What is your expected return date to cruising?

[clo]

13 minutes ago, gooch47 said:

We always go in a couple days early, too.  But dragging suitcases around and just walking around the mega ships both wear us out. 

We're not big cruisers but the recent three we've been on haven't been "mega" by a long shot. 100 pax on Hurtigruten for Norwegian coastal. 400 on Hurtigruten for Antarctica. And a year ago 1000 on Oceania for South America. You'll pay more for, say, Oceania but I'd rather go less often and pay more. My experiences on those big ships is that I kept getting lost trying to get back to our cabin 🙂

[c-boy]

my assistant informed me last evening that the 9/11/2021 has been cancelled. Shortly afterward she informed the Spanish passage 11/15/2021 is on the books. 

[rkacruiser]

On 11/21/2020 at 6:12 PM, getting older slowly said:

Even at the pointy end..... which is costly.....  basically we are not interested in travelling outside our own country particularly with pandemic still running riot in some countries

 

A bit of a chuckle about your comment about the "pointy end".  Booking such on one's own:  yes.  Booking through a cruise line's air program may make it significantly more affordable.  At this point in my life, particularly on international flights, I won't choose to fly in "Sardine Class".  Or even "Premium Sardine Class" whatever the airline chooses to call it.  

 

Traveling inside or outside of the United States is not something that I am going to do for quite some time, I have come to accept.  Traveling beyond the borders of my own community--at this time--is not something that I am even going to risk.  And, even as I do what I must do outside of my "bubble", the statistics for the State of Ohio and Montgomery County are disturbing.  

[iancal]

Who really knows???   It is all conjecture at this point.  Not enough data to determine this with any certainty.

 

When cruising commences and when we feel comfortable enough to board a cruise ship are two very different animals.

 

 Hence the reason why we will not part with even a dime until we know exactly what we are signing up for, what we are buying.

[rkacruiser]

23 hours ago, iancal said:

 Hence the reason why we will not part with even a dime until we know exactly what we are signing up for, what we are buying.

 

It's a mystery to me why so many, it seems, continue to send their money for a product for which there is no assurance that they will receive.  

 

"Hope springs eternal", I suppose.  But, as a shareholder in RCI and CCL, I thank you for doing so.  

[Rockette]

August... probably on the Mardi Gras. It'll be my first time on Carnival!

[clo]

On 11/22/2020 at 5:42 PM, iancal said:

When cruising commences and when we feel comfortable enough to board a cruise ship are two very different animals.

 

^^^

[rkacruiser]

10 hours ago, Rockette said:

August... probably on the Mardi Gras. It'll be my first time on Carnival!

 

I look forward to sailing on this innovative ship.  Good wishes that you will be able to do so!

[goldengirl123]

On 11/17/2020 at 1:58 PM, SelectSys said:

All of the news on vaccines that have been disclosed over the last couple of weeks has raised my enthusiasm level and optimism that we'll be able to return to cruising within the next year or so.  

 

What is your personal guess?  Mine is the 2nd half of 2022, but I hope it is sooner!

 

Do you have any hard preconditions before which you won't travel - e.g., vaccine in wide distribution.  Also, do you think that with a good vaccine the onboard experience will largely be "normal" including onboard experience and shore excursion flexibility?

 

[goldengirl123]

These are my concerns:

a-- Once cruising starts again,  and if 10 % of 5000 people including passengers and crew still get infected even after getting a vaccine , that is still 500 people who will get the corona-virus on a cruise ship!

a- If the virus mutates, the vaccine won't work anyhow ....unfortunately.

b- If the vaccine is effective, we don't know how long immunity will even last as of yet.   (3 months? a year?)

 

Honestly, I think we just need to wait for herd immunity before we can all start cruising safely again.  But the good news is, with the vaccine and so many people have likely already caught it and don't even know it, we may get there soon!

 

[SelectSys]

It looks like Bill Gate's is in synch with the Cruise Critic community in predicting a somewhat return to normalcy in the summer of 2021.  I assume Mr. Gate's prediction of "normalcy" includes a restart of cruising in some capacity.

 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bill-gates-on-the-next-few-months-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-its-bad-news-11607893787

 

I will be really curious to see how well we did in estimating the "return to cruising" via our group votes.  I went back and looked at the votes and it suggests late Nov  2021 as the average date for a general return to cruising.  

Edited December 14, 2020 by SelectSys

[clo]

6 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

I assume Mr. Gate's prediction of "normalcy" includes a restart of cruising in some capacity.

Hmm. Interesting comment...from you. I wouldn't consider cruising a "normal" activity for the vast majority of people.

[SelectSys]

3 minutes ago, clo said:

Hmm. Interesting comment...from you. I wouldn't consider cruising a "normal" activity for the vast majority of people.

 

You are most correct in that one must live in highly "rarified air" to consider cruising to be a normal activity.  The posters on this site must inhabit this "air" considering the tales and experiences I hear recounted on this site. 

 

As part of the CC community, I consider "cruising" for myself and others here to be a normal part of our lives and I look forward to cruising again in 2022.

 

A simple analysis on being extremely fortunate and well off:

1. In 2019, approximately 30 million people took a cruise.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/385445/number-of-passengers-of-the-cruise-industry-worldwide/ 
2. Assuming the average may be 2 cruises per person per year as many cruisers take many, that suggests between 15 to 30 million unique cruise passengers. 
3. With a world population estimated to be 7.8 billion https://www.prb.org/2020-world-population-data-sheet/#:~:text=The world population is projected,as in the United States. 

