Booking future vacation!

[AprilBaby]

I’m being hopeful and booked 2 cruises. I had to cancel Australia/NZ for this November so I booked Eastbound Transatlantic for Sept 2021 and today I booked Vancouver to Hawaii for April 2022. Please please please be over virus!

 

[Queenie60]

Booked Hawaii for February 21.

 

[kenny]

... Please please please be over virus!

The virus will never be "over".
Thank the anti-vaxers, who likely are also anti-maskers.
They take cruises too.

With thousands of potential virus-factories crammed into a small isolated floating ship for a long period of time.
I cannot think a cruise ship is the perfect nursery for this virus.

I'd plan a safer vacation.

 

[FancyDiamond]

AprilBaby, I laughed when I read your post, because I am in similar situation. I had booked two land tours, one to South Africa (4 safari trips + Victoria Falls) in June 2020 and the other to Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Urulu, and Cairns + Greater Barrier Reefs) in October 2020, hoping to hit the two natural wonders. Unfortunately due to Cov-19, both tours got cancelled. After five big trips last year, I am dying to go on a cruise or land tour. Do not think I can get vaccinated until mid to late 2021. Others have higher priority in the supply chain. To play safe, I booked two cruises only for 2022 sailings, one Arctic expedition, and the other from Santiago to Buenos Aires through Ushuaia + a post cruise extension to Iguazu Falls. Both cruises require full payment 1 1/2 years ahead, so it is a big gamble. Hope the cruise lines do not go bankrupt.
After the vaccine comes out, I shall decide if it is safe to rebook the Africa tour and add Iceland.
Just make sure you purchase insurance for emergency evacuation and medical. Premium is relatively inexpensive compared to that for trip insurance.

 

[Bonfire]

Hope the cruise lines do not go bankrupt.

Or the airline that flys you to your Port city.

 

[FancyDiamond]

Or the airline that flys you to your Port city.

There will always be airlines flying to my port city by 2022. I may have to fly many segments days early and/or pay a hefty premium. Big problem is if the two specific cruise lines go bankrupt after I submit full payment. I would not be surprised if some cruiselines go bankrupt due to prolonged disruption of service and lack of revenue.

 

[kenny]

Oh boy, it's too late to edit all my mistakes in that paragraph so I've posted a fixed version below, in bold.

I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer.
Rather, I'm trying to be Ursula Upper - possibly saving lifes.

Edit ...

... With thousands of potential virus-factories crammed into a small floating ship for a long period of time, I see cruise ships as quintessential nurseries for C19.

Worse for passengers, but good for the virus, once the outbreak starts you can't escape.
Instead of relaxing I'd be worring about that every day of my vacation. ...

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I’m being hopeful and booked 2 cruises. I had to cancel Australia/NZ for this November so I booked Eastbound Transatlantic for Sept 2021 and today I booked Vancouver to Hawaii for April 2022. Please please please be over virus!

Dang !
Our economy needs you !
this thing (covid) isnt going to be forever
Please come see us when our boarders open again for tourists
The exchange rate is always in your favour

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I have zero desire to get on any death ship
Shame because i used to love the Love boat when i was a kid

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

I’ve had too many vacation trips fall through this year to be anything but skeptical for next year. I won’t book anything until beginning of next year at least. Resigned to not travelling until mid 2021 at the earliest. I think sept 2021 / any time in 2022 should be okay though (at least I hope so!!)

 

[dk168]

I have not booked my trip to visit my folks in Canada yet, was planning on February, however it is more likely to be in September 2021.

Fingers firmly crossed that an effective vaccine or some other forms of prevention mechanisms, and better/faster tests will be available by then to ease the travel restrictions.

Good luck to us all!

DK

 

[dk168]

@Daisys and Diamonds I loved the Love Boat too when I was young.

It was repeated recently on TV and geez it has not aged well!

And so cheesy!

