Wall Street Journal article on Cruising

[Roccaforte]

The Saturday WSJ Off Duty section has an interesting article “Can cruising shine again”?  Discussions on port restrictions, vaccination, lowered capacity, cleansing, masks, etc.  Reports from ships that are currently sailing.  Sounds like cruise lines are going above and beyond to provide a safe environment.  The question is how does this impact the luxurious experience we expect from cruising - especially on Oceania?  We recently cancelled a January cruise on Riviera that we were really looking forward to.  Too many unknowns for us.😢. Hope things improve soon so we can get back aboard our favorite ship.

[MarkWiltonM]

21 minutes ago, Roccaforte said:

The question is how does this impact the luxurious experience we expect from cruising - especially on Oceania?

 

In July we were on Crystal Serenity, which is not too dissimilar to Oceania's O-class ships in size and amenities, and because everyone was vaccinated and everyone was tested the day of the cruise we felt very safe. The staff all wore masks but the passengers did not. Except for the ship having even more space per passenger (just over half full), it was very similar to past cruises. You didn't really notice much of a difference until you went ashore, where there were mask restrictions. We will be on another cruise in November and are looking forward to it.

Edited September 11, 2021 by MarkWiltonM

[Hlitner]

13 minutes ago, Roccaforte said:

The Saturday WSJ Off Duty section has an interesting article “Can cruising shine again”?  Discussions on port restrictions, vaccination, lowered capacity, cleansing, masks, etc.  Reports from ships that are currently sailing.  Sounds like cruise lines are going above and beyond to provide a safe environment.  The question is how does this impact the luxurious experience we expect from cruising - especially on Oceania?  We recently cancelled a January cruise on Riviera that we were really looking forward to.  Too many unknowns for us.😢. Hope things improve soon so we can get back aboard our favorite ship.

I cannot speak to "O" since we are not scheduled to be on the Marina until December.  But we did recently cruise (Greece) on the Seabourn Ovation which was about 4 weeks after they had resumed operations on that vessel.  Our cruise was fantastic (near perfect) and met or exceeded every reasonable criteria when compared to being on SB pre Covid.  One big positive difference was that the normally excellent Seabourn crew went beyond anything we have ever experienced in terms of service, socialization, etc.  As was explained to us (by two different crew members) they were as happy to be back on a ship as the passengers and "we are all in this together."    We heard similar comments from one of our fellow passengers who found a similar attitude on a Silverseas cruise (the week before she came on our Seabourn ship).

 

I think those of us who have returned to cruising early in this resumption cycle have experienced something akin to being in a fraternity/sorority where everyone is just happy to be back!  On Seabourn this translated to such an upbeat attitude that it permeated everything aboard.   We had the same feeling when we were island hopping in Greece (after our cruise) where it seemed like everyone at the hotels, restaurants, and shops went out of their way to be welcoming.  

 

In some ways our recent SB cruise was the chance of a lifetime.  Consider that we were on a very luxurious vessel that has a capacity of 650...with only 300 passenger and a crew of over 400!  In some ways it felt like we were on our own private yacht.  In fact when DW and I took a large shore-based tender into Santorini we were on the large tender by ourselves (there was a total of 7 on our return tender later that same day).   Those who have been to Santorini can talk about the lines (queues) for the cable car.  But on this trip (last month) DW and I were the only two passengers on the cable car at 8:45 am.   I suspect these kind of things will never be repeated.

 

Hank

[AlexCherie]

I would tend to think that handling of certain situations would be pretty consistent. 

For instance, for those of you recently on a ship … how did they handle things like public saunas and steam rooms? 

[pinotlover]

I absolutely agree with all that Hlitner posted. Our recent cruise was likewise magnificent.

 

Here’s the 800 lb gorilla. These cruise lines can’t survive doing 50%, and often less, capacity cruises. If people don’t start returning to cruising soon, there won’t be a cruise industry to return to. All these people cancelling everything until late 2022 or 2023 may need to start looking for a new pastime. 

[Hlitner]

4 minutes ago, AlexCherie said:

I would tend to think that handling of certain situations would be pretty consistent. 

