What are the seven ways
that cruising will change forever moving forwards?
I'm Gary Bembridge,
this is another of my cruising tips for travellers.
I want to share with you the seven ways,
seven things I think are going to happen
to cruising moving forwards as a result of the shutdown,
the whole buildup to the shutdown,
the pandemic, and the way people are going to travel.
And also what I think is going to be essential
to be put in place to make cruising safe
and acceptable for people to go and head out
on cruising vacations again.
So lets take a look at those starting with this one.
One of the biggest changes that happened
to the way that we behave and the way we think about life
through this whole process is that term 'social distancing'.
The idea of being crammed together close to people
has become something that has become quite dangerous.
But also I think moving forwards,
people are going to be looking
actually at having more personal space.
I think one of the consequences of that
is we're going to see that cruise lines
have less people on their ships.
And I think there's a couple of signs already
that that's starting to happen.
One of the big trends in cruising
has been of course to bigger and bigger ships,
or to cram more and more people onto the ships.
Because the economic model was get people on the ship,
and get them then once they're on board
to spend a lot of money,
drinks, excursions, WI-FI, speciality dining.
All those kind of activities and things.
However, I think people are going to want more space.
And as we saw in this whole buildup
and some of the outbreaks that happen on cruise ships,
is people being very close together in small cabins,
interacting a lot really in close quarters was a big issue.
I think we're going to see cruise lines cruising
with less people on board.
I think we're going to see, in new ships,
more and more space allocated per passenger.
And even on existing ships, I think we will see
cruises actually not sailing full.
It is interesting in the build up to the shutdown,
I was actually on a cruise just as the shutdown happened,
and because also people were nervous of travelling.
But there were definitely less people on the ship.
You had much more sense of space,
things weren't as crammed and as busy.
You could actually create more space when you ate,
when you went to the theatre,
when you went out on excursions.
And I think that's going to become the norm.
It's very interesting,
I've seen a couple of things happening online
where I've noticed that some cruise lines
in future cruises are actually taking
some well selling cruises off.
And I think there's been lots of indications
that cruise lines will have less people on board.
Of course, there's consequences for that is
over the longer term, we may see that fares go up
because of course they need to balance
some of those economics.
I don't think that's going to happen in the short term.
I think fares will stay low for a while
as they try and attract people back into cruising.
But definitely I think we will see less people,
or another way of putting it is we will see
more space on average per passenger
in cruising, moving forwards.
Either because cruise lines won't fill ships
to a hundred percent,
or in fact over a hundred percent capacity.
And I think over time,
we will see some adjustments to the way ships are built.
The second thing I think we're going to see
is linked very much to that
and there are some very, very strong indications.
That's actually not cramming venues completely full.
One of the most interesting documents that came out
just as I was researching and getting ready to record this
is from Genting Cruising.
Now Genting is a really big cruise operator there,
and Crystal Cruises, but they also own Star Cruises
and Dream Cruises in Asia.
And they put out a strategy for how they're planning
to move things forwards, as cruising starts.
And what they're talking about is dramatically reducing
the amount of people they let into venues.
So for example, the theatre.
They're talking of probably only filling the theatre
to half capacity moving forwards,
to give more people that opportunity to space out.
Implications of that of course, what that could mean,
it could mean that perhaps
you have less shows in the theatre.
So the shows will repeat more often,
so that actually you have less people in the theatre,
and maybe over time the theatres are redesigned.
But I think it's going to be really interesting
the way that they actually limit
the amount of people that go into venues
so people have more space.
And I do think its going to become
more of a social norm, the expectation of space.
The third thing I think we're going to see,
certainly in the first year or so of cruising
is that ships are going to be very much more focused
on staying close to home,
and building up even more around these, their home ports.
What we saw over the last couple of years in cruising
is that there was a real drive to find new itineraries,
new places to cruise to.
And the cruise lines were pushing their ships
all around the world.
What we saw in the run up to the shutdown
is that became a real challenge
because ships were far away from their home ports,
far away from where they had clout,
where they had head offices.
And we saw increasingly as things developed
that international ports were not willing
to let cruise ships coming in.
And particularly a lot of those ports
weren't big cruising centres,
they weren't used to having a lot of cruise ships in.
