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Thought Exercise....


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So I am starting to wonder.....with so many people on here ready to get back to cruising....would you take anything?

These companies want to make money, not incur any bad press, and follow proper COVID-19 protocol. So they have to come up with a new plan, at least for right now. If we combine what we know and normally speculate on across the big three. We come up with: limited ports, limited ships, limited capacity, limited itineraries, a high chance of mask, changes in dining, changes in embark/debark, new COVID-19 protocols, and possible quarantine. The mask, COVID-19 safety protocol, and buffet should not be a dominate factor in decision, as there are plenty of topics that already deal with that.

That means that a bunch of itineraries and ships COULD be cancelled. Would you be okay with your cruise being moved? Example: they cancel all Freedom and Liberty sailings, which now get combined to Symphony since there is more space. Or no Indy or Nav, just Mariner sailings? Would you want further incentive or just be happy to cruise?

Or what if they plan to sail all the ships but at reduced bookings...I.e instead of six Freedom sailings in September, there are only three; you now have to choose between a new date. How flexible would you be just to go on cruises? What would be your deciding factors? Would you be willing to give up your 9N Grandeur Thanksgiving, for a 4N Oasis the week after...if it included an UBP?

 

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If they plan on sailing with reduced capacity when they start up in August, I sure hope they are not currently selling any more rooms on those cruises. If ships that are sailing during those first few weeks were sold out and need to be reduced passenger wise, who gets to cruise, and who gets the boot?  

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For me, I would look at it the same way I do waiting to board an overbooked flight and they begin soliciting volunteers. I would have to see the offer and make a decision. Some bookings are flexible for us, others are not. Air, hotel, itinerary all are the factors. Sky Class on the Oasis out of Bayonne needs room? Offering Star Class on the Symphony out of Miami the next day and they will cover the First Class Air? Yes.  Keep the original booking ship, itinerary and port but 2 weeks later with a 50% FCC ... maybe. Keep everything the same but 1 week later with a $100 OBC? No, it isn't worth the time to reprint the luggage tags. I'm not trying to take a hardline at all. Based on history, I would expect RCL to come through for their customers.

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The cruise industry is under a magnifying glass despite already being much less risky so it will have to put on a theater and do things that look good but really don't accomplish much in terms of directly addressing virus mitigation.  I'll suck it up and endure the theater show much like I do going through the TSA security theater screening show to board an airplane.  

I consider cruising to be much safer than many land based businesses so I'm watching the reopening of many things with COVID-19 mitigation in mind.  I'm more concerned with land based restaurants, bars and places like hair cutting businesses than I am concerned about cruise ships.   

Cruise ships were already infinitely less risky than schools and restaurants because they have long been under the microscope of a single federal agency, the CDC.  Schools, restaurants, bars, and other businesses fall under state and local government oversight which is often lacking budget, resources and power to do very much if anything at all.  Some jurisdictions have one or two inspectors with thousands of businesses to watch over and the best they can do is often issue a warning or a rating with the onus on the consumer to look into it and determine if they should visit the establishment.  

We've already heard of hair salons with infected workers with symptoms still working because they need money, placing their own personal financial situation ahead of their customers.  No government oversight, hundreds now infected.   The businesses we need to worry about most are these small businesses with owner and employees alike that are in desperate need of a paycheck.

What virus protection theater show the cruise lines will have to put on for the world is unknown at this point so it's hard to comment on how it will look.  Maybe all it will take will be to take our shoes off to board a ship as that provides negligible security for boarding a plane but is widely accepted by society anyways.  Having walked 20' in socked feet I always feel much safer.  

 

 

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It does not seem to be cost effective to sail all ships at a reduced number of sailings. Why would they pay to have all of the ships staffed just to have them sit around 20-30% of the time (or whatever percentage it would work out to be) ?   So I think we can eliminate that option.

My guess is, they will pick a few big/biggish ships and sail only those for a period of time. Chances are, they will sail only Caribbean itins for a while.  The questions, of course are whether they will use existing bookings/itins or cancel everything and start over with new, shorter bookings. It doesn’t seem wise to cancel existing bookings and start over  but I suspect that some of those cruises are pretty well booked up. So, are they going to kick some people off ?  That doesn’t seem like it would create positive PR at a time when they do NOT need anymore negative press.

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I'm just waiting and waiting to see how august will go. Which ships will sail? The amount of angry customers who think their sailing just to find out last minute nope all navigator cruises are canceled were jsut doing mariner sailings , is going to be horrendous

Disney has stopped taking reservations for trips till the end of the year citing that what they sold may already reach the new capacity.

I'd expect royal to do the same thing for their ships. I can see them still taking it month to month though of course their going to want to sail as many as they can. Expect alot more angry posts on these boards on the first of the months

 

I had a thought today about coco cay. Having two ships there seems to be a bad idea anymore. Lines for the thrill tower slides get lengthy. Pool bars at most all inclusives have no been closed. The main food there is a buffet. What they do with this port will be very interesting as most have two ships anymore

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I always believed they would sail September at the earliest. However, I never believed they would sail all ships, apart from those who are pro-cruise, demand is not high. I doubt any of the ships are even close to half capacity, considering all the L&S and personal cancellations, and could see RCCI closing bookings in the next few weeks.

@WAAAYTOOO I meant not capacity reduced but departures. Instead of the twenty or so sailings Freedom still has, they reduce it to four or five to cut down on cost. That would mean a change in dates and itineraries,

Fain's answer that some new policies could/would not be around in a months time has me believing they have something vastly different in mind.

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

The cruise industry is under a magnifying glass despite already being much less risky so it will have to put on a theater and do things that look good but really don't accomplish much in terms of directly addressing virus mitigation.  I'll suck it up and endure the theater show much like I do going through the TSA security theater screening show to board an airplane.  

I consider cruising to be much safer than many land based businesses so I'm watching the reopening of many things with COVID-19 mitigation in mind.  I'm more concerned with land based restaurants, bars and places like hair cutting businesses than I am concerned about cruise ships.   

Cruise ships were already infinitely less risky than schools and restaurants because they have long been under the microscope of a single federal agency, the CDC.  Schools, restaurants, bars, and other businesses fall under state and local government oversight which is often lacking budget, resources and power to do very much if anything at all.  Some jurisdictions have one or two inspectors with thousands of businesses to watch over and the best they can do is often issue a warning or a rating with the onus on the consumer to look into it and determine if they should visit the establishment.  

We've already heard of hair salons with infected workers with symptoms still working because they need money, placing their own personal financial situation ahead of their customers.  No government oversight, hundreds now infected.   The businesses we need to worry about most are these small businesses with owner and employees alike that are in desperate need of a paycheck.

What virus protection theater show the cruise lines will have to put on for the world is unknown at this point so it's hard to comment on how it will look.  Maybe all it will take will be to take our shoes off to board a ship as that provides negligible security for boarding a plane but is widely accepted by society anyways.  Having walked 20' in socked feet I always feel much safer.  

 

 

It’s a lot like Florida. Everyone thinks crazy s*+t only happens in Florida. But in reality Florida’s sunshine laws mean everything gets publicized and nothing’s a secret. 

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It's not as easy for my wife to spontaneously change a date to a week later.

I too think the first month or so will start out with a few ships & possibly altered itineraries. Personally, we have two cruises booked for this year and waiting (anxiously) to hear the new protocols before making any decisions.

I suspect one is getting changed regardless. It wasn't working out before COVID-19 the way we want and the cancellation policies gives us an opportunity to change it.

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