The Future of Cruising - Any Questions?

Matt sailing out of Seattle to Alaska on July 5th, 2019

​​There are two questions I keep hearing again and again from my devoted cruise clients:

1. When will cruising start again?
2. How will the experience be different?

Unfortunately, no one knows the full answers yet, even the top cruise executives. The members of the Cruise Line International Association have voluntarily suspended U.S. cruise operations until October 31, 2020. A few cruise lines have a small number of sailings for November and December scheduled to depart as of right now.

Whenever cruising officially resumes, your safety will be paramount. Expect some changes to help ensure the health and safety of everyone on board, such as pre-boarding testing, social distancing measures and procedures to handle infected passengers. To develop and implement plans that work for all passengers and crew, cruise lines have been working with the world’s foremost epidemiologists, virologists and public health and risk management experts. In addition, cruise lines are communicating with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which ultimately decides whether ocean-going cruise ships can sail in U.S. waters.

I have some clients who are putting down deposits for cruises in 2021 and 2022; in fact, a number of cruise lines report their bookings for next year are outpacing booking activity at the same time in 2019. Expect availability to be slim for 2021 cruise dates and possibly 2022 as well. I am here to answer any and all questions you may have about 2021 and 2022 itineraries, the numerous special offers that are currently available, travel restrictions and cancellation policies.

If you are ready to travel soon, Mexico and some of the Caribbean islands are welcoming visitors now for land based travel. In fact, as I write this I am in Puerto Vallarta for an extended stay. I'm surprised how similar the policies are here as they were back in San Jose. My colleagues who have traveled to these destinations recently have been beaming about the safety precautions in place at various airports and all-inclusive resorts.

Please contact me for more information and all your questions!