The Roaming BoomersCruise Lines Vocal About Reopening
Cruise Lines Vocal About Reopening
America’s cruise lines are getting vocal about reopening, according to a recent article in Cruise Industry News.
According to the article, “Cruise line CEOs aggressively called for a smart return to service during a meeting of the Miami-Dade County Tourism and the Ports Committee on Thursday morning.
“Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, said the company had been working non-stop with governments, health authorities, medical and scientific experts, and stakeholders across the globe to develop science-based COVID-19 protocols. He pointed to Costa Cruises, the company’s Italian brand, which returned to service this week in Italy.”
Further, Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, said, “All we are asking for is the opportunity to demonstrate we take this very, very seriously. Health and safety are buzz words we hear every day, but that has been the backbone of our industry forever. “Enough is enough,” Del Rio continued. “It’s been more than six months. We, as an industry, we, as a society, have learned a lot on how to live alongside COVID. “ Del Rio said the company’s Healthy Sail Panel in collaboration with Royal Caribbean Group was a week to 10 days away from submitting its plan.”
Our Thoughts About Cruise Line Reopenings
The major cruise lines have been working on new health and safety protocols for quite a while.
I wrote about this in my article “Will We Ever Cruise Again?” back in July.
The cruise lines are asking for a “smart” reopening beginning with sailings from U.S. ports. While they didn’t define a smart reopening, I suspect it has to do with significantly reduced occupancies on the ships. Further, an intelligent reopening will give the cruise lines time to get the new protocols under their belts.
I say, let’s take a peek at their new health and safety protocols. And if they seem adequate, let them begin sailing for the upcoming Caribbean cruise season.
The Caribbean is a significant revenue generator for the cruise lines. And opening, say in November/December, would give them all a much-needed revenue boost.
There are voices that would keep them shut down until COVID-19 is conquered. However, if you keep them shut down past next summer, I think we’ll begin to see bankruptcies.
Airlines are flying. Hotels are operating. I don’t see a reason to prevent the cruise lines from getting in the game with a “smart” reopening.
The cruise lines understand very clearly that all eyes will be on them when they do reopen.
We wish them great success, and we look forward to the whole travel industry getting back to some semblance of normalcy. 🙂
What do you think? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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4 Comments on “Cruise Lines Vocal About Reopening”
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What is their plan in the event of an outbreak on the ship? Will they be quarantined in port?
Hi Judith,
The major cruise lines have not released their new health and safety protocols yet. However, the ones that we’ve seen from smaller cruise lines have certified physicians on board and they have set aside rooms for isolation if needed. I suspect that before too long, we’ll have rapid and accurate tests so that no one gets on board who has COVID-19. Allegedly, these new tests only cost $5 and have an answer in 15-minutes. If true, and accurate, then cruise lines could test everyone every day before you got back on the ship. Plus, with the coming promise of vaccines and therapeutic, perhaps we can put this COVID mess behind us.
We have been on five cruises and we love cruising. We intend to book our next with Roaming Boomers – we’re unafraid of online travel agencies and what we see and read tells us that we would be well-served. We love these newsletters and seek to become customers. When we do so is something else again.
For reasons unrelated to COVID (our daughter’s wedding), we’re probably not cruising before winter 2021-22, and maybe not before summer 2022. Would we book now/soon on 100% changeable/refundable arrangements? Perhaps so, but this also depends on a clear and unwavering understanding of certain changes we would need to see. There need to be real commitments to from cruise lines and related supporting services on reducing risks of disease transmission in every aspect of their operations. We look back on some things we saw and experienced on pre-COVID cruises and shudder at our naive risks.
Heretofore for us, cruising has entailed, not uncommonly, waiting/standing in line for things (at the airport, ground transportation, embarkation, customs, security, food, shore excursions, etc.). Doing away with the buffet is an obvious one, but the massing of many people in a small space (for any reason – the obvious one is a queue waiting on transportation) would be of heightened concern. So a way a cruise line can lessen that is to spread out the times of things that cause that, which may be possible on smaller ships but is tough to imagine on larger ones.
But cruise ships represent a business plan for their owners and operators. Clearly if one sails at (say) one third occupancy, do they not need to charge sharply more or otherwise somehow to economize on what you get? Therein may lie the rub. We just do not know, and it is that uncertainty that keeps us from booking. For now. We think.
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see an answer to your concerns in the coming month or two. While we’ve only seen glimpses of the new health and safety protocols, we’ve been very impressed by what we’ve seen. We have the same concerns and we won’t sail again either unless we feel it’s safe. I think that we can safely assume that once the cruise lines release their new protocols that it will be all over the news with every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary, Beth, and even Spot the dog giving their opinion. Stay tuned. 🙂