kingfoot

You might be confused. I don’t see Perth or Limassol on Symphony’s itinerary.

I hadn’t really thought about the option of Serenity doing the Red Sea without passengers. Still significant risk to ship and crew, but certainly would save a lot of logistical hassles. One way it could work is to disembark all pax in Mumbai, and offer them a 15 day overland/air experience from Mumbai ending in Alexandria / Cairo on the 27th as per original itinerary, and then continuing on to Istanbul on the original schedule. Serenity would only miss 3 ports: Salalah, Safari and Hurghada none of which seems like major provisioning ports. There would be time on the overland to see some Indian sites such as Taj Mahal or tigers, then fly to Egypt with time to see some sites there, perhaps even Luxor. The cruise/tour package could also be offered to those boarding in Mumbai who might already have flights. There are a couple of issues I see with this however: - Still significant risk to crew and ship. Would insurers go for it? - 15 day overland with air for 100+ pax, might be a lot to plan at this point, but certainly A&K has some depth here. - Would world cruisers be able to leave personal property on board, or pack up completely? If personal items are left on board, Crystal would probably need additional insurance to cover loss. If required to pack up completely, might be a logistical nightmare for the overland travel, and would certainly complicate the day in Alexandria with additional luggage handling. - Some world cruisers explicitly take the WC because they can’t/won’t fly in airplanes. Not sure how you work around that. Anyway, interesting thought experiment.

A little more analysis… Ignore if you want to just find out the real answer next week! Using the sea distance site Roy pointed out, here are the average speeds necessary to meet up with the Serentity’s planned segment start dates. Perth to Istanbul (37 days): 13 knots Perth to Athens (48 days): 9.8 knots Perth to Toulon (59 days): 7.4 knots Mumbai to Istanbul: (18 days): 24 knots Mumbai to Athens: (29 days): 16 knots Mumbai to Toulon: (40 days): 11 knots As a benchmark, the upcoming San Diego to Papeete segment covers approx 5200 nautical miles in 18 days, for an average journey speed of 12 knots. This is considered an extremely sea-day intensive cruise. Perth to Istanbul or Mumbai to Toulon would both have an average voyage speed in the ball park of San Diego to Papeete, and would provide a similar very sea-day intensive voyage. Roy pointed out Mumbai to Istanbul is physically impossible at 24 knots, I would also bet that Mumbai to Athens is also out — it’s highly unlikely Serenity could sustain 16 knots average over 29 days, while providing a decent guest experience. The issue with Mumbai to Toulon (or Perth to Toulon for that matter) is that you are going to deviate all the way to the Med, only to pick up one segment (Toulon to Miami) which is transatlantic. So it doesn’t really retain any of Serenity’s Med cruises. If I had to guess, I would say Perth to Istanbul or Perth to Athens are the most likely, but again, overriding business reasons might require a different choice.

My 2 cents: Here are some plausible scenarios — just making some guesses based on transit times borrowed from other cruise itineraries: Assuming the Red Sea transit is not possible, I imagine Crystal would want to reroute at segment boundaries, the 2 logical departure points from the original schedule are: - Perth (March 27) - Mumbai (April 15) Assuming Crystal wants to minimize cancelled segments, I think Serenity could make it from Perth to Istanbul (via Capetown) in time for the May 3rd cruise. It would be pretty much a sprint, but I think doable. This would cancel only 2 segments. The other option is deviate in Mumbai targeting Athens on May 14, which I think is also doable, again missing 2 segments. More leisurely options exist, such as Perth to Athens, but they would cancel at least 3 segments. The reroute from Mumbai to Miami via Capetown and South America is also possible, potential including some Amazon time, but would cancel 4 segments. These are the options as I see it just based on distances. Of course, fuel expense, revenue tradeoffs, and all sorts of logistics will figure in as well. Tough call for all those involved.

Probably close to a million, assuming at 50,000 liter pool and 50ml airline bottles!