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Hope for the best, plan for the worst...


JLMoran

Which fallback itinerary would you choose?  

21 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of the following 2021 Celebrity cruises would you pick as a fallback if the 14-night Iceland & Greenland on Aug 2 is canceled (see main post for port info on each)

    • 14 Night Iceland & Greenland - Celebrity Summit - Aug 1, 2021
      9
    • 10 Night Italy, Croatia, & Montenegro - Celebrity Edge - Jul 16 OR Aug 6, 2021
      9
    • 11 Night Italy, Malta, & Greek Islands - Celebrity Infinity - Aug 9, 2021
      1
    • 7 Night Alaska Southbound Glacier - Celebrity Millennium - July 2 / July 16 / July 30 /Aug 13 / Aug 27, 2021
      2


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It's basically a go for Lift & Shift at this point. Got the confirmation about some details I had for my TA, like the fact that we will be able to cancel this cruise if we do so before the 90-day final payment mark even though the current sailing is already past final payment date. So I'm going to be giving him the go-ahead shortly.

I'm not at all thrilled at having to wait another entire year for this after already waiting such a long time. But I just cannot see this sailing actually happening in any real semblance of its original form. Even if Cape Liberty were to reopen in time, it's highly unlikely Canada will be opened yet. And my contact in Iceland just told me that they will not be "back to normal" until 2021 at the earliest. They have nearly stamped out Covid-19 there, with only 20-something cases remaining. But I'm sure that like many other places, they won't reopen for tourism until we have a vaccine, some amount of "herd immunity", or other measures to have better detection and tracing.

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Joe, I'm both sad and relieved to hear you've made a decision. I know another year of waiting will be torture, but hopefully that waiting will be fueled by joyful anticipation and not just a feeling of dread or wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. I'm really glad you're able to Lift & Shift and get such good pricing/promotions for next year's cruise, especially since next year's base prices are so different!

Extra year or no, still looking forward to your blog for this one -- and who knows? Maybe I'll even hit the lottery in time to be able to grab a cabin, too! ?

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  • 1 month later...

After reading the summary of the EU recommendations, in particular that cruises be limited to 4-7 night sailings for some unspecified initial time, with no indication when that "initial time" will actually start...

And after seeing that the US is officially excluded from all travel to the EU for the foreseeable future, most likely extending well into 2021 at the rate we're going...

And after thinking about a realistic timeline for a vaccine, and concluding that it isn't realistically happening until the spring of 2021 at the very earliest...

I've decided that I'm just canceling my 2021 Iceland and Greenland cruise, and that it won't be replaced with anything. I no longer have any faith that there will be a solution in anything less than a year, probably two. And not to be morbid, but that's assuming I'm still alive then and haven't caught this disease that will be a lot worse for me (as an asthmatic) than many. (I've confirmed I'm antibody-negative, after thinking I caught it earlier in the year)

And I'm not going to leave my money tied to hope when there's a non-zero risk of the company that hope is tied to going bankrupt and forcing me into some FCC deal I may not want. Or be able to take advantage of if I'm... y'know... not here any more to enjoy it.

I can't begin to say how angry I am, or how demoralized this makes me.

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On 4/12/2020 at 11:48 AM, JLMoran said:

I'm still holding to hope that my Aug 2 sailing to Iceland & Greenland is happening with no major port changes or other alterations. But I think it's time I start to think about what I'll do if it doesn't happen, given the recent CDC announcement further banning cruises for another 100 days from whatever the official publication date is. For sure, I will wait for Celebrity to cancel and take the FCC (hopefully still at 125%), and I've narrowed down the 2021 options to four different items. I'm listing them here in order of preference, along with their ports and what I feel are the pros and cons. Which would you choose if you were in this situation? Feel free to leave comments about your selection below.

With all of these cruises, one expectation is that the trip will be extended either before or after with some land vacation time, to get the same end result of a 3-week trip.

