Who's feeling lucky?

[Aus Traveller]

When are you prepared to book another cruise?

 

We considered a P&O cruise for late May 2021, but we are doubtful it will go ahead. Anyway, by the time we enquired, the category we were interested in, was sold out. We have booked a cruise for next August on $1 pp deposit. We are not risking much. P&O have a sale at the moment with good prices plus generous OBC.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I'm just rolling my booking forward - or will do once Princess gets its act together and releases some more itineraries.

 

Our January Cunard NZ cruise was cancelled s o I booked one for Christmas/NY 2021/22.

 

I have a Sydney to Yokohama cruise booked for April on Pacific Princess but I don't expect that to happen.

 

I've also got a Princess Hawaii/Tahiti cruise booked for September 21 which I want to move to 2022, and would like to do a Round Australia cruise late 2021 instead.

 

The only one that is costing me as far as the deposit goes is the Cunard cruise. I have FCDs for the Princess cruises so not a big investment.

[NSWP]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I'm just rolling my booking forward - or will do once Princess gets its act together and releases some more itineraries.

 

Our January Cunard NZ cruise was cancelled s o I booked one for Christmas/NY 2021/22.

 

I have a Sydney to Yokohama cruise booked for April on Pacific Princess but I don't expect that to happen.

 

I've also got a Princess Hawaii/Tahiti cruise booked for September 21 which I want to move to 2022, and would like to do a Round Australia cruise late 2021 instead.

 

The only one that is costing me as far as the deposit goes is the Cunard cruise. I have FCDs for the Princess cruises so not a big investment.

With all due respect you are a true cruiseaholic, good on you, you are keeping some of us motivated.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Gotta make the most of it before we get too old and creaky.

[NSWP]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Gotta make the most of it before we get too old and creaky.

Tell me about it. I rely on memories.

[Fletch1]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Gotta make the most of it before we get too old and creaky.

 

In my case......too old and cranky!

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 minutes ago, Fletch1 said:

 

In my case......too old and cranky!

Awwww!

[OzKiwiJJ]

By the time we actually get to cruise again  be decidedly cranky!

[NSWP]

21 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

By the time we actually get to cruise again  be decidedly cranky!

And creaky and crazy.

[ilikeanswers]

I am going to be watching how things go. Anything that needs commiting of money upfront I will probably avoid till I know there is stability in the tourism industry. I don't feel particularly lucky😆 and would want at least 80% certainty that the trip is possible before I put any money on it🤑

[bazzaw]

11 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

When are you prepared to book another cruise?

 

We considered a P&O cruise for late May 2021, but we are doubtful it will go ahead. Anyway, by the time we enquired, the category we were interested in, was sold out. We have booked a cruise for next August on $1 pp deposit. We are not risking much. P&O have a sale at the moment with good prices plus generous OBC.

You will however be required to pay the full deposit in February sometime ( depending on cruise departure date in August) - I am not sure that I would be wanting to pay P&O any money in February. This virus has a lot of room to manoeuvre all over the World left yet - 25 million have supposedly been infected around the World but there are 7500 million people still not infected. 

[MicCanberra]

Since Covid-19 hit, we have only booked one cruise which was actually moving one from April 2021 to another in March 2022, we have had numerous cancelled though. If we book any next year (2021), they will be local and likely to be short, last minute cruises using any FCCs or credits and such (from the cancelled cruises), as we have no interest in tying up more money at this point.

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, bazzaw said:

You will however be required to pay the full deposit in February sometime ( depending on cruise departure date in August) - I am not sure that I would be wanting to pay P&O any money in February. This virus has a lot of room to manoeuvre all over the World left yet - 25 million have supposedly been infected around the World but there are 7500 million people still not infected. 

You are correct. We have to pay $498 balance of deposit to P&O in February for our August 2021 cruise, but we have $500 FCC with them. If we decide by February that the future cruise situation doesn't look hopeful, we can cancel and lose our $2. 😁 If P&O cancel the cruise, our $500 deposit will become a FCC (and possibly at an increased amount). We don't have to put any more money down until the balance is due.

 

Regarding the future - Some medical experts have said that the COVID virus is already losing its potency. Even in Queensland, there are several people in this latest outbreak (people in their 30s and 40s) have virtually no symptoms. Over the longer term, we don't know if a vaccine will defeat the virus or whether it will weaken so much that it isn't a major threat. However, until there are major changes in the situation worldwide, we would only look at fairly local cruises. I could say "not Victoria", but their outbreak is likely to be under control within months. There will probably be more outbreaks, but the cruise we have booked is 12 months away. This COVID situation has been changing rapidly since it first appeared, and it will continue to change.

