It sure has been a worrying week of cruise news as we still don’t know when cruises will really resume. Is it May, is it June, or could it even be July?
Cruise News Update
This week we’re going to be looking at some of the biggest headlines, including policy changes from Royal Caribbean, Azamara Growing with Another Cruise Ship, Huge Losses Expected for one of the major cruise ports in the industry, and we’re going to take a look at some worrying ones Updates that will be the month in July when cruises could actually resume.
Royal Caribbean extends cruise on trust policy
Let’s start with Royal Caribbean as the cruise line has decided to extend their cruise cancellation policy with Confidence. Starting February 1, 2021, for all bookings made by April 30, 2021 for cruises on or before April 30, 2022, guests can cancel their cruise up to 48 hours before sailing and receive a full credit of the cruise price paid .
Photo Credit: Benjamin Clapp / Shutterstock.com
This now offers further security for those who still want to book a cruise during these difficult times. The cruise line has ceased operations in the US through April and the situation remains very fluid so the “Cruise With Confidence” program is really important.
Royal Caribbean continues to offer the “Best Price Guarantee”, which allows guests to change the price and special offer on their reservation up to 48 hours before their cruise.
Lift & Shift is set
In accordance with Royal Caribbean, it was announced this week that it The Lift & Shift program is set. The cruise line has announced that Lift & Shift will no longer be an option from February 1, 2021.
Photo by: Russell Otway
The program allows guests to reschedule an outbound booking to a qualified sailing date on or before April 30, 2022. There are some requirements for this, e. B. the type of itinerary and within 4 weeks before or after the original booking.
Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President Sales & Trade at Royal Caribbean, recently said that Lift & Shift will only be available if Royal Caribbean cancels the sailing and those guests have an active booking.
Pacific Princess on the way to Azamara
We finally know where Pacific Princess is going! And it wasn’t a surprise! Princess Cruises recently announced that the ship had been sold to an unknown buyer and we now know the buyer is Azamara, yes, the cruise line that Royal Caribbean is selling to Sycamore Partners.
Photo credit: Azamara Cruises
Pacific Princess will join its new fleet for an opening season in Europe in 2022. Before that, however, she will undergo a makeover to fit her sister ships Azamara Journey, Azamara Quest and Azamara Pursuit.
Carnival Cruise Line Deployment Changes
It’s been a busy week for Carnival Cruise Line with a lot of deployment changes Multiple ship impacts, including the highly anticipated Carnival Radiance transformation.
Photo by: Russell Otway (Cruise Hive only)
Let’s take a look at the changes:
- In connection with the previously announced dry dock plans for Carnival Magic, Carnival Paradise and Carnival Valor, these ships will now be put back into operation in November 2021.
- Scarnival Miracle Cruisean Diego’s Carnival Miracle scheduled seasonal service has been suspended until further notice, and the San Diego departures that are on sale through April 2023 have been canceled, with the exception of seven trips to Hawaii which will be relocated to Long Beach.
- Carnival Radiance dry dock and redesign have been rescheduled to September, with a scheduled arrival in Long Beach in November 2021.
- With the repositioning of Carnival Miracle in Long Beach, the ship will take over the three- and four-day itineraries for Carnival Radiance from May 3rd to November 3rd. 1, 2021 and the seven Hawaii Carnival Journeys. In addition, Carnival Miracle will launch a new program of four- and five-day cruises to Mexico during the winter season, starting in November 2021 and lasting through April 2023.
The expansion of Terminal F of the Carnival is breaking new ground
A more positive update from Carnival this week than that The cruise line and Port Miami reached an important milestone. The new Carnival Terminal F in the harbor has laid the foundation stone and construction has officially started.
Photo: Carnival Cruise Line
The Mayor of Miami-Dade and the President of Carnival Cruise Line, along with district officials and construction partners, used ceremonial shovels to officially mark the start of construction on the sprawling 471,000 square foot facility.
Terminal F will be completed when the second Excel-class Carnival Celebration cruise ship departs from the port in November 2022. It will be an extremely important year for the cruise line with its 50th anniversary and the new LNG mega-ship being a big part of these year-long celebrations.
The ship is currently under construction at the Finnish Meyer Turku shipyard.
Huge losses are expected for Port Canaveral
Worrying developments in one of the most important cruise ports in the world. Port Canaveral, Florida is projects larger than expected losses for 2021 of $ 43.12 million.
This could mean a huge loss for the port in general, but it’s not just the cruise lines and Port Canaveral that are feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Port Canaveral reduced its workforce from 268 to 153 mainly due to lost revenue related to the shutdown of the cruise industry. According to the Florida Ports Council, the combined impact of the pandemic is likely to cost Florida a total of $ 22 billion in economic activity, $ 775 million in tax revenue, and 170,000 jobs by 2021. These are extremely worrying numbers that will undoubtedly take years to recover.
Is it more likely that July will resume?
There has been a lot of chatter and reports this week with indications that the US cruise may not resume until July.
The crew members of the Norwegian cruise line recently received a letter from the cruise line about the renewed repatriation. These are non-essential crew members who had not long returned to the ships pending the resumption of cruise operations.
Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Encore are said to be the ships that sail the crew home to countries like India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Norwegian Cruise Line recently announced another suspension through May. Is this a sign that the break is expected even longer?
Officials in Port Canaveral also said this week that cruises from the port are not expected to resume until July. Well, that’s not official from the cruise lines, but maybe they know something we don’t.
Patrick Scholes, a Wall Street analyst, has also said that the cruise will restart in the United States could be pushed back to July or later. This is due to a number of factors including no signs of improvement in the global pandemic. If cruise lines are waiting for the vaccine it can take some time and result in cruise lines being forced to delay even further.
So there are several indications that cruising could be delayed again, but let’s face it, it is now expected. We still hope that cruises on the three major cruise lines will resume in May, but that really depends on the CDC and the new Biden administration. Hopefully we will hear something as soon as the CDC has been very calm these days, maybe the calm before the storm who knows.
Even more cruise news!
These were just some of the main headlines this week. We have the latest developments, including the three major cruise lines Currently stand on vaccines, new ships Delivery despite business interruption, Carnival Carnival is now delayed four timesand much more insight into all things cruise.
You can view and read the cruise news update for the past week exactly here.
