Could cruise still be over 6 months away before returning?
That what one big Floridian port is saying.
Plus, will children be barred from cruising when it first returns.
We have this and the cruise news updated you need to know.
So stay tuned.
Well ahoy there cruisers.
Welcome to this week's cruise news roundup.
If you want to stay on top of what's going on in the cruise industry.
Make sure you subscribe to our channel right now by hitting that subscribe button down below.
So first up that headline news from Port Canaveral.
It says it believes it won’t see cruise ship until at-least July.
It’s one of the largest passenger cruise ports in the world.
Handling around 4.5 million cruise passengers every single year.
They have said when it does start up, they expect
it to be a real slow re-start and a very careful approach.
Port CEO Captain John Murray said;
“The cruise lines themselves have
kicked everything down the road for three months already,
or at least through March and April.
The reality given the pandemic right now, until those numbers start coming down,
we just don’t see that this industry
is going to get any attention that it needs to get restarted.”
He also said vaccinations would need to increase before he expects restart to happen.
And it’s not just cruise lines that have bleeding money.
It's the ports themselves.
For example, Port Canaveral has lost a massive $43 million over the last year.
They are moving $17 million from its reserve funds to help balance the budget.
They have said they are going to be fine
for least another year without any passenger cruising.
Port Canaveral is home to ships from Carnival Cruise Line,
Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.
MSC Cruises also plans to homeport its ship
MSC Seaside at Port Canaveral once the pandemic is over.
This Ben re-itterates what we have been saying In the past couple of months.
First of all its going to be a slow start when cruise does come back.
And secondly, that the shut-down of the cruise industry
affects more than just the cruise ships themselves.
People on land in the ports for example. Huge knock on effects from the fact that cruise
isn't running at the moment.
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Now back to the show.
Next up everything has came to a standstill unfortunately.
Cruise lines are desperately trying to comply with the CDC’s Conditional Sailing Order.
The order which replaced the No Sail Order last October
requires new health and safety protocols onboard ships.
It also requires cruise lines to hold test cruises and recertify each vessel individually.
So, as you can imagine this is a huge complex job.
The major cruise lines have said they are making progress with the requirements.
But things have came to a standstill with the CDC.
They are awaiting further direction on what to do next.
But with the pandemic hitting the USA so hard it isn’t a priority at the moment.
We are now casting doubts on our own prediction of cruise been up and running by July.
This is now looking more and more unlikely.
We wouldn’t be surprised it we don’t see a resumption of cruising this year at all
or even into fall 2021.
So one cruise analyst has predicted the same thing that we just said.
That cruise will not resume till at least Fall.
Patrick Sholes a prominent cruise industry financial analyst
has indicated we might be waiting a while yet.
In a recent note to investors he said;
"an optimistic view is that cruises likely won’t resume from U.S. ports
until the second half of this year, and possibly not until 2022."
But he did offer some positive news, saying that bookings for future cruises
are now exceed cancellations.
This is the first time this has happened since March 2020.
So it's good to see more booking than cancellations.
He also commented on the CDC Conditional Sail Order.
Saying it was basically a No Sail Order with a new name.
He also highlighted that the CDC’s new order was very hard to achieve, saying:
“The concern is that the CDC’s hurdles are so high
that it will make it extremely difficult for the cruise lines
to sail with paid customers.”
So as we have been saying all along.
The CDC has been making it incredibly hard for cruise lines
to sail and resume compared to other forms of transportation.
Such as flights, land transportation, land vacations, theme parks.
The Disney Resort in Florida been open for example.
How come they are allowed to open?
But cruise lines are been made to jump through these
ridiculous hurdles.
As you said, from the expert there.
The new Conditional Sail Order
is just a No Sail Order with different clothes on.
It's exactly the same thing.
Yeah, and since that came in we have not seen any progress really from any of the cruise lines.
Except Royal Caribbean who was the only one, we said last week
actively looking for volunteers.
Yeah, cruise line haven't actually dissed the CDC yet.
But they have said they are waiting for technical protocols from them.
So they are waiting for the CDC the get back to them.
So nothing is happening at the moment.
Now more on vaccines being required to cruise.
As you know a few weeks ago
we brought you the news of british cruise line Saga
requiring everybody to have a vaccination to cruise.
