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When my Greek Isle cruise was cancelled for Oct 2021, we were given the reason that RC was cancelling all of the European cruises through the end of the year to focus on their North American ones. Now cruises are sailing from Europe! What gives? Did I miss something?

 

Happy Cruising!

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I have not heard that reason mentioned before but Royal did shift some ships out of Europe, e.g. Adventure, when they made the decision to start sailing from new home ports in response to the CDC blockade. They also opted not to bring others over to Europe from wherever else in the world they were, e.g. Rhapsody, presumably because there was no way of knowing whether they'd actually be able to sail their originally planned itineraries. 

The current sailings in Europe are limited to Anthem out of Southampton for UK residents only, Jewel out of Cyprus (another new home port that resulted from the "ship shuffling"), sailing to the Greek Isles for anyone who can legally enter Cyprus and who can actually get there (not an easy place to get to), first sailing this coming Saturday. And, from 15 August, Harmony out of Barcelona. I don't know what restrictions there may be on who can sail on Harmony but with Europe trying to reopen to international tourism I'm guessing it would be a similar situation to Cyprus.

The only one of these itineraries that is an unchanged pre-pandemic original is Harmony's and I suspect they held on to it because they had to bring Harmony over to Europe anyway for her mandatory 5-year dry dock. The other two ships are doing revised "pandemic-response" itineraries. 

For Anthem, the way things stand at the moment is that cruises from early September are supposed to revert to their pre-pandemic itineraries and, as far as I know, have not been cancelled, but it's anyone's guess whether they will actually go ahead.

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17 minutes ago, Linda R said:

I am on UK sailing in September, and have no idea if it will sail.  That is, allowing US citizens to board and to enter England without quarantine.

Hoping it works out, but having doubts.

There is very recent news that the UK government is likely to remove the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated adults travelling from "amber" countries (which currently include the US) from 19 July. They are also under a lot of pressure to considerably expand their "green" list and a review on that is due tomorrow. You can keep track of what's happening on the BBC or Sky News websites.

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5 hours ago, FionaMG said:

There is very recent news that the UK government is likely to remove the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated adults travelling from "amber" countries (which currently include the US) from 19 July. They are also under a lot of pressure to considerably expand their "green" list and a review on that is due tomorrow. You can keep track of what's happening on the BBC or Sky News websites.

Thank you, I will keep track.  

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7 hours ago, FionaMG said:

There is very recent news that the UK government is likely to remove the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated adults travelling from "amber" countries (which currently include the US) from 19 July.

My understanding is that this is only for Brits returning from Amber countries , could be wrong though then again things change that often ive lost track of what day it is never mind what covid lvl i live in lol.

I actually dont understand how a government can have plans in place for lockdowns for the next 5 YEARS ( yes you read that correctly) but decide its ok to go back to how it was PreCovid even though numbers are rising and Scotland has the worst Covid Rate in Europe right now 

As per 1st paragraph on link below

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52544307.amp

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3 hours ago, Ray said:

My understanding is that this is only for Brits returning from Amber countries , could be wrong though then again things change that often ive lost track of what day it is never mind what covid lvl i live in lol.

You could be right but I would hope not. If it's only for Brits, that would mean that if DH and I, who are both fully vaccinated and obviously live in the same house, went to visit my family in the UK, I wouldn't have to quarantine but he would, based solely on nationality. Where's the sense in that? Not that there has been an abundance of sense at all throughout this whole sorry mess... ?

Let's see what Grants Shapps has to say later on today. Not holding my breath.

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12 hours ago, FionaMG said:

It said that they are working on allowing US citizens to be able to travel to UK later this summer.  I sure hope so!    Thanks for posting the article

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7 hours ago, Linda R said:

It said that they are working on allowing US citizens to be able to travel to UK later this summer.  I sure hope so!    Thanks for posting the article

I just watched the UK transport secretary Grant Shapps say on an interview with Sky News that he hopes to have more information on this in the next few weeks. Apparently it is a bit more complicated in the case of the US because you don't have a nationwide, standardised digital vaccine certificate over there but hopefully it will all be sorted out in time for your trip. I'll try and remember to ping you if I hear any further updates.

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16 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I just watched the UK transport secretary Grant Shapps say on an interview with Sky News that he hopes to have more information on this in the next few weeks. Apparently it is a bit more complicated in the case of the US because you don't have a nationwide, standardised digital vaccine certificate over there but hopefully it will all be sorted out in time for your trip. I'll try and remember to ping you if I hear any further updates.

Thank you.   Just got notice today that our Sept cruise on Anthem out of Southampton has changed all the ports.    It was France, Denmark, Norway, and Amsterdam.  Now it is several ports on Spain or Portugal.  That's ok with me.  Just wanting to cruise and spend few days in London.  We have done all the ports on new schedule and been to London a few times.  But our friends going with us have not been to any of the ports or to England and are excited.

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29 minutes ago, Linda R said:

Thank you.   Just got notice today that our Sept cruise on Anthem out of Southampton has changed all the ports.    It was France, Denmark, Norway, and Amsterdam.  Now it is several ports on Spain or Portugal.  That's ok with me.  Just wanting to cruise and spend few days in London.  We have done all the ports on new schedule and been to London a few times.  But our friends going with us have not been to any of the ports or to England and are excited.

