OFFICIAL: All November cruises + AU/Asia until May 2021 cancelled

[bigbenboys]

57 minutes ago, WonderMan3 said:

Does anyone else find it puzzling that they would cancel the entire Asia and Australia winter cruising season but not the U.S. winter cruising season when the U.S. has COVID raging at much, much higher rates than those regions? Just as a comparison on October 2nd, the most recent date I am seeing for Australia data, they had 18 cases in one day, China had 21 cases, Japan had 652 cases, compared to 53,404 in the U.S. It’s like a world upside down...

Yes, I just did not understand canceling the Asia cruises. And still hoping for cruises to start up from the US. Have the ships be updated to cope with COVID yet?

[WonderMan3]

32 minutes ago, jelayne said:

 

I expected the Asia season to be cancelled.  As it stands the Eclipse and Millie wouldn't get to Asia until December.  Some main ports  like Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo are not allowing tourist and indications are that opening to tourists may be slowly phased in.

With the season ending in April it  be a short season, with a lot of logistical challenges with ports not open  and countries limiting entry to non-citizens.

As it should be. Our ports have been closed to cruise ships too and they should continue to remain this way like these Asian and Pacific nations that are far ahead of us in having this virus under control.

[ECCruise]

45 minutes ago, bigbenboys said:

Yes, I just did not understand canceling the Asia cruises. And still hoping for cruises to start up from the US. Have the ships be updated to cope with COVID yet?

Ships are with only skeleton crew. Doubt they are doing any major updates yet. 

[Cruisegroover]

2 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Does anyone else find it puzzling that they would cancel the entire Asia and Australia winter cruising season but not the U.S. winter cruising season when the U.S. has COVID raging at much, much higher rates than those regions? Just as a comparison on October 2nd, the most recent date I am seeing for Australia data, they had 18 cases in one day, China had 21 cases, Japan had 652 cases, compared to 53,404 in the U.S. It’s like a world upside down...

The Australian Government has a no international travel ban in place. Last night the government handed down the annual budget and they indicated they will be low inbound and outbound travel until the latter of part 2021. Travel is limited to essential travel only on approval from Federal Government.

 

I suspect all other cruiselines to follow suit. The current cruise ban is until 17 Dec having been extended by 3 months from 17 Sep. The government can only extend the ban by 3 months at a time under the current legislation and is most likely to extended again.

 

We are been encouraged to travel locally to help out our tourist industry when the state borders are open without the need to quarantine in hotels.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/federal-budget-2020-millions-pledged-to-encourage-aussies-to-explore-their-own-backyard/news-story/da768d0308b02cdc52230dfd8a8f44bb

 

[stefndoug]

3 hours ago, bigbenboys said:

Yes, I just did not understand canceling the Asia cruises. And still hoping for cruises to start up from the US. Have the ships be updated to cope with COVID yet?

 

You do know that Japan isn't allowing any international visitor's until Spring 2021 right?

[mahdnc]

It's a shame but we saw this coming.  We had an Asia cruise booked for Dec and a South Pacific cruise for Jan and cancelled them both last month (one was Lift and Shifted).  

[2Long2NxtCrz]

Just got our notice.  We had a Hawaiian cruise leaving May 3, 2020 that was to end up in Vancouver and that's been cancelled.  I'm guessing it's because the ship won't be where they needed it to be?  Or maybe they're anticipating no Alaska sailings too?

 

Hubby and I are going to go to Hawaii anyway, I guess.  We've never been and already booked our flights (with miles).

[TequilaJane]

Is Celebrity offering any compensation for charges to change airline tickets? 

[jelayne]

48 minutes ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

Just got our notice.  We had a Hawaiian cruise leaving May 3, 2020 that was to end up in Vancouver and that's been cancelled.  I'm guessing it's because the ship won't be where they needed it to be?  Or maybe they're anticipating no Alaska sailings too?

 

Hubby and I are going to go to Hawaii anyway, I guess.  We've never been and already booked our flights (with miles).

Did you mean 2021?   May 3, 2020 has passed.

[jelayne]

3 minutes ago, TequilaJane said:

Is Celebrity offering any compensation for charges to change airline tickets? 

Not to my knowledge, they didn’t when they cancelled our 4 cruises this year.   Most airlines are allowing changes with no fees or credit to be used within a set timeframe.