So I think what we're going to see is the cruise lines
become much more focused on staying close to home.
So that's going to mean
people focus very heavily on the Caribbean,
people focusing very heavily on the Mediterranean,
and probably I guess,
people focusing very heavily on Alaska.
All really close to where their head offices are,
and they have lots of influence.
So what I think we're going to see
is the development of more and more
home ports in those areas,
and building strong relationships with the ports.
What we saw is those ships had to sail back to Florida,
to either Miami or to Fort Lauderdale
because that's the only place eventually
they could find someone willing to let them in.
Because cruising was so integral and part of
that whole ecosystem, and the state,
and it was just such a fundamental part
of what that state is.
So I think that's what we're going to see is
over the next year or two years,
is actually cruise lines retreating
much more into where they have influence,
where they are strong.
And probably also building up much more of a process.
So a process if there are outbreaks,
how does the ship come in?
How can they get passengers off quickly?
Because one of the things we saw of course is
if you do have an outbreak or you have issues on a ship,
historically what cruise lines have done is got people off.
And through this whole outbreak people
were being kept on the ships.
So I think another reason for sticking close to home ports,
sticking close to regions, is they are more likely
to be able to build up infrastructure and relationships.
So I think that's going to be a really, really big trend.
I think there's going to be a move away
from spreading their ships all around,
all over the place, and looking for new itineraries.
The fourth thing I think is going to happen
is another very interesting one.
One of the things we saw is that as ports closed
and they had less cruise passengers,
of course there was a realisation that actually
some of these places are very overrun.
There was already a lot of discussion around over-tourism
and the facts that cruise ships
were coming to some of these places,
whether it's Venice, whether it's Santorini.
And other ports like that where there was just a sense of,
it was just too many people and too crowded.
As the waves of tourism and cruise ships aren't coming
I think a lot of these destinations
are going to rethink their whole approach to tourism.
Partly because they may be concerned
about cruise ships coming in
and bringing in disease or infections, or whatever.
But also bringing in those waves and waves of people.
So I think we're going to see more and more ports
actually closing to cruise ships,
because they realise actually
they don't want over-tourism in their port.
They'll use it as an opportunity.
So I think we're going to see fewer destinations
willing to take cruise ships.
So actually the cruise ships,
which is coming back to one of the other points I made,
are going to focus much more on the traditional areas,
and perhaps try and identify new itineraries
or new ways of exploring those.
But I think we are going to see a real consolidation
and a reduction actually,
of the number of places that cruises go to.
Partly because they want to stay close to home,
but also I think ports are increasingly
going to become less interested in having mass tourism.
And of course cruising really creates mass tourism.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the way that we embark ships
whether you're crew or passengers, is going to change.
Out will go the self declaration questionnaire,
you know, before you boarded the ship
you basically said if you had vomiting and diarrhoea,
or you'd visited certain places
that might have had some issues in.
And there was no incentive for people not to lie on that
because they'd be worried they'd either be denied boarding
or they'd be restricted to their cabin.
We're going to see a much more invasive,
if that's the right word, way of embarking.
Passengers and crew are going to be screened
before they get onto the ship.
What that takes I think will evolve.
Certainly in the build up to the shutdown
temperature checks were being taken,
however temperature is again,
a relatively blunt instrument because people,
certainly with the virus, only have a temperature
five or more days after they've been infected.
So they are still infectious and still can spread it
before the symptoms show up.
So actually temperature checks alone
is probably not going to be enough.
You may have to bring medical certificates,
showing you've been vaccinated,
or there may be actual testing
before you're likely to board.
I think that's really going to be
a really big change to the way we embark.
That means the whole embarkation process
is going to become much longer.
You may also find at disembarkation
may become much more complex,
with screening in the port before you actually disembark.
It's very interesting what I've seen recently,
although it's still a short term measure,
is in Hong Kong airport.
Introducing a process where everyone arriving
on an international flight has to go and be tested,
and they're then sent to wait for the results of the test.
And depending on the result of that testing
depends on what happens to them.
Now they have to go into specific quarantining,
or they have to go to a specific medical centre.
So already we are starting to see some indications
that actually screening arriving
is going to be as important as embarking.
So without a shadow of a doubt,
there is going to be a much
more complex screening process and physical,
and probably more invasive checking
before you can board a cruise ship.