DK

 

[Big Fat Facets]

we have zero plans to travel by plane, by train, by boat in the near to near distant future. we may consider traveling, by personal car, to a nice location, within a few hours drive ... it just doesn't feel safe. until that changes, we are staying put

 

[Austina]

We had 5 trips cancelled this year too We were due to go on a S American cruise in January, but of course that‘s also been cancelled. We’ve booked a cruise from Singapore to Sydney for November 2021, but after reading the news, it doesn’t look like Australia are going to be opening up their borders next year, so it’ll probably get pushed back to 2022.

Other than that, we hope to be moving next year, so haven’t really made any other plans.

 

[missy]

@AprilBaby I hope you get to realize your vacation plans and enjoy the trips in good health. I can feel your excitement and happy anticipation and I understand the motivation to start planning happy experiences as soon as possible. 2020 has been a doozy of a year.

One caveat. No one knows what the future holds obviously so what I am writing is only conjecture on my part. From my understanding we will be in this solidly at least through 2021. Even with a vaccine which may or may not help but most experts think one won't be widely available for some time.

I hope I am wrong but I think cruises and such should probably be put on hold as they are more likely to spread infection due to close quarters. As you may remember it was a nightmare for those stuck on cruises as the pandemic began.

Just make sure your trips are completely refundable. With all that is happening I would worry many cruise lines will go bankrupt so just make sure you have trip insurance in place and it can be your choice to cancel so you are not at the mercy of some insurance company.

 

[lambskin]

They’re are some cruises going on now. I have seen YouTube videos of ships afloat but with very few passengers...even the pools are void of people. The ship may sail but ports of call maybe closed or limited to only tours booked though the ship. I read about a family that went off on their own after visiting Capri *s Blue Grotto and when they returned to board the ship they were met on the dock with their luggage and were denied boarding. Also, there are some you tubers ( some guy name Don for example)who seem to be in the know with up to date info. I am not a cruise person but love to travel and I follow a variety of transport videos - trains, planes, etc to get current travel info re border crossings, ports of call and quarantine requirements/restrictions. Good luck I hope you have smooth sailing soon.

 

[Cerulean]

The bankruptcy warnings are no joke. Get ready for a fight with agencies / travel couriers, etc. if things go south unless you have an iron clad refund policy that has been added since my own personal experiences. Most of these vendors are doing desperately this year and will fight for every penny.

We had to cancel our honeymoon to France this year through Norwegian Air. They had multiple subsidiaries declare bankruptcy. As if cancelling our honeymoon wasn't awful enough...

We were flatly refusing refunds even though we should have qualified....and here is where it gets spooky...they made our reservations "disappear" from their system, after they rejected our request for a refund, so we got caught in a nightmarish bureaucratic tar pit of a situation....we had nothing but an email confirmation from when we first booked our flights. Our reference numbers, flight details, names, etc. any trace of our expensive booking disappeared, we had to claim fraud with our bank (boy, turns out it is tricky to do that if you don't have a reservation anymore) and it took months of agonizing phone calls.

Class action lawsuits against these airlines, like one we joined for Norwegian Air, have not been successful. I am crossing my fingers that nothing like this happens to you!

 

[bling_dream19]

@Daisys and Diamonds I loved the Love Boat too when I was young.

It was repeated recently on TV and geez it has not aged well!

And so cheesy!

DK

When I got to stay home from school sick, I got to watch the Love Boat and Price is Right!

 

[Big Fat Facets]

we had to cancel our flights on delta in march. no refund was issued they just have it as credit for a future flight ... whenever that will be. i would have much preferred a full refund. but we all know how that goes.

going forward, i would book future vacations very cautiously, if at all ... until the world is right again

 

[Beautiful-disaster]

We were on a cruise ship this year at the end of February, early March. We were on board when the WHO announced the pandemic and Australia closed its boarders.
When we left everything in Sydney Australia was normal. There were problems overseas but the virus had not shown up in Australia and we had no reason at that time to believe it would.

