“Obviously we’ve given a lot of refunds and credit notes, but they are certainly using them – we’ve just put 2023 on sale because we’ve seen such strong demand.” New customers are also booking at the same or higher rates as before Covid, he adds.Īnchored ships meant significant costs, as well as no revenue. “David and Sally are a great example of people who love cruise … And while they had a pretty harrowing experience, their overriding sense is that they were caught up in a global pandemic, not something specific to cruise. Such loyalty is not unique, Roberts says. Images of the Princess Diamond in quarantine in Yokohama became an early and grim harbinger of the pandemic. DAvid Abel told the BBC this week: “It’s a wonderful way of life … We really feel it’s very safe provided passengers are double-vaxxed.” They have booked at least five more Princess cruises, starting with a British “seacation” next month and four in various corners of the globe next year. Notable ambassadors are David and Sally Abel, an Oxfordshire couple who were stranded onboard the Diamond Princess during the initial outbreak and then hospitalised in Japan after contracting Covid. “Clearly there are people who think, actually this isn’t for me any more – but others think it’s quite possibly one of the safest ways to travel because of the additional measures in place,” says Roberts. Restrictions mean that while passengers can have a socially distanced martini from the 50 varieties on offer at the Crooner’s bar, they cannot jump in the hot tub with couples outside their bubble.Ĭustomer confidence is critical – but apparently, largely high. Technology on Princess will play a role, with passengers carrying a contactless key that doubles as an opt-in tracking device that can show when cabins are occupied or restaurants or theatres are busy. Only the double-vaccinated can travel, with tests on top for every passenger before boarding at Southampton. “We’re making sure the protocols are working so we’re not pushing the capacity – it’s important that we build up gradually,” says Roberts. Princess has started with very low occupancy – about 40% on Regal, which has 1,400 of 3,560 berths booked – even after the lifting of government restrictions. The crew will almost outnumber passengers. Skeleton crews kept the ships serviced while anchored offshore, during a pause that Roberts originally thought would last two months: “We’ve been building up the crew and they’ve been building up the new protocols many of them have been onboard for a few months, coming from over 30 countries.” The path to recovery has been painstaking. Operators have also signed a memorandum of understanding that cruise lines will bear the costs of repatriation if necessary.Īccording to Ben Bouldin, the Royal Caribbean vice-president and chair of CLIA UK, lines have agreed deals to disembark all guests if needed, removing the spectre of ships again stranded offshore, while customers will only take “bubble” shore excursions – organised trips – rather than wandering independently at ports of call. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty ImagesĬLIA, the cruise industry association, says it has provided large amounts of data to Public Health England and government departments to prove it is managing the situation. The Diamond Princess at Yokohama port in Japan with 3,000-plus passengers on board forced to quarantine in February 2020. Neither is the government giving cruising a ringing endorsement: it warns that the “confined setting enables Covid-19 to spread faster than it is able to elsewhere”, and that affected ships “have previously been denied permission to dock or to disembark passengers, serious implications”. The UK’s wider, fluctuating travel rules – which can require quarantine after certain foreign port calls – mean lines are not rushing to sail on new itineraries immediately. ![]() ![]() However, most trips had no ports of call over their short duration: for colossal cruise ships, that’s the equivalent of being stuck in an urban flat with brief permitted periods of exercise. ![]() Short domestic sailings have been operating, with limited passenger numbers, since early summer on other lines, including P&O, Saga and MSC. But it felt lovely to be back onboard,” says Roberts.Īn even bigger sign of hope for the British cruise industry was the signal from the government that international cruises could now depart from these shores. You’re wearing masks when you’re moving round the ship. Regal Princess spent the early part of this week sailing out for a three-night jaunt from Southampton, while a sister ship, Majestic US, returned safely from a week’s trip to Alaska.
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