[Fairway Cruises]

Originally Posted by gatorbill1

Probably 2022 if things are ok then. We prefer to cruise in Europe only, no boring Caribbean cruises for us. Also do not frequent buffet, prefer sit down meals served to us. NCL seems to be the best we have found for all above reasons.

NCL are among the best for food, no doubt.

[Tmarkwald]

Originally Posted by kathyspear

As some of you may know, cruise lines have tired of waiting for the CDC to give them the guidance that was promised months ago to get them sailing from U.S. ports again. They are moving ships to international "home ports" and starting up round trip cruises in June. Crystal is doing 7-nights in the Bahamas R/T Nassau and Bimini, stopping at 4 or 5 islands that are normally only visited by private yachts. Royal Caribbean has a ship sailing R/T from Nassau, another sailing R/T from Bermuda, and a third home porting in Cyprus for trips to Greece and Israel. Celebrity is sailing R/T St. Martin. NCL is expected to make a similar announcement any day. Carnival is hopeful that cruising from U.S. ports will be allowed sometime this summer so they are holding off on home ports outside the U.S. for the time being.

So far, all sailings require pax to be fulling vaccinated. (Crew will also be vax'd.) Pre-trip covid tests will likely be required for most if not all cruises this summer but that is because they are required by the countries where the ships are docked or where they will visit. The mask issue is up in the air right now. Some folks are worried about not being allowed to go off and explore in ports on their own. They didn't want to be limited to ship excursions only. So far, it looks like that will not be an issue.

The cruise lines have done a lot to ensure that people don't get sick (or get others sick) on board. I'm vaccinated and I am not worried in the least about getting covid on a ship. My only concern -- the only reason I have not yet booked a cruise -- is that I ***REALLY*** don't want to do a covid test. The idea of having a 10" swab stuck up my nose does not appeal to me for some reason. But I really want to get back on a ship. I have a milestone birthday coming up in August and most years I book a 4 or 5 night "birthday cruise" to the Bahamas or Caribbean. (This is in addition to one of our bigger trips every year or 18 months to Europe or someplace.) So I keep thinking about that 10" swab ... We shall see.

kathy

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity so far have said that only ship-sponsored excursions will be authorized. But, we're still a couple months from the restart anyway.

By the way, they quit doing the brain swab about July or August of last year....

[Fairway Cruises]

Well I can tell you the cruise lines are now getting angry and DeSantis has made direct representatin to the Biden administration. He may even allow Florida to start cruising with their fantastically organized protocols the lines have in place. Some have suggested mask and covid 'passports' etc but nothing is certain. RCCL have been operating for months now in the far east and no covid reports? The cruise lines are startng cruises from some near ports such as bahmas etc as the wait is not just effecting the financial situation but the ships need to be used, they can't just sit in the ocean. Vital conponents need to turn over as they say. getting all the systems back online and ready for passengers is quite the job. The CDC is a private agency and it's authority can be challenged, which i expect will happen soon if the sail order is not lifted. I make my living from Golf Cruises and have been unable to make a single cruise outside of europe. I suspect we will start resuming around July and August with protocols in place. Whetehr that means a combination of test and trace, shots etc we will have to see. The cruise lines will do all they can to not have too many restrictions which can spoil the vacation experience.

[Rwirish]

In 2040

[Tmarkwald]

Originally Posted by Fairway Cruises

Well I can tell you the cruise lines are now getting angry and DeSantis has made direct representatin to the Biden administration. He may even allow Florida to start cruising with their fantastically organized protocols the lines have in place. Some have suggested mask and covid 'passports' etc but nothing is certain. RCCL have been operating for months now in the far east and no covid reports? The cruise lines are startng cruises from some near ports such as bahmas etc as the wait is not just effecting the financial situation but the ships need to be used, they can't just sit in the ocean. Vital conponents need to turn over as they say. getting all the systems back online and ready for passengers is quite the job. The CDC is a private agency and it's authority can be challenged, which i expect will happen soon if the sail order is not lifted. I make my living from Golf Cruises and have been unable to make a single cruise outside of europe. I suspect we will start resuming around July and August with protocols in place. Whetehr that means a combination of test and trace, shots etc we will have to see. The cruise lines will do all they can to not have too many restrictions which can spoil the vacation experience.

I agree with you, except - the CDC is a government agency, not private. That's why a new appointed CDC director was installed at the inauguration. And she hates cruise ships, because we were moving towards cruising for March on test cruises, and May on normal sailings...

[jamorela]

Doing a Mediterranean one in May 2022. Can’t wait!

[westernrider75]

I understand your hesitancy, but the test isn’t that bad and only lasts a second, well worth it to cruise again.

[bjkokomo]

Booked for Alaska in July. Was told last week it is a 50-50 chance gat this time. If we do go they will require proof of vaccine and smaller capacity on the ship. I’m positive that I will miss the buffet on deck 11.

[Girlcopper]

Originally Posted by FG111

Working hard for many years, saving your money and living a good life entitles one to retiring to warmer climates and beginning your cruise addiction. Until the pandemic, my wife and I usually cruised twice a year and we both really miss our cruises.

