Speaking as someone who caught COVID from an asymptomatic colleague and was really ill - you may feel well, but be asymptomatic and infect others. As you do not want to have a test - even an antibody test, you will never know. The problem is that the majority of your fellow cruisers will be in the more senior bracket and are more susceptible to severe infection if they contract COVID. Even the fully vaccinated have a 15% chance of contracting the virus although they are unlikely to die of it.

Given  your convictions, to which of course you have every entitlement, you may find it easier to give cruising a miss for a couple of seasons?

Have a good holiday in whatever you eventually decide to do.

I find it strange that the Chief Exec of Carnival Group is saying that vaccinations will not be required for US passengers when his UK brand P and O Cruises will not accept UK passengers this summer who have not been vaccinated.

Zaandam left the anchorage off Torquay yesterday evening after nearly six months ‘at rest’.

She gained many friends ashore and her departure from the bay was marked by a horn contest with the Eurodam and the Marella Explorer both of which were anchored in the near vicinity. The sound of the horns echoed around the hills which adjoin Torbay and was very moving.

She was bound for Southampton for stores and fuel and is then going to join her sister Volendam in Corfu to hopefully resume cruising in the Mediterranean. I think this is a brave move on the part of HAL  because Europe is currently in the grip of a third wave of the Pandemic with infections in some countries doubling every 10:days. Because of EU bureaucracy, the vaccination programme is woefully slow with average of 12% of population vaccinated compared to 30+% in the US and 50% in the UK. 
Maybe the 3rd wave will have passed by the time she is ready.🤞🤞🤞

‘P&O Cruises has cancelled all its planned cruises until the beginning of September and those on Britannia and flagship Iona -- which has not even sailed with passengers yet -- until the beginning of October.

The line will instead offer a series of short break and week-long UK cruises, which will go on sale later in March.’

Will HAL follow suit? The UK is further ahead with its vaccination programme than any other European country. Must throw doubt  on Med cruises for this summer?

For those who are interested. There are no HAL ships in Torbay and haven’t been for 36 hours. Unusually we are experiencing very strong ( and bitterly cold) easterly winds and Torbay is exposed to winds from this quarter. The prevailing winds are from the SW which is why it is such good shelter. A further problem is that the bay is relatively shallow and the high E swell kicks up a lot of sediment which is not good for the ship’s filters.

They are milling around in the English Channel and we hope to see them back in the next couple of days as the wind is due to swing back to SW.

Totally agree with Deckchair - we also now cruise with Cunard - although as previously expressed - I hanker after the ‘old’ HAL!

Have sailed 5 times on HAL and twice on Celebrity. We have not booked HAL for the last few years as we thought the entertainment and food had really gone down both in terms of quality and quantity. The crew continue to be marvellous. Our last HAL voyage was on Eurodam and we thought the main dining poor and understaffed, the Pinnacle Grill food and service was rather perfunctory although we adored Tamarind. We normally book a Neptune suite.

On Celebrity, we book a mini suite. The dining room food was ok but we thought Murano was bit pretentious. We enjoyed the Tuscan Grill. We thought the evening entertainment on Celebrity was much better. We had a butler who was absolutely superb in taking care of our every need. A huge step up from the concierge in the Neptune lounge!

However, despite the above, I have a soft spot for HAL, their ships look like ships and not blocks of apartments and are beautifully decorated. I had a particular soft spot for Prinsendam. I find the new Celebrity ships really ugly, the Silhouette class look odd with the silly little funnels, and Edge are plain ugly with the big orange gantry on the side. My wife tells me that when you are on the ship ,you can’t look at it so it doesn’t matter - but somehow it does to me!

I realise the above probably says more about me than HAL/Celebrity and I realise that removing levels of service keeps prices low which fills all the new large ships but I can’t help hankering after the HAL I knew when we started cruising on the 1990s. Sad really.........

It is extremely unlikely that Europe will have completed its vaccination programme by July. In the UK - everybody over 70 will have received their first dose by 15th Feb but second doses will not be given until 12 weeks have passed, which takes us to May. Europe is way behind. Sorry to say your July cruise looks pretty unlikely.

Spoke to a friend in NZ today who says there will be no cruise ships in NZ waters until Jan 22 at the earliest.

I think it is extremely unlikely that the Mediterranean will be possible this year. Maybe the transatlantics will go as cruise companies want to reposition their ships back to the Caribbean for the winter in the hope that there is a winter season.

The vaccination programme in Europe is very slow to get off the ground and until a very substantial majority of the population are vaccinated, European countries will not open their borders.

Bear in mind when considering the last posters comments that HAL world cruises have been carried out on the Amsterdam and will be on the Zaandam (if she survives in the fleet).

These are much smaller ships than the 3 Queens so not sur ione is comparing apples with apples!