14 Night Iceland & Greenland -Celebrity Summit - Aug 1, 2021
7 ports, 6 sea days

  • Cape Liberty, NJ
  • Halifax, NS
  • Qaqortoq, Greenland
  • Prince Christian Sound (sailing day)
  • Reykjavik (overnight)
  • Akureyri
  • Kirkwall, Scotland
  • Southampton, England

This is almost the exact same cruise, but Sydney, NS is replaced by Kirkwall, Scotland (@Ray, @Joe01 -- thoughts on this port stop?); and the final port is changed from Dublin to Southampton, so no opportunity for an extended stay in Ireland without adding in some extra transportation from England. The big problem with this sailing? The price! This cruise is already more than 30% higher than my upcoming sailing, so even with a 125% FCC I'm going to be paying (possibly a lot) more for the same two cabins.

 

10 Night Italy, Croatia, & Montenegro - Celebrity Edge - Jul 16 or Aug 6, 2021
8 ports, 2 sea days

  • Civitavecchia (Rome)
  • Corfu, Greece
  • Split, Croatia
  • Trieste, Italy
  • Koper, Slovenia
  • Dubrovnik, Croatia
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • Naples, Italy
  • Civitavecchia (Rome)

This is an intriguing option for me. A chance to sail on Celebrity's next-newest ship (Apex will be out by then), and a really nice selection of ports. And we want to see Italy as much as Ireland, so I could possibly change our extended stay to one that visits Rome and the surrounding area, or even arrange to disembark at Naples and then make our way back to Rome before flying home. And the cost is actually appreciably less than the "replacement" Iceland & Greenland option.

 

11 Night Italy, Malta, & Greek Islands - Celebrity Infinity - Aug 9, 2021
9 port days, 3 sea days

  • Venice, Italy
  • Rijeka, Croatia
  • Split, Croatia
  • Santorini, Greece
  • Mykonos, Greece
  • Athens (Piraeus), Greece)
  • Catania, Sicily
  • Valletta, Malta
  • Barcelona, Spain

I like that this cruise is 11 nights and visits the Greek islands, but I'm disappointed that there is not stop in Dubrovnik or Kotor. Ending in Barcelona, I'd consider extending the trip with a train ride to France or something else. Definitely would have to plan that out with a travel agent.

 

7 Night Alaska Southbound Glacier - Celebrity Millennium - Jul 2 / Jul 16 / Jul 30 / Aug 13 / Aug 27, 2021
6 ports, 1 sailing day (NO SEA DAYS); dates in italic are the ones I think I'd prefer to take

  • Seward
  • Hubbard Glacier (sailing)
  • Juneau
  • Skagway
  • Icy Strait Point
  • Ketchikan
  • Inside Passage (sailing)
  • Vancouver, BC

Definitely my least-preferred option, but one that I have to consider since I don't know how much FCC I'll get or how much travel restrictions will truly ease by summer 2021. If I did this one, the idea would be go to there before the cruise, do some kind of pre-cruise tour and then take the train from Anchorage to Seward.

Unfortunate if Summit cancels - its a well run ship.  Love Alaska, but Millennium isn't our favorite ship. Short changed on the revolution upgrade.   EActually like the Infinity itinerary, but Edge edges out in my opinion..

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4 minutes ago, cruisellama said:

Unfortunate if Summit cancels - its a well run ship.  Love Alaska, but Millennium isn't our favorite ship. Short changed on the revolution upgrade.   EActually like the Infinity itinerary, but Edge edges out in my opinion..

The Edge itinerary went way up in price the last I looked at it. That was the only one I was seriously considering apart from the Iceland & Greenland sailing, and now that I've canceled that sailing I have no intention of booking anything else. My wife and kids were only OK with Celebrity because of the itinerary; most likely I'm going back to Royal now until we get Diamond level. Celebrity was already a pretty penny more than Royal, and with the pricing changes going into effect everywhere I look, they're pricing themselves right out of my pay grade.

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