For 2 flights we got a credit good until 12/31/21 and 1 we used miles which were reinstated without a fee.

[upwarduk]

10 hours ago, jojo1966 said:

Just received my cancellation email....bit if a relief if I'm honest 

A huge relief I would think, would you have had any way to get to the ship, as a flight would be necessary.

Also there is still a Gov.UK advisory against cruising, so if you had gone and needed to claim on insurance, that would be void.

[jojo1966]

2 hours ago, upwarduk said:

A huge relief I would think, would you have had any way to get to the ship, as a flight would be necessary.

Also there is still a Gov.UK advisory against cruising, so if you had gone and needed to claim on insurance, that would be void.

the issue we have is that the flights are still happening ! BA are still flying to Japan every day  and its not against government advice to do that at the moment so they wont allow us to cancel our flights for a voucher - so getting to japan wouldn't have been an issue - but no - we wouldnt have had valid insurance i assume - at least now the cruise is offically cancelled i can start my battle with BA

[wendy_woo]

10 hours ago, Cruisegroover said:

The Australian Government has a no international travel ban in place. Last night the government handed down the annual budget and they indicated they will be low inbound and outbound travel until the latter of part 2021. Travel is limited to essential travel only on approval from Federal Government.

 

I suspect all other cruiselines to follow suit. The current cruise ban is until 17 Dec having been extended by 3 months from 17 Sep. The government can only extend the ban by 3 months at a time under the current legislation and is most likely to extended again.

 

We are been encouraged to travel locally to help out our tourist industry when the state borders are open without the need to quarantine in hotels.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/federal-budget-2020-millions-pledged-to-encourage-aussies-to-explore-their-own-backyard/news-story/da768d0308b02cdc52230dfd8a8f44bb

 

Australia is opening New South Wales (Sydney) and Darwin (Northern Territory) to New Zealand visitors from 16th October, but if we go we have to quarantine when we get back to New Zealand,  (crazy eh?) so I cannot see cruise ships or passengers from the European/US Territories being allowed to dock whilst COVID is rampant in those Regions.  We got our cancellation today for our Eclipse Melbourne to New Caledonia trip in February 2021, I did enquire for Lift and Shift, they are running a similar itinerary but from Sydney not Melbourne  so they said no to our request.  We will take the refund and see what options open over the next few months.  Take care!

Edited October 7, 2020 by wendy_woo
left out a few words

[fred111]

Thanks for the information.  I just downloaded the entire document.

 

[TeeRick]

17 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Does anyone else find it puzzling that they would cancel the entire Asia and Australia winter cruising season but not the U.S. winter cruising season when the U.S. has COVID raging at much, much higher rates than those regions? Just as a comparison on October 2nd, the most recent date I am seeing for Australia data, they had 18 cases in one day, China had 21 cases, Japan had 652 cases, compared to 53,404 in the U.S. It’s like a world upside down...

WM3 you are correct and I do find it puzzling to say the least.  World gone crazy.

Even if the RC Group wanted to start sailing very limited itineraries from the US Florida ports in December perhaps to private islands they should just be transparent and announce this.  In order to get ships in place and crew on board it will take until at least end of November.  And the crew and ports need extensive training on new procedures.  By the way procedures that have not even been announced or approved yet. I honestly don't see much cruising (if any) from the US until some time in 2021.  And don't count me in at this point.  Virus is still raging and FL just took away all control of it. 

[BigRedFan]

11 hours ago, jelayne said:

Not to my knowledge, they didn’t when they cancelled our 4 cruises this year.   Most airlines are allowing changes with no fees or credit to be used within a set timeframe.

For 2 flights we got a credit good until 12/31/21 and 1 we used miles which were reinstated without a fee.

I just got off the phone with my airline (United) and had no trouble at all moving the cancelled Australia flight back into a travel credit.  The only restriction on it was that it had to be booked by 5/27/2021, a year out from when I purchased it. They refunded my extra charges for my upgraded seats back to my credit card.

I read on the United site that Australia flights are limited to 450 passengers arriving from ALL flights!  United has maintained one flight to Sydney and it only carries 50 passengers.  Once they arrive they must quarantine for 14 days.

