While many cruise lines won’t resume their itineraries until next year, forward bookings for cruises indicate that there is still strong demand for both river and ocean cruises, and some cruises are already booked out.
Jane Davidson, director of Development Promotions, says now is the time to book cruises because cruise companies are including an “almost-absurd” number of perks, ranging from deep discounts on deposits, to fares that bundle in everything from complimentary gratuities to WiFi Internet plans, to beverage packages and more.
Says Shaun McCarthy, gm of Whitestar Cruise & Travel: “Our forward bookings for 2021 are very good and cruise lines are all offering flexible booking and transfer policies to give passengers peace of mind when booking and enabling them to transfer their booking to another cruise should they wish to postpone their cruise.”
P&O Cruises will start sailing early next year, and its world cruises will sail again in February 2021. Cunard and Celestyal Cruises will resume itineraries in March next year. Seabourn currently has one ship scheduled to operate in the Caribbean in December, while its other ships will resume sailing from January 2021.These are represented in SA by White Star
Inge Dobihal, Austria Connection md, points out that because of cancellation of cruises, there is also a backlog in demand. Inge says Amadeus River Cruises has also been operating river cruises since July and says some of the cruises for next year are already fully booked.
Cruises International head of product, Thaybz Khan, says that while new bookings had been almost non-existent over the last few months, the group is getting more and more new enquiries as the days go by.
A number of ships have already set sail. Jane told Travel News that both Costa Cruises and Ponant are sailing, and Costa Deliziosa, which has resumed its itinerary from Trieste in northern Italy, has operated two trips so far, both without incident.
MSC also has ships in the water. The MSC Grandiosa is currently operating a seven-night roster out of Genoa, and from October 16, MSC Magnifica will start operating a 10-night roster from there.
Hurtigruten’s Norwegian programme is currently operating on a limited schedule.
Most of this year’s Antarctic cruises have been cancelled, although Ponant still has Antarctic cruises planned from December. Jane explains that there is currently a ban on cruise ship operations in many waters and most flights to Argentina and Chile, from where most Antarctic cruises depart, are still not operational. “The situation is still fluid, and developments are unpredictable,” she says, adding that neither Hurtigruten nor G Adventures will operate Antarctic cruises this year.
Thaybz says while none of the brands in Cruises International’s portfolio are sailing, all the brands have every intention of sailing come the 2021 season. However, she points out that the destinations in their itineraries are dependent on which countries around the globe will be open for cruise tourism.
