Top Headlines

Allianz customer survey finds travel advisor clients will lead cruise recovery in 2021

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 27 August 2020 27 August 2020

While the pandemic has people staying closer to home these days, the outlook for traveling abroad by cruise ship looks promising in 2021, according to recent findings from travel insurance and assistance company Allianz Partners. After analyzing more than 1,000 survey responses from customers who purchased its U.S. travel insurance products through travel advisors and other retail distribution partners, Allianz found that among retail customers who don’t plan to travel this year, many are planning to book international travel in 2021 and many of those international travelers will choose to cruise.

According to the Allianz data, 60% of its retail customers who say they won’t travel until 2021, plan to visit an international destination for their next trip – with 20% of those retail customers indicating that they will sail on a cruise ship.

Leading the survey respondents, 50% of Allianz retail customers indicated they will stay in a hotel or resort, while other retail customers revealed they will stay with friends and family (13%), followed by a rental house (8%), a personal vacation house (4%) and only 2% plan on spending their vacation in an RV, tent or cabin.

Although ocean cruising is not resuming in the U.S. until at least November 2020, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, elsewhere in the world, large ships are already setting sail with limited capacity, social distancing and other stringent safety measures in place.

“Travel will continue to evolve in response to the unfolding of global events. Meanwhile, we are discovering that our customers are more open to taking trips to overseas destinations once again,” said Joe Mason, Chief Marketing Officer at Allianz Partners. “One area where we are expecting to see an increasing interest in the year ahead is in international cruise travel.”

As for insurance travel products, Allianz is currently offering several temporary accommodations, providing coverage for trip cancellations, trip interruptions, and emergency medical care for those who become ill with COVID-19 and has temporarily extended refunds of travel insurance premiums to customers whose travel suppliers have canceled their trips due to COVID-19.

The travel insurance and assistance company is also allowing customers to use their policy within 770 days of the purchase date so that it can be used for a new or rescheduled trip. Note, customers who are moving their existing plan must change their plan coverage dates before traveling and prior to any loss for which they are seeking coverage. Furthermore, if the customer takes advantage of this option to insure a new or reschedule trip that was paid for with a travel supplier voucher, any amount paid by a travel supplier voucher would be considered part of that customer’s insured trip payments.

Three Carnival brands extend Australia, New Zealand suspension to December

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 27 August 2020 27 August 2020

P&O Cruises Australia, Carnival Cruise Line and Princess Cruises, all parts of the world’s largest cruise shipping group Carnival Corporation & plc, said they will extend suspension of operations in Australia and New Zealand into Deceber.

P&O Cruises Australia is extending its rolling pause in operations from Australia to 2 December this year as the cruise line continues to take guidance from authorities, public health experts and society on restarting sailing, the company said in a statement

“Due to the continued progression of COVID-19 and related decisions of various governments, health authorities, and airlines regarding travel restrictions, Princess Cruises is extending its pause in cruise operations in Australia through December 12, 2020 which includes cruises throughout Australia and New Zealand,” the company said in a separate statement.

Finally, Carnival Cruise Line said that in light of continuing Australian travel restrictions, it is extending its pause in departures from Australia through 2 December 2020 for Carnival Spirit and Carnival Splendor.

Cunard to extend operations pause up to May 2021

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 25 August 2020 25 August 2020

Cunard, the UK based upmarket cruise line in the Carnival Corporation & plc group, will extend pause in its operations from the end of November to up to May next year, the company said in a statement.

“ In an acknowledgement of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) guidance and the complexity of operating world voyages, luxury cruise line Cunard will be extending its pause in operations from November 2020 until March 25, 2021 for its ship Queen Elizabeth; until April 18, 2021 for Queen Mary 2 and until May 16, 2021 for Queen Victoria,” the company said in a statement.

Cunard president Simon Palethorpe said: “We are so sorry to all those guests who were due to sail on any of the cancelled voyages and for the disappointment this news will cause. After very careful consideration and reviewing the latest guidance, we simply do not feel it would be sensible to start sailing again with our current schedule so we have reviewed future itineraries.”

“Queen Elizabeth has returned to the UK and with ongoing uncertainty over the re-opening of many ports and countries, it is sadly not practical to continue her planned itineraries for 2021.”

“Therefore, in addition to the pause in operations, all of Queen Elizabeth’s sailings due to depart between March 26, 2021 and December 13, 2021, in and around Australia, Japan and Alaska, will be cancelled.”

Instead, Cunard will operate a programme of shorter duration European holidays ranging from three to 14 nights departing from Southampton. These will start at the end of March 2021, with a series of scenic voyages around the coast of Cornwall, the west coast of Ireland and the Scottish Isles.