The Queen ELizabeth and The Queen Victoria are based on the same hardware platform as the Ost/West/Nor and Zuiderdam so there are plenty of similarities although internal layouts are different- cabins are essentially the same. The atmosphere on Cunard is more formal with formal dress required on several evenings during the cruise although this is more relaxed than it used to be.

The Queens offer ‘Grill’ class which is enhanced single seating dining in the Grills restaurants which are exclusive to passengers occupying the highest grade cabins/suites. Some people do not like this as they say it smacks of the old class system.

The Queen Mary 2 is different as she is primarily a transatlantic liner rather than a cruise ship. She is more a ‘travel’  experience rather than a ‘cruise’ experience and is more formal.

Having cruised several times with both lines, my personal preference would be for Cunard - I think the food is better. (It was a bit of a surprise  to be  offered meatloaf and jerk chicken as a main course in the HAL restaurant! )

Both lines decorate their ships beautifully and crew on both are top notch although you might find more European crew on Cunard. Both companies offer world wide itineraries,

In summary you won’t be sorry which ever you choose, although with the present problems for the Carnival Group caused by the pandemic/ you might even find the 2 companies merged or sold the next few months!

I hope you enjoy whichever line you choose!

Given how things are at the present time with European countries attitudes to non nationals accessing their countries, combined with the delays in the vaccination 

programmes, I think it is extremely unlikely that there will be any cruising in Europe in 2021. Another unknown is whether vaccinated people can infect others. Until this is resolved, I cannot believe that countries will allow large numbers of cruise ships to discharge passengers.

sad - but too many unknowns.

This was always on the cards once Royal Caribbean acquired Silverseas. Azamara  and Silverseas are too close and Silverseas has a higher profile.

I think Cunard and P& O may be merged and possibly spun off but I also think that HAL has lost its way as a brand over the last few years - it’s very much competing with Princess and must have been damaged by  the fact that the traditional HAL passengers are ageing and prefer smaller but less profitable ships. Viking Ocean has taken passengers from HAL.

Just remembered that the 4th Cunard ship presently in build is a Konigsdam platform

I think that merging Cunard and HAL might be Carnival’s preferred option.

They both have a European pedigree, both tend to cater to a more mature mostly well travelled clientele and both have world wide itineraries . 2 of the Cunard ships and 6 of the HAL ships have essentially the same hull platform.

Carnival today reported that they intend to sell 4 more ships bringing their total disposals to 19.

I suppose that some the older AIDa ships may be in the frame but Volendam and Zaandam must be vulnerable - they are more or less the same age and capacity as the Rotterdam and Amsterdam . It would be a shame.

In a England the 6th of Jan is generally known as 12th night.  Church goers refer to it as Epiphany ( there aren’t many of them left).

- traditionally all Christmas decorations are supposed to be packed away by the 6th.

As you may know - most of the European countries are in yet another lock down which realistically will probably last until early March. There are very differing rates of vaccination - as of today France has given 500, Italy 100000 and the UK 1.3m, although this will obviously ramp up. At the moment, I would think it extremely unlikely that Mediterranean/European cruising will start properly before July. Although you may have had a vaccine, it is as yet unknown as to whether you can still infect others. I suspect cruise ships with a thousand or so passengers will not be welcome until this is resolved. Also the attitude that some segments of the population in the US have taken to the virus could make the European authorities wary, although I am sure that the cruise lines will work really hard to obviate this.

Zaandam and Volendam are still sitting idle in Torbay and I worry that, the longer this goes on , the more in doubt their future in HAL looks. Still maybe Fred Olsen will pick them up which would be great for the UK market and prolong their sailing life. They are such beautiful ships.

Sarande in Albania

Progreso in Mexico

The choice of line is a matter of personal taste. We have cruised 5 times with each line and the more formal approach of Cunard suits us better as we coast into the evening of our lives. Food also is very subjective - I was not overjoyed to see Meatloaf and Jerk Chicken in the HAL dining room. Although nominally a British line , Cunard tends to bridge the gap between US and UK tastes better than modern day HAL does.

If you have a port side P1 cabin midships, I would stick with PG. The south side of the ship is noticeably warm and brighter than the north. We found the PG experience better than the QG - the other passengers were friendlier and not bragging about how many crossings they had made. There was still the opportunity to order off menu, albeit there was a wider choice in QG. Service was very good in both grills although slightly more formal in QG.

Both are a wonderful travel experience - smooth sailing  with which ever you decide on😁

Westerdam is also heading back across the Atlantic to Florida - she has been in the yard in Holland and was in Southampton as well.

I think there will a merger of some of the Carnival brands. At the moment each brand has its own management/ head office set up. IMO the Princess brand is tarnished  and I wander how long Cunard can stand alone with only 3/4 ships. I know there is some back room crossover between Cunard and Princess but once the bean counters really rev up, I can see cuts/mergers right left and centre,