[downsmead]

8 hours ago, jojo1966 said:

the issue we have is that the flights are still happening ! BA are still flying to Japan every day  and its not against government advice to do that at the moment so they wont allow us to cancel our flights for a voucher - so getting to japan wouldn't have been an issue - but no - we wouldnt have had valid insurance i assume - at least now the cruise is offically cancelled i can start my battle with BA

Unfortunately BA don’t seem to want to play ball 🤷‍♀️. We have had cruises cancelled and BA refused to offer vouchers since our flights were booked outside of their allowed period - we booked early to get a good deal! We just had to sit it out and wait until BA actually cancelled the flights themselves. 
Hope you have better luck than we did 🤞.

[cruise kitty]

hoping someone can answer this:  my Asia cruise was a placeholder (booked onboard for the extra OBC....  if I take the 125% will I keep my extra OBC to carry to another cruise?   thanks in advance :)

[wrk2cruise]

30 minutes ago, cruise kitty said:

hoping someone can answer this:  my Asia cruise was a placeholder (booked onboard for the extra OBC....  if I take the 125% will I keep my extra OBC to carry to another cruise?   thanks in advance 🙂

 

Look in the FAQ's I believe it's covered there.   I'm pretty sure the answer is yes but you may have to remind them when you rebook and have the canceled reservation number handy.

 

I had outright canceled a cruise before final payment which was included in the Cruise With Confidence timeframe and I was able to get the onboard booking OBC applied to a new reservation by telling them my old reservation number.

Edited October 7, 2020 by wrk2cruise

[cruise kitty]

2 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

 

Look in the FAQ's I believe it's covered there.   I'm pretty sure the answer is yes but you may have to remind them when you rebook and have the canceled reservation number handy.

 

I had outright canceled a cruise before final payment which was included in the Cruise With Confidence timeframe and I was able to get the onboard booking OBC applied to a new reservation by telling them my old reservation number.

 

thank you, very helpful,  I hate just going in blind before I call them.   Going to check out the FAQ  :)

[ttewoh]

On 10/7/2020 at 9:58 AM, jojo1966 said:

the issue we have is that the flights are still happening ! BA are still flying to Japan every day  and its not against government advice to do that at the moment so they wont allow us to cancel our flights for a voucher - so getting to japan wouldn't have been an issue - but no - we wouldnt have had valid insurance i assume - at least now the cruise is offically cancelled i can start my battle with BA

We have just had our Celebrity cruise around Japan and the following cruise to Vancouver cancelled, I went on line to BA yesterday just filled in form requesting a voucher, we brought the tickets direct from BA in June, within 30mins had two vouchers back, no questions, they have to be used by May 2022. We were on the flights from Heathrow to Tokyo then returning from Vancouver to London. Hope you have better luck next time.  Jan

[jojo1966]

8 hours ago, ttewoh said:

We have just had our Celebrity cruise around Japan and the following cruise to Vancouver cancelled, I went on line to BA yesterday just filled in form requesting a voucher, we brought the tickets direct from BA in June, within 30mins had two vouchers back, no questions, they have to be used by May 2022. We were on the flights from Heathrow to Tokyo then returning from Vancouver to London. Hope you have better luck next time.  Jan

Yes...but buying in June fits in with BA voucher scheme which is why you were successful .we bought prior to 3rd March with travel after 31st October which they won't currently entertain refunding/vouchering

[2Long2NxtCrz]

On 10/6/2020 at 10:06 PM, jelayne said:

Did you mean 2021?   May 3, 2020 has passed.

Yes, of course.  Sorry.  I did have a May, 2020 cruise that was cancelled as well. 

[grandgeezer]

On 10/6/2020 at 1:18 PM, Plum Happy said:

Celebrity just tweeted this out 12 minutes ago,  Cancelled.

 

 

 

If you read this closely it says “We’re extending the suspensions of global operations through 11/30/20”, it does not mention the CDC or any body else as being involved in this decision. Start spewing your venom at them. As far as I know, the No Sail Order expired 10/1/20, and was not extended.

[Schmoe38]

1 hour ago, grandgeezer said:

 

If you read this closely it says “We’re extending the suspensions of global operations through 11/30/20”, it does not mention the CDC or any body else as being involved in this decision. Start spewing your venom at them. As far as I know, the No Sail Order expired 10/1/20, and was not extended.

The No Sail Order was extended by the CDC on Sept 30/20 through to Oct 31/20.

 

Randy