Odyssey Cruises in 2020, Or Maybe Another Ship?

[twangster]

I'm booked on the first four Odyssey cruises when she launches.  Now I'm concerned I won't be sailing those cruises on Odyssey but on another ship that Royal substitutes.

Royal has stated that they expect the delivery of new ships to be delayed because of the pandemic.  That's probably a good thing since the last thing they need right now is another ship to fill at half capacity.  Delaying delivery of ships like Odyssey makes a lot of sense for many reasons.

Up until this point I assumed that meant that Royal will simply cancel the Odyssey bookings for those cruises impacted by the construction delay.  We know that it's nearly impossible to operate a company with no income while having to cancel tens of thousands of reservation and issue refunds to impacted guests.  That is why when they needed to deal with some cancellations involving ship redeployments they have opted to substitute a ship rather than face additional cancellations.  

By manipulating the vessel that operates a particular cruise they can optimize revenue by moving ships away from less profitable itineraries.  This is smart business. This would never occur during normal times but these aren't normal times.

In the case of Odyssey, Royal won't want to cancel these high margin cruises that booked at a new ship premium.  As an alternative and stave off bankruptcy they can find ships that have fewer bookings and substitute those ships in place of the Odyssey cruises that would otherwise need to be cancelled.

So now we wait...  what ship will I be sailing in November?    

[Ampurp85]

I wonder if Ovation would be an option since Alaska is no longer on the books.

[Andrew72681]

You could also book the 8 day in March on Odyssey. Would be fun to stare at every person that walks by and say to myself "is that the mysterious twangster?"

Great Itinerary, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Cozumel

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Andrew72681 said:

You could also book the 8 day in March on Odyssey. Would be fun to stare at every person that walks by and say to myself "is that the mysterious twangster?"

Great Itinerary, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Cozumel

I'm not booking any more cruises with Royal until the pandemic dust has settled.  

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I wonder if Ovation would be an option since Alaska is no longer on the books.

It's pretty hard to move a ship that size from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  A transit through the Panama Canal is an unknown for Quantum class and if they did would cost in the ballpark of $800k empty of guests for the canal transit alone nevermind the other costs like millions in fuel for the repo.  Sending her through the Suez Canal would require 40 to 50 days to reach Florida.  Ovation is staying in the Pacific.    

With so many ships out of position right now all bets are off.  I think the 2020 and early 2021 impact of the pandemic is going to cause a lot more grief with itineraries than most people have thought about primarily because ships are all out of position.  It will cost millions to move them all into place and in some cases I think ships will be swapped instead. 

[Ampurp85]

I forgot how displaced the ships are....that makes things far more difficult. l always figured it would be Sept at the earliest, with limited ships and ports. Makes it easier to speculate what ships will be in use because we can look at their positions currently. I think if Odyssey is a no-go then maybe they will L&S to when it happens. I cannot see them wanting to cancel, they know if they move to another ship many people might cancel as well, since this sailing was about a new ship.

[rjac]

1 hour ago, Andrew72681 said:

Would be fun to stare at every person that walks by and say to myself "is that the mysterious twangster?

I'm sure you won't miss him. He is known for the amount of camera gear he takes with him on a cruise. Here's a photo of him that someone posted previously. 

[The Cruise Junkie]

36 minutes ago, twangster said:

It's pretty hard to move a ship that size from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  A transit through the Panama Canal is an unknown for Quantum class and if they did would cost in the ballpark of $800k

I Guess If They Really Wanted To Send Another Quantum Class Ship To FL From The West Coast And Save Some Money They Could Go Around The Cape. I Know Carnival Sent The Panorama Around The Cape Last Year Without Going Though The Canal As She Could Not Make It The Panama Canal As I Believe The Lifeboats Were A Few Feet Too Long.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Jaymac Radio said:

I Guess If They Really Wanted To Send Another Quantum Class Ship To FL From The West Coast And Save Some Money They Could Go Around The Cape. I Know Carnival Sent The Panorama Around The Cape Last Year Without Going Though The Canal As She Could Not Make It The Panama Canal As I Believe The Lifeboats Were A Few Feet Too Long.

That works during some times of the year but even during the good times it's risky.  Bad weather is common and minor damage from rough seas is well known.  Not to mention the significant fuel penalty and lengthy time it adds to the journey.  If they must lose 45 days of service to get there they'll lose another 45 days putting the ship back to fulfil the Pacific routes.

Do the math... if a ship makes between $500k and $1M per day in revenue, do you want it out of service repositioning for that long?

[Jmccaffrey]

Fuel cost is the Number one cost behind building the Ship. When they keep that cost down they are more able to keep the trips cheaper

[mworkman]

On 6/11/2020 at 4:07 PM, twangster said:

I'm not booking any more cruises with Royal until the pandemic dust has settled.  

I concur with that statement, even though there trying to tempt me with some low prices right now on sailing i like!  I've become also more concerned as to when i book airfare.  Ive got five e-certs now as we speak and one more that i've been waiting on the official cruise cancellation to terminate that's in September. 

Next question, which i probable know the answer but won't like it, is that we have all these e-certs from Delta and how and if we can applying them to a return our trip back from Italy via Air2Sea if we book it that way?

[twangster]

7 hours ago, mworkman said:

Next question, which i probable know the answer but won't like it, is that we have all these e-certs from Delta and how and if we can applying them to a return our trip back from Italy via Air2Sea if we book it that way?

You should probably talk to Delta about those.  Pre-CV-19 e-certs in some cases where tied specifically to the original routing of the canceled flight.  A domestic e-cert might not be valid for a Europe flight or vice versa.  You might not be able to apply an e-cert using a travel agent but honestly I've never tried.