Posted on 12/04/2020 7:39:58 AM PST by Capt. Tom
It looked like we finally had a return to cruising at the end of October when the CDC lifted the No-Sail-Order. The Conditional sailing framework’s implementation looked to be a hurdle, but not an insurmountable one; indeed, by December, we could be cruising again.
In September, the major cruise lines fought with the CDC about lifting the No-Sail-Order, which director Redfield wanted to extend until February. It took an intervention from the White House to stop the CDC.
How different it has turned out to be. Now we have cruise lines canceling voyages on their own until March, April, and sometimes even May. The CDC has gotten the extension it wanted initially.
The List Is Long And Getting Longer The list of canceled cruises became much longer this week; this is where we stand now and when the major cruise lines plan to set sail again:
Carnival Cruise Line: Carnival Cruise Line has announced cancellations for Miami, Port Canaveral, and Galveston. All voyages are canceled through February 2021. This means operations will now remain on hold until March 2021 at the earliest.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean cruise ships will not be sailing until March 2021 at the very earliest. Australia sailings are already suspended through April 30, 2021, too.
The new extension also impacts other Royal Caribbean -owned cruise brands, including Celebrity Cruises, Silversea Cruises, and Azamara. Some of the lines will remain on hold for even longer, so check any specifics on their web sites.
The line does have Quantum of the Seas sailing from Singapore for residents and is planning to have Spectrum of the Seas sailing from Shanghai in January.
Norwegian Cruise Line: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has canceled all voyages for all of its vessels until February 28. This means ships won’t start to resume operations until March at the very earliest. Most cruise ships in the fleet won’t return until April 2021.
This impacts all the cruise lines owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, including NCL, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas. Most of the smaller lines have already suspended operations through March 31, 2021.
MSC Cruises: MSC has announced that U.S. departures will remain on hold through February 28, 2021. Ships sailing from U.S. ports will not restart until March 2021.
Three MSC cruise ships are based in Florida, including MSC Seaside out of Port Canaveral along with MSC Armonia and MSC Meraviglia out of PortMiami.
Princess Cruises: Princess Cruises has canceled all cruises through March 31, 2021. Princess Cruises will not operate any voyages until April 2021 at the very earliest. Even when cruises do return, it will be a phased-in return.
Holland America Line: Holland America will remain on hold through March 31, which means at the earliest, cruises won’t start to resume until April 2021. Holland America has also removed longer cruises over seven days that depart from the U.S. through November 1, 2021.
The line has canceled all cruise departures from January 1 through March 31, 2021, all cruises of eight days or more that call at a U.S. port through November 1, 2021, and select longer voyages in Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and South America through mid-April 2021. Some departures will be rescheduled to comparable dates in 2022.
How Does This Affect Guests Confidence? Cruise lines have not been holding back on marketing efforts to get guests to book on voyages. Even in October and November, there was no shortage of discounts and affordable cruises to be had. CruiseHive reported on December 1 that Royal Caribbean had more than 70 Caribbean voyages on sale. This was the day before it extended its hold period.
We just have to look at Cruise Hive’s Facebook page comments to see the confidence in the companies has gone down the hill. This is no surprise. The cruising community has always been one of unwavering support for the industry. Yet, even here, the constant cancellations have their effect.
Is this the cruise line’s fault? As Carnival Cruise Line CEO Christine Duffy mentioned in her letter to guests:
“Like other cruise lines, we continue to work to meet the requirements of the CDC. While they provide a path forward to resume operations, it will take time to meet the requirements. The situation continues to evolve, and given the very specific obligations of the CDC Order, we have concluded we must cancel additional cruises.”
The CDC’s framework is slowly but surely proving to be not the savior we all thought it was. It is a condition that is holding back a trillion-dollar industry. If one looks at both the framework and the technical requirements, this is no surprise.
A return to cruising was never going to be easy, unfortunately for those invested in the cruise industry, it is turning in to a task that is virtually impossible.
It is looking like a train wreck in slow motion for the Cruise Lines. -Tom
I’d kind of still like to know how the CDC has the authority to direct whether cruise lines operate or not.
Isn’t that the provenance of Dept. of Transportation or some other federal dept.?
Cruises are associated with independence, freedom and disposable income, all of which must be crushed.
