How About a Nice Caribbean Cruise? (Page 2): Carnival says they will be cruising again starting in August. I am curious to see t0 which demographic they will be aiming their...

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Carnival says they will be cruising again starting in August. I am curious to see t0 which demographic they will be aiming their advertising. But then it dawned on me - they probably have a lot of people who have already paid for cruises this late summer and fall. If they don't cruise they have to return all the money - if they cruise - the "no-shows" lose! My airline that I have reservations for a trip north this summer has done the same thing. They haven't cancelled the flights - they let you cancel your trip, but then they only issue you a voucher - which will be good for another 18 months or until the airline goes bankrupt - whichever comes first!

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

sb wrote:

Sure - lots of norovirus - but that gives you the screaming s***s for a few days - it generally doesn't leave you on a ventilator and dead. This is not a "usual" virus!

I did not say anything about specific virus types. My only mention was that long before this present virus there were other illnesses aboard cruise ships. Am I lying? I don't think so.

Dennis

FrumCA

We are holding out for a cruise we've booked around New Zealand and Australia in November but will proceed with an abundance of caution going forward. I'm not overly confident that the cruise will actually leave port not to mention the 17 hour flight to get there!!

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

FrumCA wrote:

We are holding out for a cruise we've booked around New Zealand and Australia in November but will proceed with an abundance of caution going forward. I'm not overly confident that the cruise will actually leave port not to mention the 17 hour flight to get there!!

We have thought of that cruise too. You might be OK in November. I hope it goes well for you.

Dennis

FrumCA

dennis2146 wrote:

We have thought of that cruise too. You might be OK in November. I hope it goes well for you.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis. We will let you know. As of right now both countries are closed. We can't even get our VISAs (electronic travel authorizations).

tommyII Loc: Northern Illinois

jerryc41 wrote:

One side benefit of this virus is the reduction in telemarketing calls. One did get through yesterday, though. I was offered a good deal on a Caribbean cruise, leaving on July 1. Can you imagine? There would be 2,000 strangers from all over the country clumped together on a ship for a week. What are the chances that not one person would be carrying the virus?

With 1 person bringing the virus aboard, you'd have 2000 people infected by the end of the week, no matter how they would try to prevent it. Those cruises are giant petri dishes in normal times.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

I doubt I will be travelling on any mode of transport that involves lots of people in close proximity for quite a while!

Salomj9850

My wife and I have made a number of river cruises with Viking. We really enjoyed the trips and we were planning to go on a Viking ocean cruise from Barcelona to Venice in 2021. That trip is now on hold until 2022 at the earliest. It's a shame because we were both anxious to go.

Salomj9850

Reality check time. Cruise lines go to great lengths to insure your comfort and safety. The last thing anyone wants is an incident that results in bad publicity. I've taken a number of river and ocean cruises. We were always treated well. The only bad memory is weather related and that can happen any time you leave your Livingroom.

anotherview Loc: California

While in your browser, press the Ctrl key and then tap the H key. This action brings up the history of browser activity. You then only have to type in a search term. The word "cruise" might be one to start.

rappar wrote:

Jerry,
I can't seem to find the link again but yesterday I read a report saying one line, I think it was Carnival, was offering cruises for about $28 a day and that bookings were up 600% over last year. The start day for 2020 was August 1.

Sure wish I could find the link again just to be sure. I have no desire whatsoever to cruise right now if ever.

Flyerace Loc: Mt Pleasant, WI

Unfortunately, I believe I caught Covid on a cruise ship. But, I still love to cruise. We aren't planning a cruise this year, but I absolutely want to cruise in early 2021. We stick with Royal Caribbean because we are treated right, have lovely cabins and like the food. It is smart to avoid places with illnesses, but we will cruise again. Hopefully, we won't have any more misfortunes.

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

Salomj9850 wrote:

My wife and I have made a number of river cruises with Viking. We really enjoyed the trips and we were planning to go on a Viking ocean cruise from Barcelona to Venice in 2021. That trip is now on hold until 2022 at the earliest. It's a shame because we were both anxious to go.

We had that cruise booked for last month, from Venice to Barcelona. When the cruise got cancelled, we re-booked it for 2022 and added a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam (our first river cruise). We took our first (and only so far) cruise on Viking in 2018 from Bergen "Into the Midnight Sun" and it was the best vacation we've ever had. I will start posting photos soon, probably late next week.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Salomj9850 wrote:

Reality check time. Cruise lines go to great lengths to insure your comfort and safety. The last thing anyone wants is an incident that results in bad publicity. I've taken a number of river and ocean cruises. We were always treated well. The only bad memory is weather related and that can happen any time you leave your Livingroom.

They go to even greater lengths to insure their own profitability. Even normal times, there is little other justification for interior cabins.

DJphoto Loc: SF Bay Area

rehess wrote:

They go to even greater lengths to insure their own profitability. Even normal times, there is little other justification for interior cabins.

Don't most businesses do what they can to maximize profitability? BTW, Viking doesn't have interior cabins, as I suspect is also the case for other "luxury" cruise lines.

Rolk Loc: South Central PA

Salomj9850 wrote:

My wife and I have made a number of river cruises with Viking. We really enjoyed the trips and we were planning to go on a Viking ocean cruise from Barcelona to Venice in 2021. That trip is now on hold until 2022 at the earliest. It's a shame because we were both anxious to go.

That's interesting information, Salom! We had a Viking cruise booked from Nuremburg to Budapest for this August, but we received word from them in late May that they were cancelling all cruises, as you mentioned, for this year, but did offer us a similar cruise for August 2021. They gave us 125% of the fees we had already paid, so we went ahead and made our reservations. Of course, we took out insurance that allows us to cancel for any reason, so we'll just have to wait and see.