We got to Noumea and that evening the ship was turned around. All our ports in Vanuatu were canceled and the ship instead went to NZ.
I have cruised with RC to Vanuatu, and New Caledonia at least twice a year for the last five years or so as I used to work on board (face-painting) as an enrichment staff member (I and my partner cruise for free and I work on board as a face painter on sea days for a few hours in the morning and afternoon). But this last cruise was really awful.
I wasn’t working - there were so many sea days from Noumea to NZ and it wasn’t nice weather at all.
We arrived back on March 7th to literally a different world. We were aware on board of a certain amount .... people panic buying, my work getting cancelled etc but really didn’t understand at the time that the world we had left when we stepped onto the ship no longer existed.

We were very lucky. Feel like we dodged a bullet as there were three staff members on board in quarantine who we were told had influenza a ( but was the reason we were turned away form the islands and as we all know now was much more likely they had COVID).
People tested positive on both cruises that left after ours.

We love cruising to the islands and miss it terribly - as we put off going last year as we traveled to Portugal for two months instead. So we haven’t been now in two years which is depressing.

I have been asking myself if I will go back and work on them if they ask me to when they come back and to be honest I really don’t know. I will have to decide if and when that time comes. We are tempted to book a trip to Portugal (we have family there) and keep it in lew of when we can go because not having any holiday planned is super depressing in itself.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

They’re are some cruises going on now. I have seen YouTube videos of ships afloat but with very few passengers...even the pools are void of people. The ship may sail but ports of call maybe closed or limited to only tours booked though the ship. I read about a family that went off on their own after visiting Capri *s Blue Grotto and when they returned to board the ship they were met on the dock with their luggage and were denied boarding. Also, there are some you tubers ( some guy name Don for example)who seem to be in the know with up to date info. I am not a cruise person but love to travel and I follow a variety of transport videos - trains, planes, etc to get current travel info re border crossings, ports of call and quarantine requirements/restrictions. Good luck I hope you have smooth sailing soon.

Ive read about cruise lines offering voyages that just stay at sea and return to the port they left from, so one just enjoys the facilities on board and the big blue exspance of the ocean
also there are sightseeing flights in Aussie that seem like a fun day out for people who really miss flying

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

We were on a cruise ship this year at the end of February, early March. We were on board when the WHO announced the pandemic and Australia closed its boarders.
When we left everything in Sydney Australia was normal. There were problems overseas but the virus had not shown up in Australia and we had no reason at that time to believe it would.

We got to Noumea and that evening the ship was turned around. All our ports in Vanuatu were canceled and the ship instead went to NZ.
I have cruised with RC to Vanuatu, and New Caledonia at least twice a year for the last five years or so as I used to work on board (face-painting) as an enrichment staff member (I and my partner cruise for free and I work on board as a face painter on sea days for a few hours in the morning and afternoon). But this last cruise was really awful.
I wasn’t working - there were so many sea days from Noumea to NZ and it wasn’t nice weather at all.
We arrived back on March 7th to literally a different world. We were aware on board of a certain amount .... people panic buying, my work getting cancelled etc but really didn’t understand at the time that the world we had left when we stepped onto the ship no longer existed.

We were very lucky. Feel like we dodged a bullet as there were three staff members on board in quarantine who we were told had influenza a ( but was the reason we were turned away form the islands and as we all know now was much more likely they had COVID).
People tested positive on both cruises that left after ours.

We love cruising to the islands and miss it terribly - as we put off going last year as we traveled to Portugal for two months instead. So we haven’t been now in two years which is depressing.

I have been asking myself if I will go back and work on them if they ask me to when they come back and to be honest I really don’t know. I will have to decide if and when that time comes. We are tempted to book a trip to Portugal (we have family there) and keep it in lew of when we can go because not having any holiday planned is super depressing in itself.

A year ago i would have said wow ! What a fun job !
Lucky you wernt on that Ruby Princess cruise that turned out to be one giant super spreader

 

[Beautiful-disaster]

A year ago i would have said wow ! What a fun job !
Lucky you wernt on that Ruby Princess cruise that turned out to be one giant super spreader

True...
But I have only ever worked for and cruised with Royal Caribbean.
who incidentally have nearly finished constructing their own luxury island over near Vanuatu - so they would be able to ship people in a bubble between here and there.
We have friends who were working on board and then were stuck on board with it circling out at sea for seven months while RV decided what to do with them.
There are still staff on these ships now as they can’t run without them and they literally have nowhere to dock them.

