Robin

Sounds about right, good call.

[Host Jazzbeau]

UPDATE:  Resolved! 

American Countess' debut cruise is back on after CDC dispute is resolved

 

Meanwhile, the CDC really does seem to have it in for cruising:

American Queen Steamboat cancels preview cruise over CDC dispute

[ljandgb]

I'm voting marketing ploy also, with the off chance they might actually be able to provide you a cruise in that time frame.

 

On another travel forum I frequent, there is currently a raging debate on a vaccine passport, particularly coming from the US.  I suspect the EU will require some sort of verifiable vaccine status (more than a piece of paper) before Americans will be allowed in.  That means our government is going to have to come up with something that other governments, air lines, etc, can access and that our American many and varied vaccine sites can reliably input data from.  The US does  not have a good track record of this sort of thing.

 

We're scheduled for a cruise in September 2021.  I'm still not convinced it will happen or that we'll be able to go.

[ljandgb]

Just got a timely email from Avalon stating they have updated their policy and that we will need to provide either a negative Covid test or proof of vaccination before the cruise, paper or electronic.  No specifics on what sort of proof exactly.

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, ljandgb said:

On another travel forum I frequent, there is currently a raging debate on a vaccine passport, particularly coming from the US.  I suspect the EU will require some sort of verifiable vaccine status (more than a piece of paper) before Americans will be allowed in. 

This is the proposal from the EU, a certificate, it will not be called a passport: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_1181

 

notamermaid

 

[texasstar]

It is official, Scenic has "suspended" the June cruises, at least in France.  This is now the second one "suspended."  They are giving FTC.  If you want a refund, you must wait until June 2023 to get it.

Glad to get the official word, so now I can start cancelling all the plans I had made for the pre-cruise.

[AF-1]

texasstar;  why do you have to wait 15 months for a refund?  

[rcaruso]

15 hours ago, ljandgb said:

Just got a timely email from Avalon stating they have updated their policy and that we will need to provide either a negative Covid test or proof of vaccination before the cruise, paper or electronic.  No specifics on what sort of proof exactly.

I got the same e-mail and frankly thinking of cancelling my December Avalon cruise and we start with a Viking spend time on land and then do Avalon, I would have to get tested in Germany and just for me too much hassle. But I will wait a bit as they all may cancel us.

[ljandgb]

Things are so up in the air, it's hard to know what to do.  It's really impossible to say what travel will be like 6 months from now, especially with our recent experiences.

 

We are going to Morocco next week with Classic Journeys on a land trip.  I'm frankly surprised it's even going, but it's just my husband, his cousin, and I, and we've all been vaccinated.  I'm still nervous about traveling, but am hoping for the best.

 

Beyond all that, our airline tickets have changed every 36 hours for the last 3 weeks, including just yesterday. Our flights home have been moved over a 3 day span repeatedly and we currently are scheduled to spend 12 hours overnight at the airport in Paris before boarding our flight to the US.  I've decided not to get upset about that, since none of these flights seem to "stick" longer than a day or two.

 

 We need a PCR test within 72 hours of boarding the plane to Morocco, which is 5:00pm Wednesday, so the test can be no earlier than 5:00pm Sunday, which effectively rules out any testing until Monday some time which leaves 2 days to get the results.  I'm stressed enough over all this to wonder if attempting to travel is worth it right now.

[notamermaid]

26 minutes ago, ljandgb said:

I'm stressed enough over all this to wonder if attempting to travel is worth it right now.

I hope you can go and it works out well. The experience of seeing the country will outweigh the hassle you have beforehand, I am sure.

 

Have a safe trip.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

41 minutes ago, rcaruso said:

I got the same e-mail and frankly thinking of cancelling my December Avalon cruise and we start with a Viking spend time on land and then do Avalon, I would have to get tested in Germany and just for me too much hassle. But I will wait a bit as they all may cancel us.

Do wait, life will look different in Europe come the Summer and by December you may well be alright with just the vaccine certificate before you leave the US.

 

notamermaid

 

[texasstar]

11 hours ago, AF-1 said:

texasstar;  why do you have to wait 15 months for a refund?  

It is more than 15 months.  We paid in full in Sept, 2019 for a cruise in June 2020 which was cancelled.  They only give you FTC not a refund, so we rebooked for June 2021.  The vouchers are good for two years.  If you choose not to use the FTC, you must wait until the end of the voucher time, to request a refund.  Luckily, they agreed to rebook the cruise for 2022 for the same price paid in 2019 (same cabin catagory), so we are now rebooked for June 2022.  Hopefully, third time is a charm.

[worldtraveller99]

Keep the faith texasstar! Our 2020 Alaska cruise is now 2022, and so is our 2020 Christmas Market Rhine cruise. If none of our cruises run then, the world will be in a disastrous place, with huge unemployment and health workers resigning as they cannot bear to wear PPE another moment.

[AF-1]

12 hours ago, texasstar said:

It is more than 15 months.  We paid in full in Sept, 2019 for a cruise in June 2020 which was cancelled.  They only give you FTC not a refund, so we rebooked for June 2021.  The vouchers are good for two years.  If you choose not to use the FTC, you must wait until the end of the voucher time, to request a refund.  Luckily, they agreed to rebook the cruise for 2022 for the same price paid in 2019 (same cabin catagory), so we are now rebooked for June 2022.  Hopefully, third time is a charm.

Yea,  I get it.  I think quite a few people including my wife and I;  we have FCC vouchers with AMA, which expire 31 Dec 2022.  We can't book a river cruise next year; due to other commitments;  so we will book something for 2023.  I guess we can book the cruise for 2023 using our vouchers which expire Dec 2022.