That's going to definitely change.
The other thing that's going to change is
the way that seniors, or more elderly people go cruising.
Certainly 70 plus.
That's going to be a massive challenge
for some cruise lines that have a very strong,
and many of their passengers are seniors
and older passengers.
In the run up to the shutdown,
there was a strong advice not to go cruising.
And all the cruise lines introduced the fact that
you had to have some sort of certification
from your doctor, saying that it was okay
or it was suitable for you to go travelling.
And I think that sort of certification
and the requirements for more elderly people
to go cruising is going to become a big issue.
At the moment it's 70 plus,
where that even reduces down.
So I'm in my early 60s and I won't be surprised
if there's going to be even more restrictions
as I start to board.
Not just people 70 plus.
So definitely, cruising for seniors is going to change,
and could require much more documentation
and physical checks with your doctor,
before you can go cruising.
For cruise lines, that becomes a massive challenge.
They're going to have to find a way
of finding new audiences, having less cruises,
or finding a way of helping and assisting
those people in that age group cruise
on their cruise lines.
The next thing that I think is really going to change
and there's going to be some fundamentally big changes here,
is the design of cruise ships,
but particularly the on board services.
There's four things I'd like to specifically talk about.
First of all, I think we're going to see
a real change in medical centres.
Medical centres on cruise ships are currently designed
to basically manage a situation,
and if anyone needs serious treatment
that is to get them off the ship as quickly as possible.
What we learnt in the shut down
is that those medical centres don't have
the facilities to isolate people.
They don't have the facilities with things like ventilators.
All that, kind of, more complex equipment.
I think we will see medical centres becoming much larger,
more complex, and building in isolation spaces,
and actually shifting a little bit more
to be able to deal with big issues
and bigger medical issues on board.
I think that's definitely going to happen.
There'll be more medical staff on board,
and they will have to have much more capability.
The second thing I think we're going to see,
or the second thing I'd like to talk about is self-service.
I think self-service and the way that buffets are worked
will pretty much disappear, in the way they're operated.
And those self-service or buffet areas
will become more served.
You see that a lot if there's a Noravirus issue on board,
and certainly what I saw when I was on the ship
in the run up to the shutdown is,
the self-service was really locked down.
Everything was served by staff,
they had gloves, they had masks,
and you literally could not touch anything.
Salt and pepper dishes were removed.
Anything which would have multiple people touching.
Even self-service coffee and tea was then taken over
and served to you in the buffet.
I think buffets and the way that they worked
will fundamentally change.
They will be become served in formal dining venues.
Third area that I thinks going to see
a lot of challenge and change,
is the whole area, air conditioning.
There was a lot of discussion around
what role air conditioning
and the way air conditioning systems work,
may or may not have spread this airborne virus.
And I'm not sure there's any specific data on that,
but one thing I've noticed is the more and more talk
by cruise lines about changing the air conditioning systems.
So for example, referring beck to Genting.
What they've said is all their ships moving forward
will change their condition system
to only bring in fresh air from the outside.
There will be no recycled air.
Of course that's going to be a challenge moving forwards,
on land as well for ventilation
and air conditioning systems.
But I think the whole air conditioning system
and the way that works,
and the way that air is moved around the cruise ship
moving forward certainly,
will become something that gets changed.
The fourth area of course is the whole protocols
and the way thing are cleaned on board.
Anyone who's been on the ship during a Noravirus outbreak,
or certainly as I saw in the run up to the shutdown,
is the way that the whole cleaning process changed
with completely high, high, high levels of cleaning.
So things like the railings, the stairwells, lift buttons,
anything that was touched multiple times
were being wiped down every hour or two hours.
Rooms were being cleaned even more,
there was much more deep cleaning of rooms.
That whole process is going to really change.
And much more enforcement of the hand washing.
Not just the gel, the actual hand washing.
So we're probably going to see
more hand washing stations appearing on ships.
There's going to be many, many changes coming to cruising
and the way that we cruise and the structure of cruising.
These are the seven areas, the seven things,
that I think are fundamentally going to change the way
that we cruise moving forwards.
I have many more videos of cruising advice, tips,
thoughts, about the future of cruising.
So why don't you watch another one of those, right now?