A Viking ocean ship at Geiranger, Norway.
Photographer: Alastair Miller
Photographer: Alastair Miller
After a year of isolation and lockdown, four months on a ship are looking pretty good Cruise super fans.
The Covid-19 pandemic raged in July when Viking Ocean Cruises opened reservation books for a 136-day world cruise. The departure for Christmas 2021 was sold out within a few weeks. In December, in the middle of a second wave, the company opened a second cruise over the same period. It was also sold out quickly.
The company has had no problem filling two of its nearly identical 930 passenger ships, the Viking Star and Viking Neptune, though the borders of many of the two dozen countries it plans to visit remain largely closed to international visitors. The only cabins that actually weren’t sold were those that were locked to potential quarantine needs. Now the line is trying to put together an additional worldwide itinerary from 2023.
“We want to open the next opportunity as soon as possible,” said Richard Marnell, Viking executive vice president of marketing. “Take care of this room!”
A pair of Viking ships, the Viking Sea and the Viking Star, on Santorini, Greece.
Photographer: Alastair Miller
Despite the plight of the cruise industry over the past year – or possibly because of it – the hottest tickets on many cruise lines are expensive, multi-month world tours scheduled to last a year or more.
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These bookings, which can range from around $ 50,000 per couple in standard rooms to hundreds of thousands of dollars in premium suites, are a rare glimmer of hope for an industry that has been adopted Losses of more than $ 30 billion and still saddled with uncertainty. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently considered Cruises have a “very high level” of Covid-19 risk and recommends travelers to avoid them worldwide; So far, most lines have canceled departures until June, and even that schedule seems optimistic.
Viking isn’t the only line with big plans for the rather distant future. On January 27th, Oceania Cruises opened sales for its 2023 “Around the World in 180 Days” cruise that will reach five continents. including Antarctica. The upscale line sold a ship with 684 passengers in one day.
The ultra-luxury line Seabourn has for its part sold out all top-level suites on two world sails on the 450-passenger Seabourn Sojourn. Couples will pay up to half a million dollars for five-month cruises from 2022 and 2023 due to popular demand, the company recently opened waiting lists.
Why now?
Many factors are driving this trend, from cabin fever to cheap deals and the promise of vaccinations for the notoriously older core cruise demographics.
Easter Island off the coast of Chile is one of the hard-to-reach places that is best seen via a cruise.
Photographer: traumlichtfabrik / Moment RF
World cruises don’t necessarily orbit the globe, despite their name. But cruisers stuck at home since March 2020 are apparently optimistic when it comes to seeing as much of the world as possible in one fell swoop – including hard-to-reach destinations like Easter Island, Bora Bora or the Seychelles. Take Silversea’s newest route: when it sets sail in 2022, the first “Expedition World Cruise” will travel from Ushuaia, Argentina to Tromsø, Norway for 167 days – almost from pole to pole.
Catching up and “re-prioritizing life goals” play a role here, says Matthew D. Upchurch, chairman and managing director of Virtuoso, a network of luxury travel advisors. In addition to world cruises, which usually take place over the winter into spring, longer journeys of several weeks or months are attracting more interest than before the pandemic.
The aurora borealis over Tromsø, Norway, where Seaborn will make a port call on its new pole-to-pole world cruise in 2022.
Photographer: Mike Hill / Stone RF
“There’s a nostalgia for the missed opportunities last year and a strong desire to see the world while they can,” says Upchurch. “By taking something away, you are highlighting the real worth and appreciation for it. ”
Other value propositions may also play a role. For cruisers who had to cancel one or more trips in 2020, these one-off itineraries are a great way to redeem their credits. For the past 12 months, cruise lines have been encouraging travelers not to request refunds by offering 10% to 25% value added in the form of “bonus credits” that must be redeemed on some routes by April 2022.
Cruise lines are also increasing the VIP giveaways they offer to long-term guests such as: B. Free dry cleaning, WiFi and Visa services. To secure ship occupancy for a longer period of time and keep revenue on their bright red balance sheets, they add lavish pre-departure parties, business class flights, and thousands of dollars in on-board credit.
An argument for security
Linda Weissman and her husband Marty, a retired orthopedist, rarely belong to the sea. The couple escaped the frigid Michigan temperatures and have “hibernated” 14 times on Cunard world cruises – always in one of the finest Queen’s Grill suites and spent millions of dollars in the process. They are planning another four-month world trip on Queen Mary 2 in 2022.
“I miss the people, the service that you wait for and take care of around the clock,” says Linda. “It’s like, ‘Do you want snails tonight?'”
Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 in New York Harbor.
Source: Cunard
In the wake of the pandemic, passengers have to grapple with some serious concerns, including the frequency of outbreaks on ships that promised buttoned Covid logs last summer and fall. Despite these headlines, according to Marnell von Viking World Cruisers will benefit from a safe, “constant environment” that travelers can enjoy for long periods of time. Like other lines, his company’s ships have been equipped with laboratories for frequent PCR testing and new air purification systems. among other measures.
However, the safety of country visits remains an emerging question mark – especially in countries where vaccination has not yet been introduced to any significant extent. While cruise lines are generally working on plans to ensure safety in these ports of call, the rapidly changing travel recommendations and long lead times before itineraries can resume mean that these details have not yet been widely publicized.
Far from being guaranteed
In order for cruise lines to implement these plans, many things have to break their way. The December 2021 Viking cruise is scheduled to call for 56 ports in 27 countries, including locations in Central America, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean – with prices ranging from $ 53,000 to $ 166,000 per person.
The company, like other companies offering world cruises, has to deal with the complexities of ever-changing entry and quarantine rules in a world where herd immunity may not be achieved for years.
Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand, one of the places cruisers can usually enjoy on a world cruise.
Photographer: Mathias Ortmann / Moment RF
The unknowns surrounding government regulations will make it difficult for cruise ships to plan itineraries, says Virtuoso’s Upchurch. “It is impractical to change course when a trip is on the way. It’s expensive and doesn’t help restore consumer confidence, ”he says.
Cruise ships hope that Covid will no longer be a problem by the time these distant routes set sail. Should the border closings last longer than expected, these itineraries may need to be postponed, just like the rest of the cruise calendar.
What nobody wants is a Repetition of last winter. As Covid-19 spread, world cruises had to be scrapped halfway, with passengers sent home on hastily arranged flights or stranded on ships. One finding, however, is that travelers have understood that “nothing is guaranteed,” says Upchurch.
That goes for the Weissmans of Michigan. They had to pack their 10 bags (eight for Linda) and fly home from Perth when their world cruise on QM2 was canceled last March. They hope for the best in 2022.
“Every day appears on Facebook where we were that day [last year]”Says Linda.” It showed up today that we were in Bali and had Bloody Marys. I mean, come on. “
Before it’s here, it’s in the Bloomberg Terminal.