 

[Austina]

@Cerulean, did you pay for your flights with a CC? If so, you should be able to put in a claim with them to get your money back.

We’ve had 5 trips cancelled this year, and in each case, got our money back. BA were trying to get people to accept a future flight voucher, but we refused and said we wanted the money back and got it. We were due to go to Sandals in March, and the day before the flight, it was cancelled. We had to wait a few weeks, but Sandals refunded all our money.

In one instance BA were dragging their heels refunding us, so we contacted the CC company and the money was refunded the next day.

Lots of the companies now have included Covid clauses, so that if you have to cancel, you can get a refund. Of course, if they go out of business that’s different, but we always pay for any large item with a CC and have always got our money bacK.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

True...
But I have only ever worked for and cruised with Royal Caribbean.
who incidentally have nearly finished constructing their own luxury island over near Vanuatu - so they would be able to ship people in a bubble between here and there.
We have friends who were working on board and then were stuck on board with it circling out at sea for seven months while RV decided what to do with them.
There are still staff on these ships now as they can’t run without them and they literally have nowhere to dock them.

I know
it does get in the news here about the plight of not just cruise line crew but also seaferiers
Ive been reading how important shore leave is for them
The seaferriers mission in my home town has been making up care packages for the ships in port where the seamen aren't allowed off
There work is so vital to the supply chain

 

[elle_71125]

I have a trip booked to one of the Caribbean islands for May 2021. I'm going to remain optimistic because I really, really want to go.

 

[Cerulean]

@Cerulean, did you pay for your flights with a CC? If so, you should be able to put in a claim with them to get your money back.

We’ve had 5 trips cancelled this year, and in each case, got our money back. BA were trying to get people to accept a future flight voucher, but we refused and said we wanted the money back and got it. We were due to go to Sandals in March, and the day before the flight, it was cancelled. We had to wait a few weeks, but Sandals refunded all our money.

In one instance BA were dragging their heels refunding us, so we contacted the CC company and the money was refunded the next day.

Lots of the companies now have included Covid clauses, so that if you have to cancel, you can get a refund. Of course, if they go out of business that’s different, but we always pay for any large item with a CC and have always got our money bacK.

We did finally get a refund from our credit card company. It was complicated because we lacked evidence that we had a booking at all. Refund happened...but it was not easy. I wonder then if our issues were unique to Norwegian Air...

 

[nala]

Nope! Not gonna take that chance! Too many risks and not enough to rewards. Not a good gamble any day of the week.

 

[cflutist]

We had two cruises canceled this year, 18 nights to the Russian Far East on Silversea, and 10 nights around French Polynesia RT from Papeete on Princess (would have been there today).

Still have an expedition cruise booked/paid for on Silversea around Greenland for August 2021.

Then we used our 125% credit for our canceled SS cruise to book an 18-night expedition cruise back to Antarctica that also includes the Falklands and South Georgia in December 2021.

Who knows when we will be allowed to sail again.

 

[Lookinagain]

we had to cancel our flights on delta in march. no refund was issued they just have it as credit for a future flight ... whenever that will be. i would have much preferred a full refund. but we all know how that goes.

going forward, i would book future vacations very cautiously, if at all ... until the world is right again

I was able to get full refunds from both Delta and American for two cancelled trips to Europe. Delta gave me a credit and I called and asked them for a refund instead and they agreed and I had it within a few days. American cancelled three legs of my flight and only a flight from Philly to Boston remained ( I was headed from Boston to Switzerland and back). It took me a while on the phone to make the person understand that I didn't want to just take a Philly to Boston flight when I was going to Switzerland, and lived in Boston and had no need to fly to Philly to take a flight back to Boston, but she finally understood and gave me a refund.

I don't expect that I'll be able to travel by plane or train until at least next fall and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to do that. I'm not making any plans though, until I feel confident that I can actually take the trips.