There will also be short breaks to Amsterdam which will include an overnight in the city, as well as voyages to northern and southern European destinations including Norway and the Iberian coast, with several of these itineraries featuring overnight city stays.

“Queen Elizabeth’s new programme will be completed with a series of seven and 14 night voyages in the Mediterranean, sailing from Barcelona. It is an exciting new programme which I am sure will have great appeal,” Palethorpe said. All new itineraries on board Queen Elizabeth will be available to book from September 29, 2020.

Queen Mary 2, which experienced a curtailed World Voyage this year the cancellation of its World Voyage in 2021, will sail a classic World Voyage in 2022. “This will replace her scheduled sailings departing January 3, 2022 to April 3, 2022, including the voyage to South America,” Palethorpe added.

The new 104 night cruise will depart from Southampton on January 10, 2022 and include calls to Greece, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Australia and Bali before returning to Southampton via Abu Dhabi, Oman, Italy and Portugal. The ship will sail through the Suez Canal both on the outbound journey and on return. It will be bookable, either as a full world voyage or as one of six sectors, from September 8, 2020.

“Given the current uncertainty, the complexity of our scheduled World Voyage with our international mix of guests visiting many countries and continents, each with its own evolving travel regulations was a very real factor in our decision making,” Palethorpe stated.

MSC Cruises postpones restart of MSC Magnifica’s Eastern Med programme to 26 September

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 24 August 2020 24 August 2020

MSC Cruises, the Geneva based cruise line, said it has been forced to postpone the restart of MSC Magnifica’s cruises in the Eastern Mediterranean until 26 September.

“In connection with the recent introduction of additional testing measures for residents of Italy having travelled to Greece, we are seeing cancellations and a softening in demand since the ship’s itinerary includes as many as three ports in that country. This has led to the decision to delay the restart of the ship by four weeks,’ the company said in a statement.

However, MSC Cruises said they believe that reservations will start to pick up again in the coming weeks due to the appeal of the itinerary. MSC Magnifica’s sales are open to residents of the Schengen area, at the same time in this early phase of restart the majority of guests are expected to be Italian nationals and residents.

“As a result of this, MSC Magnifica cruise departures from 29 August to 19 September have been cancelled. The first cruise will depart from Bari, Italy with an unchanged itinerary on 26 September,” the company said.

Guests affected by the cancelled cruises will either be re-protected onto another cruise – in particular on MSC Grandiosa, which is currently sailing in the West Mediterranean - or will receive a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) where they have the opportunity to transfer the full amount paid for their cancelled cruise to a future cruise of their choice – on any ship, for any itinerary -- through to the end of 2021.

For UK & Irish guests due to the current UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice all cruises have already been cancelled and options including 125% FCC have been shared with guests.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines confirms new ships Bolette and Borealis will replace Boudicca and Black Watch

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 21 August 2020 21 August 2020

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has today confirmed it will retire two classic vessels, Boudicca and Black Watch, as the company prepares to welcome two new ships, Bolette and Borealis, into the fleet.

The two new ships will take over existing itineraries for Boudicca and Black Watch, when cruising begins again with the company’s ‘back in the water’ plan for next year.

When Bolette and Borealis join the fleet it will increase Fred. Olsen’s overall capacity by circa 30 percent – meaning more guests can enjoy exciting new itineraries. Both vessels carry under 1,400 guests and have new and larger public areas, whilst remaining true to Fred. Olsen’s small ship experience.

Those guests who had cruises booked on the two classic vessels will be among the first to sail on the new ships, with their bookings being automatically transferred onto either Bolette or Borealis. Additional cabins will go on sale in early September.

Peter Deer, Managing Director at Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, said: “I am pleased to say we are now at the stage of finalising our back in the water plans and we are very excited to be doing this with two new vessels within our fleet.

“While we are still looking at a number of options for Boudicca and Black Watch, what we do know is that they won’t resume sailing with us when we do start to cruise again.

“We know that these ships are much loved among our guests, as indeed they are by us, but it is time to evolve and look ahead to a long and bright future for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

“We will soon be revealing more details on our plans to resume sailing again, but in the meantime we hope many of you will join us on our virtual farewell cruises to see our two ships off in style.”

As part of Fred. Olsen’s virtual cruise programme, the company will be holding virtual farewell sailings for both Boudicca and Black Watch on Facebook, with guests and crew invited to share their favourite photographs and memories of the two ships.

The virtual cruises will be held for two weeks starting from Monday, 24th August.

Guests who were booked to sail on Boudicca and Black Watch will automatically have their booking transferred to the same itineraries on Bolette or Borealis, and will be contacted by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines with final details in the coming weeks.