Sorry to hear this !  France, Denmark, Norway and Holland.  That sounds like it would have been soooo nice.  Spain and Portugal will be nice too.  I love your attitude.

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5 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Sorry to hear this !  France, Denmark, Norway and Holland.  That sounds like it would have been soooo nice.  Spain and Portugal will be nice too.  I love your attitude.

At least we are getting closer to having a cruise to go on.  Now I need UK to open up for US visitors without having to quarantine.  And for the Delta variant to not get worse.

Fingers crossed and looking forward to cruising again soon.  

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I saw the new itinerary; someone posted it over on cc. Obviously completely different to the original but it's a nice itinerary nevertheless. Maybe the northern ports don't want to open up to cruise ships yet.

I did go and check for Portugal because for a long while we were only allowing nationals and residents to disembark from cruise ships but that restriction has indeed been relaxed now.

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36 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I saw the new itinerary; someone posted it over on cc. Obviously completely different to the original but it's a nice itinerary nevertheless. Maybe the northern ports don't want to open up to cruise ships yet.

I did go and check for Portugal because for a long while we were only allowing nationals and residents to disembark from cruise ships but that restriction has indeed been relaxed now.

Our itinerary is one that has changed. I heard that Norway will not be opening their cruise ports until end of September but Spain and Portugal should be open. I’m just so glad we’re going to different countries as there were lots of rumours flying around that we’d end up on a British isles cruise - which we’d have cancelled had that been the case.

Spain and Portugal here we come!

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  • 2 weeks later...

we’re due to sail in October to the canaries and have our fingers crossed, but how much do they need to change the itinerary before you are entitled to get a full refund, ours hasn’t changed yet and hopefully won’t but would be interested to know that bookings that have changed what options they were given 

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22 minutes ago, Duging said:

we’re due to sail in October to the canaries and have our fingers crossed, but how much do they need to change the itinerary before you are entitled to get a full refund, ours hasn’t changed yet and hopefully won’t but would be interested to know that bookings that have changed what options they were given 

An altered itinerary isn't grounds for a refund.  It's written in the cruise contract that they can change itineraries at any time.

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I know that they can change the itinerary due to varies reasons as my Caribbean cruise got changed on one port but is there no limit to how much they can change before it’s a totally different cruise to what you paid for, my concern is that my 12 night cruise with 5 stops in the med turns into 12 nights around the uk 

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3 hours ago, Duging said:

I know that they can change the itinerary due to varies reasons as my Caribbean cruise got changed on one port but is there no limit to how much they can change before it’s a totally different cruise to what you paid for, my concern is that my 12 night cruise with 5 stops in the med turns into 12 nights around the uk 

Contractually, there is no limit.  Practically, if they changed embark/debark port or the overall type of cruise (as in your example of Med to UK), they cancel the cruise and offer options (move to new cruise, FCC, refund).

I haven't paid close attention to European cruise changes, but depending on how covid continues to effect the area, you could end up with a rather different Med cruise than you originally booked but it would still be a Med cruise.  I'm confident if the ship were reassigned out of the Med, you would have a choice in what happens next.

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40 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said:

I'm confident if the ship were reassigned out of the Med, you would have a choice in what happens next.

I've had two itinerary changes on Celebrity sailings in Europe. One, our Athens sailing, had minor changes and I was not offered an option to reschedule. I just completed it. The changes were so minor as to be inconsequential.

The other is upcoming in October - a W bound Translant crossing from Barcelona. I was notified about a month ago that the sail date was moved up two weeks and several ports were replaced with another or a previously scheduled port call became a sea day. I was offered a refund or a price protected lift and shift. This despite this sailing being lifted and shifted once already.

I'm in agreement with @Atlantix2000. RCL is going to be fair to the extent that is reasonable. Sure, there will be people who feel like they got screwed. Not much RCL or anyone else can do about that group who is comprised of people who are hard to please anyway.

 

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As bummed out as I was with our Oct Greek Isles cruise being cancelled this Oct, again as it was last year. Maybe it's for the best. It will give us another year plus of dealing with all this. Hopefully we aren't dealing with all this next year.

 

Happy cruising!

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Our september 5 cruise out of Southampton also has a changed itinerary. Originally it was Norwegians Fjords, now it's 1 seaday extra and Bilbao/Vigo Spain and Lisbon Portugal.

So i cancelled the cruise. I booked the fjords, not a few southern cruiseports.... ?

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1 hour ago, Ray said:

Hopefully this works both ways so we can enter US without the need for quarantine 

Didn't think we were able to enter at all. Has that changed? Or is it just for certain situations? Can't keep track of it all.

And let's hope that when it happens, they decide to accept the AZ vaccine or so many UK and European nationals are still going to be shut out. ?

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41 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Didn't think we were able to enter at all. Has that changed? Or is it just for certain situations? Can't keep track of it all.

 

You can only enter if you are on a private jet chartered by Rita Ora going to las Vegas for a 48 hr bender!!!!

For the rest of us we have to wait for the US to lift their border controls which is hopefully soon ( or at least before match lol ) 

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15 minutes ago, Ray said:

You can only enter if you are on a private jet chartered by Rita Ora going to las Vegas for a 48 hr bender!!!!

For the rest of us we have to wait for the US to lift their border controls which is hopefully soon ( or at least before match lol ) 

Got it. The old two-tiered society. Maybe when I win the euromillions I'll do the same. ?

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