Morganno

Thanks my son is at school the following week in October so we can't afford to be stuck in a foreign country. We are all vaccinated so I'd rather mask up and fly home that be in quarantine somewhere. Just looked again and we can now book connecting cabins it's very strange every day for the same booking multiple options appear and disappear Saturday morning all were sold out now there are balconies on multiple decks. Just wish they would allow 3 to a cabin as it's €404 for guarantee balcony which rises to €909 to choose your own...

Great news thanks Mike. From reading this I will still have to take a antigen test even though I'm fully vaccinated and have to take a test on arrival in the UK. This would be a problem as I would be staying in a hotel the night before sailing. I wonder if I can get the test delivered to the hotel?

Thanks for these updates. To be honest I'm not surprised about numbers since they don't allow you to book 3 to a cabin. We want to go with our 16 year old son in October we have tried ringing and they will absolutely NOT allow 3 in a cabin and seem unwilling (???) to book connecting cabins when we phone despite availability on the website. What happens if you test positive getting off the ship? Are you stuck in Barcelona for a week?

I thought it would end in September but I cannot find any information about it. Looks like they are still only doing UK cruises for UK residents for the rest of 2021 ?

This protocol must be a resident of the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands & Isle of Man). Just plain sucks ?

Soo cool pity it's Cyprus it's a hard place in Europe to get to ? Flights from Belgium with Ryanair are already over €400 each.

Still showing vaccine requirement for cruises out of Cyprus for me. I presume Barcelona will be the same.

I'm so enjoying Matt being speechless. Amazing if I was watching live I would definitely have chipped in the odd 5 bucks lol

hahaha that would be a good cruise

This is a great resume about vaccinations and sailings but did you know in Europe and Asia cruise lines have been sailing with unvaccinated guests for many months now? Royal Caribbean has now passed more than 100 000 passengers in its cruises from Singapore and MSC and TUI have been sailing from Europe for many months with only one or two family break outs which were swiftly contained. RC is sailing from Cyprus this summer on Jewel and kids are allowed on already with a negative PCR test. I fully expect there to be the usual temp checks testing and social distancing rules in place and I don't see any problems arising on their sailings. I think the American cruise industry is doing too much hand wringing about all of this and hope this bill to limit the CDC in cruise ship protocols works as they really have went far beyond their remit as far as cruising is concerned.

That never bothers me as I always something to top it up ? Do you think that the rest of European summer cruises will be cancelled? MSC is the only major cruise line in the med at the moment and they are cleaning up most balconies on their ships are gone and suites are gone as well. I'm surprised that Royal have Harmony of the Seas still sitting idling while Anthem is already announced.

I will be cruising this summer from many European locations. Belgium will have enough vaccines to fully vaccinate 50% of the adult population by end June and that is only taking into account 1 out of 4 suppliers who can commit to supply. AZ, J&J and Moderna have not yet given their supply details yet so expect this number to rise perhaps even up to 60% fully vaccinated by end June in time for summer season. I think the Cruise companies might regret moving their ships to cold and wet summer cruises in the UK. Not even thinking of two other vaccines about to announce vaccines in Q2, Novavax and Curavax. the future looks bright for European Cruises this summer with no CDC to worry about. People might be best hanging fire on UK British Isles cruises to see what's out there in the next couple of months. Like I have said before if that is Europe wide then we are talking about potentially 200 million fully vaccinated clients in the EU come July. Cruise lines would be very foolish not to want to tap into that market.

I'm a Brit living in Belgium. I was disappointed at first to see the UK government unsurprisingly opted for UK only cruising to UK only residents this summer. Given over 50% of EU citizens will be vaccinated fully by start of August I hope it will allow the UK gov to drop this UK only rule and also seeing cruise lines amend their offerings perhaps to go to Iceland or Norwegian fjords.

Hi Jeff, for us Non US readers can you tell me what HHS, NSO, PHE and CSO mean? thanks, John

@J_KeebleAlso tempted but I need to wait to see what kind of vaccine I get. I'm due to be vaccinated mid-june if I get one of the 3 week ones Moderna or Pfizerm or the one shot J&J I will be ok for August. If I am unlucky and get AZ it will take another 3 months for me to be fully vaccinated. So I cannot book anything at the moment which sucks.

The Q2 April - June period should see 50% of EU citizens vaccinated as the numbers really ramp up. Q3 July-September predictions show that the EU will have supply to fully vaccinate all citizens by end of September. I have a feeling this date will be lower as the US will eventually stop it's export ban and allow pharma companies to fulfill their legal contracts with other countries. So I wouldn't be so concerned about EU vaccines. If 50% of EU citizens are vaccinated by end June that is a HUGE number of people to sell cruises to roughly 223 MILLION adults . RC would be completely insane not to tap into that market. Let's say they don't meet their target and only 40% are done. that is still 180 MILLION adult customers. Yes I hope Harmony sails from Italy or Spain this summer. Cyprus is a lovely place to start a cruise from I will be following this with interest.

I think RC will abandon Europe this year. Which is a shame as most EU countries will have 50% of their population and 100% of their retirees fully vaccinated by end June. Plenty of people capable of proving vaccination for the summer.

Great news, but what about children and more importantly teens. My boy will be 16 this year in May. So far our country has not approved vaccines for 16+ although Pfizer has recommended their vaccine for 16+ Europe will begin to vaccinate all adults beginning Q3 with vaccines exceed supply by 200% in Q4. This is guaranteed. So we could look at Halloween cruises having been fully vaccinated. I presume the incidence of covid at that stage would be virtually 0 so a negative covid test for non vaccinated kids should be an option I hope.

Ha why didn't I think of this. ? makes prefect sense. However I can't find another cruise that suits my son's school schedule at the moment. I'm waiting for school to announce next year's holiday schedule.

Booked for May 21 but thinking of cancelling and rebooking for the October of the same year. If I cancel and they give me £600 in FCC can i use the FCC to make a deposit on the October cruise? thanks, John

It is not yet proven that with the vaccine you can't catch or spread the virus sadly. Perhaps by September more studies will have been done. Still even with a vaccine 10% of those vaccinated will not be immune and can infect each other. It's wait and see but don't expect masks to go away this year even with mass vaccination programmes. I'm just hoping that their use outdoors on a ship can be relaxed as I really don't want to wear one sitting outdoors.

Not allowed ?

I agree I would definitely cruise with a mask requirement but I would also definitely avail more of room service for my meals. For us we have spoiled ourselves with a Balcony so would not cruise unless we can afford one. I think a lot of studies have shown that the chance of infection in the open air is very limited and people would have to be inches away from you with no wind, therefore I think that once seated outside the mask requirement should be dropped. Also can we keep covid posts specifically in relation to cruising if possible, otherwise it quickly descends into political arguments. Happy sailing everyone, when it comes.

Nice one Jim. Hope to see you on board...

Congrats on your future wedding...