When do you guys think it will be safe to cruise again and what limitations will the cruise lines place in order to minimize the spread of COVID? I personally believe the CDC will not permit cruises to restart until August 1st and I personally don't plan on cruising until the beginning of the year 2022. Additionally I believe the cruise lines will mandate before boarding proof of vaccine, proof of a recent negative COVID test and the ships will only sail @ 50% capacity in order to minimize passenger contact. And worst of all, I believe the buffet as we have been accustomed to is a finished concept.

Im a big timer cruiser for years. Have been on short ones and 4 week European cruises. Twice I got neurovirus on one of the long cruises and I was never so sick in my entire life. The virus spread like wildfire through the passengers and we returned after the cruise with 32% of the ship sick. I think it will be a long time before I trust cruising. Ive seen first hand how rapidly a virus spreads and it was mostly due to ignorant passengers who refused to follow protocol when the virus started. So, the ship can have a ton of rules in place if a virus occurs but if you have selfish non caring passengers, no rules will matter. They will do what they want.

[davephan]

Cruising has already opened up again, just not in the US yet. If you want to learn a lot more about the cruising that is now occurring, just watch the YouTube video with a round table discussion with Governor DeSantis and the cruise ship executives.

Florida Governor DeSantis Holds Roundtable Conference With Cruise Executives - YouTube

The three largest ports for the cruise ships are located in Florida, but are still shut down. As was mentioned by others, the cruise liners are starting to move to foreign ports. Cruising is actually supposed to be safer now than going to your grocery store.

We started cruising a few years ago with a Carnival two day cruise from Long Beach, California to Baja Mexico. We made it only a two day cruise in case we hated the experience.

We really liked cruises and have done longer cruises in the Caribbean, Europe, and New Zealand. It’s a great way to travel, to minimize the hassles, including hauling you luggage around. You always have a good place to sleep and eat.

We hated the sit down restaurants on the cruise ships. It took 90 minutes to eat. Each time plates were brought to the table, the plates were 80% to 90% empty. Then we would have to wait another 20 minutes for the next round of nearly empty plates of food. The buffets were much better!

Another problem was the WiFi. You have to be willing to bite the bullet, and pay extra for good WiFi. Otherwise, it’s very annoying to be without the Internet on the cruises.

For all future cruises we book, we will always be booking cabin with balconies, just in case there are problems on the cruise.

By luck of choosing a different river cruise ship, we avoided the Viking River ship that ended up hitting a smaller river ship, which killed many people on the smaller river ship, as it sunk in seconds. We also took the same cruise ship in New Zealand, a couple months after the people were killed on a White Island shore expiation, where a volcano erupted.

Cruising is a great way to do traveling, to avoid the hassles of traveling. A lot of older people love cruising because traveling by land is just too much hassle for the seniors.

[Freehiker]

We love cruising and being on the sea, but I will not go back until masks are gone. We wear masks when we are out, but I when I’m on a ship I want to feel relaxed, drink and check out the scenery....doing that with a mask would suck.

[Petersweeney]

The horror of being trapped at the mall with thousands of strangers - never ever

[mikemalloy]

For our 50th a couple of summers ago we did a Baltic cruise with Celebrity that was for us, wonderful. We are currently waiting to hear about a cruise we are booked on in late June from Amsterdam. It's itinerary includes Iceland which as of April 6 will be open to all visitors who have been vaccinated. From what I've read Royal Caribbean has carried over 100,000 passengers on their Asian routes with no Covid cases. Some lines have been traveling from Italian ports and cruises have resumed from Split in Croatia. Frustrated with the CDC Royal is starting cruises from Nassau and Celebrity will be leaving from St. Martin.
I doubt that Amsterdam will be open in the next 75 days so we have plans to book a Thailand/ Vietnam cruise from Singapore in Jan. if our Iceland trip cancels. Don't want to get into the buffet debate, we normally enjoy the main dining room but will eat at the specialty restaurants 2 or 3 times during a cruise.
In closing we're ready to return to the sea. I suspect that the cruise lines will try their hardest to make sure that none of those terrible publicity outbreaks onboard occur again. We want to travel while we're still able to do so.

[G.R.I.T.S.]

Originally Posted by FG111

Working hard for many years, saving your money and living a good life entitles one to retiring to warmer climates and beginning your cruise addiction. Until the pandemic, my wife and I usually cruised twice a year and we both really miss our cruises.

When do you guys think it will be safe to cruise again and what limitations will the cruise lines place in order to minimize the spread of COVID? I personally believe the CDC will not permit cruises to restart until August 1st and I personally don't plan on cruising until the beginning of the year 2022. Additionally I believe the cruise lines will mandate before boarding proof of vaccine, proof of a recent negative COVID test and the ships will only sail @ 50% capacity in order to minimize passenger contact. And worst of all, I believe the buffet as we have been accustomed to is a finished concept.

Not planning to. The Norovirus outbreaks turned us off years ago.

[giorgio1948]

We're going to wait a year or so and watch what happens...do not want to "test the Covid waters".