 

Maybe I am an optimist, but I am not ready to give up cruising.🙂

[cruisine21]

I think it’s going to be difficult to get travel insurance

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 minutes ago, cruisine21 said:

I think it’s going to be difficult to get travel insurance

The cruise lines might have to consider covering medical costs themselves.

[By The Bay]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Regarding the future - Some medical experts have said that the COVID virus is already losing its potency. Even in Queensland, there are several people in this latest outbreak (people in their 30s and 40s) have virtually no symptoms.

 

It is great news that the younger people are not affected as bad as other people. However, even without symptoms they are able to shed the virus to those that are vulnerable, the people with per-existing conditions and especially the elderly and aged care residents. A vaccine and herd immunity is what will be required to defeat the virus. That or we learn to live with it. Stay safe. 😷

[Kiwi Kruzer]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The cruise lines might have to consider covering medical costs themselves.

HAL used to offer cancellation insurance,which was popular with older travellers .It wasn't cheap though . Don’t know if they still offer it ?

[The_Big_M]

18 hours ago, bazzaw said:

You will however be required to pay the full deposit in February sometime ( depending on cruise departure date in August) - I am not sure that I would be wanting to pay P&O any money in February. This virus has a lot of room to manoeuvre all over the World left yet - 25 million have supposedly been infected around the World but there are 7500 million people still not infected. 

 

Weird. A short while ago you were saying all those restrictions are unnecessary as it's no big deal.

[Aus Traveller]

I was surprised at how heavily booked the Pacific Explorer is for the cruises we looked at. While we were thinking about a seven-night cruise in May and trying to get P&O to confirm that we had a FCC, the balcony cabins were all booked out. I didn't think there was any urgency in booking, but I am still doubtful that a May cruise will go ahead. We then considered the same itinerary in August 2021. The TA could only offer a few balcony cabins, the others are all booked and all the mini suites and suites are also booked. There was no indication from P&O or the TA that the company is limiting the number of bookings they are taking.

[bazzaw]

12 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

Weird. A short while ago you were saying all those restrictions are unnecessary as it's no big deal.

What I was saying and continue to say is that these lockdowns/restrictions are unsustainable. I am also saying that the Coronavirus IS a big deal - in fact, much bigger than many/most can comprehend (as illustrated by the number of people on our Planet) and the current view of trying to hide under the bedsheets and hoping it will go away is unsustainable. This view alone will be enough to prevent any cruising for many years to come- so therefore be very wary about booking (and paying for) future cruises for a LONG time. 

[bazzaw]

4 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I was surprised at how heavily booked the Pacific Explorer is for the cruises we looked at. While we were thinking about a seven-night cruise in May and trying to get P&O to confirm that we had a FCC, the balcony cabins were all booked out. I didn't think there was any urgency in booking, but I am still doubtful that a May cruise will go ahead. We then considered the same itinerary in August 2021. The TA could only offer a few balcony cabins, the others are all booked and all the mini suites and suites are also booked. There was no indication from P&O or the TA that the company is limiting the number of bookings they are taking.

There is a lot of "wishful" thinking affecting these future cruise bookings - plus of course all of those FCC's that have already been issued. We are seeing not only a second wave of Coronavirus - but also a second wave of cancelled cruises creating a kind of "compounded" FCC's situation - one FCC leading to another FCC which with sufficient blindness and wishful thinking will lead to triple compounded FCC's until THE END!  

[Aus Traveller]

40 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

What I was saying and continue to say is that these lockdowns/restrictions are unsustainable. I am also saying that the Coronavirus IS a big deal - in fact, much bigger than many/most can comprehend (as illustrated by the number of people on our Planet) and the current view of trying to hide under the bedsheets and hoping it will go away is unsustainable. This view alone will be enough to prevent any cruising for many years to come- so therefore be very wary about booking (and paying for) future cruises for a LONG time. 

We'll see. I would not be surprised if cruising does not return for a year or two, and therefore our cruise booked for August 2021 would be cancelled. However, I don't think it will be a long time.

[By The Bay]

I have a cruise from Sydney to the South Pacific Islands booked for October 2021 and I don't thick it will go ahead.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

On 8/28/2020 at 8:50 PM, Aus Traveller said:

When are you prepared to book another cruise?

 

We have a cruise booked for Christmas / New Year this Year (2020) 😁 (Crazy? maybe  🤣🤔)

 

and once we get our FCC back from P&O on our cancelled Pacific Adventure cruise, we are looking at booking a cruise from Auckland in March on the Pacific Explorer.

 

[Roger88]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

We'll see. I would not be surprised if cruising does not return for a year or two, and therefore our cruise booked for August 2021 would be cancelled. However, I don't think it will be a long time.

2021 seems safer than ever. I read lots of news about it and I am pretty sure now that by the end of the year the vaccine will be distributed to all major countries of the world. If they manage to do it this year, you can be sure that 2021 and 2022 are safe starting this December