I'm Gary Bembridge this is another of my cruising tips for travellers. I want to
talk about six questions that I think you should really be asking yourself
before you book a cruise in 2020, or even 2021 - starting with this one. What you
need to understand, is that there is still no sign off, there is still no
agreement, on exactly when cruiser can start up again and in what form they can
start up again. Every single one of the heads of the major cruising groups,
that's the Carnival group, Royal Caribbean group, the Norwegian Cruise
Line group, have admitted they have no idea when cruises are going to start up
again. Before they can start up they have to have the agreement for cruises that
head in and out of the United States with the CDC (Center for Disease
Control), in the UK they're working with the organisation PHE (public health
England) to agree the protocols and how cruises start up again. So the cruises
that are being advertised, whether it's this year or next year, no one actually
knows specifically if those cruises are going to be running in the form that
they should be running. So are you happy to book a cruise before you know that
the cruise lines are up and running again, and things will be as you want
them to be? You could be handing over money for cruises you just don't know
are going to happen. Bear in mind, the cruise lines cannot start operating
until they have approval of those health authorities. So even if you're feeling
very optimistic, make sure and ask yourself: are you happy to hand over
money to the cruise lines for cruises you just don't know are going to happen?
The second key question to ask yourself is: are you happy to book a cruise before
you know what the protocols are going to be? What the onboard experience is going
to be and all limitations are going to be? At this point in time, we do not yet know
what the protocols are going to be for boarding a ship, once you're onboard the
ship. We've seen some strong
indications from cruise lines that are starting to indicate what those could be,
but we do not know what they're going to be. For example, you may find that once
the protocols come into place you have some issues with them. There's strong
indications that there's going to be multiple temperature checks taking place,
before you board, perhaps when you get off a ship for an excursion, before
you head into dining, before you head into events for example.
You may find that objectionable. Although there's probably some indications that
masks won't be required, certainly as river cruising has started
masks have been part of that. I personally think it's unlikely the masks
going to play a big role, but what happens if they are something that are
required and you've booked a cruise and you find you have to wear a mask you
don't want to? You may object to the way that the dining operation is going to
operate, the way the buffets operate where there's no self service. There's
really strong indications that venues will be controlled, so the number of
people in the venues, perhaps a number of people they allow around the pool at
any one point in time. Are you going to be happy with those protocols when
you just don't know how they're going to operate? The other thing you need to
think about is, certainly there's indications that there's going to be, a
lot of health screening processes before you board. What happens if the protocols
say that if you fail something, so for example a temperature check and you're
denied boarding, we don't yet know what the process is going to be. Are you going
to be fully refunded by the cruise lines? Are they going to refund your airfare to
get there and your transportation there?Are you going to be forced to go into some sort
of quarantine? All those kind of things we just don't know what they are, so
you're booking a cruise without knowing what the protocols and the implications
are. The next question to ask yourself is are you happy to book a cruise where the
ports, the itinerary may change significantly? Clearly once cruising gets
up and running, and the longer it gets up and running, the itineraries will become
much more certain. But cruise executives have all made it very clear
that they're not sure about what the itineraries will be. Although you're
booking an itinerary which looks very appealing, you might find that some of
those ports don't open to cruise ships and won't let cruise ships in. So though
we've only seen a few indications, so for example the Seychelles which is not
allowing cruise ships way into 2022 and we've seen some of the Caribbean islands
talking about earliest end of this year they're going to let cruise ships in as
they're prioritising getting more domestic land-based travel up and
running. So you're booking an itinerary which may change, and the cruise lines
are making it very clear that they believe that as they get up and running
there will be lots of changes to the itinerary. Are you happy to book a cruise
with a port you think you're going to visit get dropped? As a reminder, in the
cruise contract, cruise lines are allowed to change the
ports on an itinerary or route, and they don't have to give you compensation. They
can actually change it, so you're booking a route and you may find a change. Are you
happy to book an itinerary that may change fairly significantly? If you're worried
about that, hold back looking until you know what's really happening. Another
really important question to ask yourself is : do you fully understand with
the cruise line and the cruise that you're booking, what happens if you
decide you don't want to go or you can't go? Bearing in mind that at the moment,
although cruise lines are providing more flexibility, as we had more and more into
2021, we've seen cruise lines not yet offering that degree of flexibility
when you're booking a cruise. Just think about, as you booking a
cruise, what are the terms and conditions if I have to or want to change my mind?
You might find actually that the situation as it develops, either
financially or from your health perspective or just from a security
perspective, you may decide you don't want to go. Are you really really clear about
what your conditions are? Make sure when you're booking a cruise that you're
comfortable with that whole cancellation and change process. Make sure that you
understand what travel insurance you can get, and does the travel insurance cover
you for any type of change - whether it's related to Covid 19 or any other issue like
simply you just want to change your mind, because you don't feel happy cruising
closer to the time. So that for me is a really important question: what
happens with this booking if I can't go, where I changed my mind? And are you
comfortable with the answer to that question as you look to book. The next
key question is understand is: if the cruise line cancels what will I get back?
Will I get my money back if I want it, or only get future cruise credit?
The reason I'm saying that is, for most people that had booked cruises is, as
they started to be cancelled, they had the option of either taking the future
cruise credit (where you often got a bonus of up to 25% or more in some cases)
or you could go for the cash refund. However, what the cruise lines have
introduced much more is "cruise with confidence", which sounds great because
they build in more flexible cancellation, however one of those terms and
conditions is your only option is future cruise credit. So,
when you making a booking, please understand if the cruise
gets cancelled, for whatever reason, what can you get back. What you
get back is it cash or future cruise credit only? The next question to ask is,
when you go to book is the time that you look into book the absolute best time to
get the best deal? Clearly prices are going to be volatile over the next 6 to
18 months as cruising comes back on stream, and as it settles down and as cruise
lines figure out capacity and demand. What we've heard from the cruise
industry, and from what I've been reading from the cruise industry, is
their objective is to try and keep prices up as much as they can, and what
they're going to do to manage that is try and manage the supply. So they've all
said that they're only going to bring back ships in a staggered slow away
as a way of trying to manage prices, to keep pricing up. If you do think or you are
worried about prices going up, go for it. However keep tracking the
price, because if there is volatility and if prices do go down, you want to make sure
that you can claim that back. The simple way of doing that is tracking it.
So you can either just keep an eye out yourself or get your travel agent to do it,
or there are a couple of websites where you can actually track your specific
cruise. For example Cruise Critic has one of those and that's called "price
alerts". You go in and you put in your cruise that you've booked and set up a
price alert on it, and it will notify you if prices shift downwards, also if
they ship upwards or if the grade above you has come down in price and it now
closely matches yours. There's a couple other sites you can
look at, one that is a similar one is called CruiseWatch.com, which
is again a free service where you can set up alerts for specific
cruises or even regions. Ask yourself: are you absolutely convinced
that you're getting the best possible deal now? As you look to head out cruising in
2020 /2021, ask yourself these questions to make sure that it's the right time for
you to cruise, you getting the right deal and you're really comfortable with what
you're signing up for. I have loads more videos packed full of tips and advice to
help you have a great cruising vacation moving forward, so why don't you watch
another one of those right now?