For instance, for those of you recently on a ship … how did they handle things like public saunas and steam rooms? 

On our SB cruise everything was open (like normal) on our SB ship.  Folks that were on the Silverseas Moon told us that their saunas and steam room was closed.  I will tell you that after our cruise on the Seabourn Ovation we became aware that SB was actually operating in a normal manner as part of a deal with the Greek authorities.  The assumption was that both SB and the Greeks wanted to see how things would work out (COVID wise) with no onboard restrictions as opposed to social distancing and other restrictions found on some other cruise ships.   As far as we know the Seabourn Ovation has not had a single case of COVID (everyone is tested weekly) since they resumed operations in Greece.  They did have some positive cases detected at the embarkation testing (done in a tent at the port) and those folks were denied boarding.

 

On our Seabourn cruise they actually went above and beyond the norm when we had a "Marina Day" which is when they open the aft sports platform (a feature on SB vessels) and feature various activities such as riding in a "donut," using kayaks, etc.  DW and I actually did take the donut ride (no extra charge for this kind of thing) which was truly wild because the wind had increased and the seas were a bit rough.  Soon after we took that wild ride they shut down the activity because of the rough seas :).   I do think that the comparison to the Silverseas Moon (which was doing a similar itinerary) is interesting because that vessel had implemented multiple onboard restrictions including closing off the bar seats, closing off some seats/loungers, and requiring masking indoors.  As far as we know, after a couple of months of these two vessels taking a different approach to COVID, the result has been the same with neither vessel having any COVID cases.    Both vessels conduct mandatory weekly testing (as well as testing at embarkation) for all souls which is part of their deal with the Greek authorities.

 

Hank

[davencl]

57 minutes ago, AlexCherie said:

I would tend to think that handling of certain situations would be pretty consistent. 

For instance, for those of you recently on a ship … how did they handle things like public saunas and steam rooms? 

On the NCL Encore(Aug 21 to alaska) everything was open and normal.  Crew all wore masks.  Garden Cafe was self serve, no restrictions in the thermal spa, etc.    Ship was at about 60% capacity so felt more like a luxury cruise than normal.  Crew was so happy to be back the atmosphere was like being a kid on Christmas morning.  Note NCL and Oceania require 100% vaccination.

Edited September 11, 2021 by davencl

[AlexCherie]

42 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I absolutely agree with all that Hlitner posted. Our recent cruise was likewise magnificent.

 

Here’s the 800 lb gorilla. These cruise lines can’t survive doing 50%, and often less, capacity cruises. If people don’t start returning to cruising soon, there won’t be a cruise industry to return to. All these people cancelling everything until late 2022 or 2023 may need to start looking for a new pastime. 

During Labor Day sale, O reps were telling me they were already up to 50% occupancy and they were continuing to take reservations. 

Just as an FYI; agreed across the board. These firms have brought on more debt than a bank can lend, and the juice is just running.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, AlexCherie said:

During Labor Day sale, O reps were telling me they were already up to 50% occupancy and they were continuing to take reservations. 
 

Were these for  upcoming cruises 2021 or ones in 2022- 23?

 

Things may change by next year so booking  a higher capacity  might work  by then

JMO

[ORV]

7 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Were these for  upcoming cruises 2021 or ones in 2022- 23?

 

Things may change by next year so booking  a higher capacity  might work  by then

JMO

Only way they won’t sail at higher capacity in 22 and beyond is if they can’t sell the cabins. It’s simply not financially sustainable.

[PhD-iva]

I spoke with my TA yesterday or the day before perhaps. She mentioned that our 17 November 2021 transatlantic cruise on Riviera is currently at 80% capacity and it is still open for booking. I’m not concerned, but I think if passengers will make reservations, Oceana will accept the reservations.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, ORV said:

Only way they won’t sail at higher capacity in 22 and beyond is if they can’t sell the cabins. It’s simply not financially sustainable.

exactly

[AlexCherie]

20 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Were these for  upcoming cruises 2021 or ones in 2022- 23?

 

Things may change by next year so booking  a higher capacity  might work  by then

JMO

Specifically it was for an April Grand Voyage, Western Mediterranean. I was only interested in those ports at that time of year.