We had a very mixed response, some people were very happy
others were super angry.
Especially those that can't have the vaccine due to allergies, blood and heart conditions.
Now Norwegian cruise line has said
they are looking into the legalities into requiring a virus.
CEO Frank Del Rio said;
“It’s too early to tell whether we have the legal standing to mandate
that you take a vaccine to come onboard,
lawyers are looking at it as we speak.”
One problem with this is that NCLs passengers are much younger than Saga’s.
It could take months, even years until under 65s receive the vaccination.
Some countries will only be offering it to older and more vulnerable people.
This means they are cutting off a huge percentage of passengers who could travel with them.
NCL has also revealed it will require all crew members
to be vaccinated against before resuming work on its ships.
Which is fantastic news.
In contrast to this, Saga isn’t going to require this for crew.
Putting them in more danger of contracting the virus.
And here, in the UK, it's the government plan to vaccinate all over 18s
by fall this year.
So this brings up the question. What about children?
The vaccination will not be given to under 18s because not approved to be done so.
So does this mean children under 18 will not be allowed to cruise when it resumes?
As they will be unable to have the vaccine?
We can certainly see it being a possibility, when cruising first resumes.
Saga has already said that if you can’t have the vaccine
due to health conditions
you will still be refused travel - kids could be the same.
We are still not happy about this, we still think this is disability discrimination.
Children and teens are far less likely than adults to become seriously ill with the virus.
But they are just as capable of carrying and spreading it.
For cruise lines such as Norwegian, Carnival, Disney and Royal caribbean
who carry lots of families and kids.
This could be a massive issue and cut off huge portions of their audience.
As soon as we hear more we will let you know so hit that subscribe.
And talking about Norwegian Cruise Line in some bad news
all Norwegian Cruise Line non-essential crew will be repatriated home by April 2021.
Norwegian Cruise Line brought thousands of crew members
back to it’s cruise ships in November and December of last year.
To prepare the cruise ships for a possible restart in compliance with the CDC Conditional Sail Order.
Over 1000 crew members boarded Norwegian Escape in Mumbai, India
and over 1200 crew joined the Norwegian Joy in Manila, Philippines.
But with the continued push back on a resumption of cruise
they have decided to send all non essential crew back home.
This was a very difficult decision for Norwegian.
And they have said that they are going to prioritise those crew
who they have sent home to get back on the ships once it does start sailing.
But they think that the crew are going to be happier
at home with their families.
So now the two ships will now make their way back to where crew boarded to offload the crew.
The Norwegian Encore for example is in SOuthampton at the moment.
So it going to make its way all the way back to Mumbai, India
to return those crew home.
Sad news, but again showing we are no closer to a restart.
Guys this hurts our heart so much.
And in other news.
As we predicted a few weeks ago, Sycamore Partners the company who bought Azamara
have purchased Pacific Princess from Princess Cruises.
High five ben on getting that prediction right. Yay!
The private equity firm bought boutique line Azamara
from Royal Caribbean Group last week in a surprise move.
She will be added to the fleet of their existing three ships
after a big renovation.
Can't wait to see what she looks like or what she is going to be called.
So, all of the Azamara ships; Journey, Pursuit... have something to do with movement.
Let us know your guesses of what the ship is going to be called in the comments section below.
And finally in Europe.
Costa Cruises has decided to postpone the restart of its ships to March 13, 2021.
This is following an evaluation of the measures in the Italian government’s decree
currently enforced in Italy regarding travel.
So basically, the cruise line didn’t feel that with the current restrictions in place
by the government.
That would allow its customers have a good time on its cruises.
Especially on land with all of the new restrictions.
They said; “We support the collective effort that Italy
is making to deal with the health emergency and looks forward to mid-March for its return
offering its guests a relaxing and enjoyable vacation experience.”
So even in Europe where cruise lines have been getting up and running, there is still push back.
Guys it still seems like we are far off from any
sort of cruising in the USA and a restart around the world.
Thanks for sticking with us we are going to bring you
all the latest news every single week.
Unfortunately, a bit of a down beat show this week.
Things feel like they have taken a step back.
So that it until next time.
Thank you so much for watching.
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Especially when we finally get to cruise!
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Cruise captain of the week is Tracy, So Ahoy!
That's it until next time, Happy Cruising.