I think the plan is to retrofit them with steel bars and turn them into floating prisons for conservatives.
No less than six trips across the Pacific on MSTS.
Don’t care for any more...
The Cruise lines won't get much help from the Squad and Joe Biden, the CDC and the Green New Deal advocates.
At first I thought Norwegian was likely to reorganize and declare bankruptcy, but now all the Cruise lines are drifting that way. -Tom
There must be bodies everywhere.
Well, the UK has approved a vaccine, and I’m wondering how long the CDC can hold out before doing the same.. . . and I would suggest that a ship of vaccinated passengers should be just fine, thank you. And the cruise lines logically might start suing the CDC.
Maybe the cruises will start originating out of country somewhere . . .
They don't, but once a Public Health Emergency has been declared they can keep them from entering US ports.
Everything will be tanked until (if) Biden is inagurated. Then, he will preside over a miraculous healing (thanks to Trump Admin. vaccine) and the willing support of the criminal media and big tech.
Media will make it a worst to first story.
https://www.rd.com/article/how-bad-are-cruise-ships-for-the-environment/
Your carbon footprint is high When you hop onto a cruise, your carbon footprint rises. In fact, every person’s carbon footprint on a cruise is about three times as high as it would be on land, according to a report by the Pacific Standard. With upwards of 3,000 passengers per ship on the larger cruises, this is a very big deal.
Hey let’s all do gene editing of deadly viruses and see what happens when released.
I would say that Man deserves what they get from playing god.
Especially those who believe in the God of Post Abortion Abortions and non consensual assisted suicide!
The iron fist of Biden and the communists is clamping down.
Meanwhile, on private yachts worldwide, globalists plan attacks on the next target of their ‘intervention’ in the name of public health and safety, people who work for a living.
The problem for cruise lines is worldwide, as other countries shut them down in an attempt to get the corona virus under control.
Also for any cruise line it is not like they are being put out of business by their competition.
it is a problem for every cruise line at the same time, and they have trouble selling their ships to the competition since the competition is on the ropes also; and has ships on order they may not be able to fill without scrapping some of their existing ships, and that income would be miniscule compared to the cost of a new modern ship.
I don't know for sure but these shipyards building these new cruise ships should have gotten some "material on hand payments", which will put the Cruise lines in further debt. -Tom
Would be better served to house all the homeless people.
That doesn’t answer my point - which is, there is pent-up demand for cruises which should be released by the ability of all prospective passengers to get vaccinated.A vaccine is approved in the UK as of several days ago - with the caveat that it doesn’t take instantaneous effect, and it takes two doses. People in the UK who have the money should be able to get vaccinated, and a month later be qualified to go on a cruise. Of course the same should be true of Americans, soon. It just feels like if it’s approved in the UK and you think you’ll approve it next week in the US, it’s sheer bureaucracy to hold back on critical uses of the vaccine NOW.
If everyone on a cruise is vaccinated, herd immunity is guaranteed even if you think the vaccine is not 100%. Some vaccines are 94% - that is, 94% better than being unvaccinated - and being unvaccinated is far from a guarantee that you’ll get the bug. The upshot is that a "94%” vaccine is actually more like a 99.9% vaccine. Eleven mild cases out of 15,000 vaccinated subjects. People who go on a cruise would have to like those odds.
IMHO the cruise lines will now have trouble filling all their cruise ships, and some lines that have held out on borrowed money, and their own billions in profits, will have to continue to reorganize and downsize. (Bankruptcy or Reorganization, whatever you want to call it.)
The pent up demand group will lose a few hardcore cruisers as vaccinations and Covid fear will affect some hard core cruising couples.
The LINES have now IMHO more ships and increased Passenger capacity than they can fill for years to come, even with the remaining non-hardcore cruisers, who will wait it out.
The LINES can't hold out for a year, only a few more months, until they voluntarily reorganize, or are forced into it by their creditors. (via a form of bankruptcy)
The worldwide countries and their CDC type of institutions and politicians won't help them out either.
As I have said I feel like I am watching slow motion train wreck. -Tom
The elite class will have settled in a couple years from now in our new communist society. They’ll be taking great advantage of the cruise ships. We peons never will sail again.
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