The numbers suggests somewhere between 1 person in 260 (~.4%) or 520 (~.2%) of the world's population took a cruise in 2019.  Are any of you surprised to be in the Global 1% club?

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, SelectSys said:

 

You are most correct in that one must live in highly "rarified air" to consider cruising to be a normal activity.  The posters on this site must inhabit this "air" considering the tales and experiences I hear recounted on this site. 

 

As part of the CC community, I consider "cruising" for myself and others here to be a normal part of our lives and I look forward to cruising again in 2022.

 

A simple analysis on being extremely fortunate and well off:

1. In 2019, approximately 30 million people took a cruise.  https://www.statista.com/statistics/385445/number-of-passengers-of-the-cruise-industry-worldwide/ 
2. Assuming the average may be 2 cruises per person per year as many cruisers take many, that suggests between 15 to 30 million unique cruise passengers. 
3. With a world population estimated to be 7.8 billion https://www.prb.org/2020-world-population-data-sheet/#:~:text=The world population is projected,as in the United States. 

The numbers suggests somewhere between 1 person in 260 (~.4%) or 520 (~.2%) of the world's population took a cruise in 2019.  Are any of you surprised to be in the Global 1% club?

Valid point -- people on these threads tend to lose sight of how "special" they are.   How many, for example, go to sleep at night with no idea of what they might have for breakfast?

[clo]

20 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Valid point -- people on these threads tend to lose sight of how "special" they are.   How many, for example, go to sleep at night with no idea of what they might have for breakfast?

Far too many. Which, for me, means that normalcy and cruising couldn't be much farther apart. Well , maybe space travel.

 

PS; Our local food bank has seen requests go up by more than 50% this year.

[SelectSys]

17 minutes ago, clo said:

 means that normalcy and cruising couldn't be much farther apart...

In my reference to Mr. Gates, he was talking about normalcy from a general economic perspective.  Cruising is a part of the normal economic landscape in many developed nations. 

 

Prior to COVID, cruising on ships was part of my personal "normal" life.  I hope my life returns to normal, including cruising, by early 2022.

 

Am I extremely fortunate?  Most definitely yes!

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, SelectSys said:

Prior to COVID, cruising on ships was part of my personal "normal" life.  I hope my life returns to normal, including cruising, by early 2022.

 

Am I extremely fortunate?  Most definitely yes!

 

Have I been fortunate to have the experiences that I have had?  Another vote for "most definitely yes!"  

 

Will my personal "normal" life again include cruising?  The jury is out on that question.  I am hoping for another Christmas/New Year's Cruise in 2021.  But, some "dominoes" are going to have to fall in place for that to occur.  

[getting older slowly]

5 hours ago, clo said:

Far too many. Which, for me, means that normalcy and cruising couldn't be much farther apart. Well , maybe space travel.

 

7 hours ago, SelectSys said:

In 2019, approximately 30 million people took a cruise. 

Point this is a cruise forum so the  people here should be one of those 30 million counted

 

also in 2019   132000 people joined CC

 

Thus Normalcy to people on CC is to Cruise....

 

Not sure about Space travel thingie... a bit dear.....

 

It you don't cruise or don't wish to cruise... why are those on a Cruise forum ???  Just a thought

[clo]

25 minutes ago, getting older slowly said:

Thus Normalcy to people on CC is to Cruise....

 

I was talking about Bill Gates referring to normalcy and I doubt cruising is what he had in mind.

[SteadyBetty]

My plan:  September 2022

[clo]

20 minutes ago, SteadyBetty said:

My plan:  September 2022

That's mine also. And we have until June 2022 to cancel and get full deposit refund.

[SelectSys]

16 hours ago, clo said:

I was talking about Bill Gates referring to normalcy and I doubt cruising is what he had in mind.

 

As one would expect when talking to a business news channel such as CNBC, Mr. Gates comments were focused on economic activity in general when talking about a return to normalcy.  While not specifically mentioned, cruising is as much a normal economic activity as any other leisure activity - attending movies, sports events, travel, restaurants, theaters, concerts, etc.

 

Here is the quote from the article:

 

Gates explained to CNN host Jake Tapper. “This virus could be more fatal than it is. We didn’t get the worst-case. But the thing that has surprised me is that the economic impact in the U.S. and around the world has been much greater than the forecasts that I made five years ago.”

Gates also said that we can expect the world to start its long-awaited return to normalcy as early as the summer of 2021, with a few caveats.

“Even through early 2022, unless we help other countries get rid of this disease and we get high vaccinations rates in our country, the risk of reintroduction will be there,” he said. “And, of course, the global economy will be slowed down, which hurts America’s economy in a pretty dramatic way. “

[davekathy]

Anymore our expected cruise dates are a moving target. 

[rkacruiser]

4 hours ago, davekathy said:

Anymore our expected cruise dates are a moving target. 

 

Mine is as well.  As well as the question that is uppermost in my mind:  will I be able to cruise again?  

[zigdilcru]

well i’m not only planning, i am booked for sept 12, 2021 and then again for jan 30, 2022.  gotta keep positive ( but always book refundable) linda