Just Cruises Plus

— Click here to view the full report —

The recommendations of the Healthy Sail Panel, sponsored by Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, are now available.  Here is a status update and summary of findings:

Healthy Return to Sailing – Status Update and Summary of Findings

The recommendations of the Healthy Sail Panel have been submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in response to a request for public comment on the CDC’s current No Sail Order.  The Healthy Sail Panel, formed in June, consists of globally recognized experts experienced in various disciplines including public health, infectious diseases, biosecurity and marine operations.  The Panel has spent the last several months studying how to best protect the health and safety of guests and crew.

They’ve made 74 recommendations across the following five core focus areas that every cruise operator should address to reduce the risk of infection and spread of COVID-19* on cruise ships:

– Testing, Screening and Exposure Reduction

– Sanitation and Ventilation

– Response, Contingency Planning and Execution

– Destination and Excursion Planning

– Mitigating Risks for Crew Members

Among the recommendations are key strategies such as:

– Taking aggressive measures to prevent COVID-19 from entering a ship through robust education, screening and testing of both crew and guests prior to embarkation

– Reducing transmission via air management strategies and sanitation practices

– Implementing detailed plans for addressing positive infection onboard, including contingencies for onboard treatment, isolation and evacuation

– Closely controlling shore excursions

– Enhanced protection for crew member

It will take several weeks for the CDC to review the recommendations of the Healthy Sail Panel and to respond with feedback.

*Note:  The report references SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). This is the virus that causes the disease COVID-19.

Click here to view the full report

If you’ve already sailed with Azamara Cruises or if you’d like an introduction to a cruiseline with  smaller ships and more time in port, we invite you to register for Azamara’s Virtual Evening.

Immediately following the event, for a small window of time, we are offering an exclusive bonus that can be applied to most sailings.  Book between 8/28 and 9/4 and you will receive:

– 50% Deposit

– Shipboard Credit ranging from $250 to $1000 per stateroom (depending on stateroom type)

Remember to register for the event!

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel

When will it be safe to cruise?  To answer this question, the Royal Caribbean Group (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara and Silversea) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas and Oceania) have jointly formed a panel of public health, infectious disease, biosecurity, hospitality and maritime experts.  The panel is co-chaired by Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former FDA Commissioner) and Mike Leavitt (former Secretary of Health and Human Services).  You’ve probably seen Dr. Gottlieb interviewed on TV regarding Covid 19.  The group is called “Healthy Sail Panel”.

The job of the panel is to come up with procedures, guidelines and recommendations for the cruise lines to use to keep their passengers and crew as safe as possible.  The group is expected to come up with recommendations by August 30^th.  We’ll let you know as soon as they make their report.

Royal Caribbean has come up with a new and novel method to meet Safety at Sea requirements while keeping passengers safe from crowds.  The following (from their website) describes this innovative procedure.

“Royal Caribbean Group is replacing one of the least-loved but most important parts of a cruise vacation — the safety drill — with Muster 2.0™, an entirely new approach to delivering safety information to guests. The innovative program, the first of its kind, reimagines a process originally designed for large groups of people into a faster, more personal approach that encourages higher levels of safety.

With Muster 2.0, the key elements of the safety drill — including reviewing what to expect and where to go in case of an emergency, and instructions on how to properly use a life jacket — will be accessible to guests on an individual basis instead of a group approach that has been followed historically. New technology, eMuster^TM, will be used to help provide the information to guests via their mobile devices and interactive stateroom TVs. Travelers will be able to review the information at their own time prior to setting sail, eliminating the need for the traditional large group assemblies. The new approach also enables everyone on board to maintain better spacing as guests move about the ship, and it allows guests to enjoy more of their vacation with no interruption.

After reviewing safety information individually, guests will complete the drill by visiting their assigned assembly station, where a crew member will verify that all steps have been completed and answer questions. Each of the steps will need to be completed prior to the ship’s departure, as required by international maritime law.”

Of course, these procedures will be available to all companies that fall under the Royal Caribbean Brand:  Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and Silversea.

Thank you, Royal Caribbean!

Cuba’s Classic Cars

The Trump administration has (suddenly) ended the cruise lines’ already limited access to Cuban ports.  We think it was outrageous and irresponsible that the Trump administration implemented this policy with no advance warning.

We took advantage of the limited window of opportunity to visit Cuba.  We found the people to be very friendly toward us and there were hints of a nascent capitalism.  There were non-state owned restaurants that served wonderful food.  We rode in a 1956 Crown Victoria taxi owned by the driver.  These are the folks who will be most hurt by the travel ban. More about our visit to Cuba.

We feel very sorry for the people currently on ships that were scheduled to visit this island museum where cars from the 50s comprise about 1/4 of all cars in Cuba.  We also recognize that there are many disappointed people booked on future cruises to Cuba who will miss this unique opportunity, at least for the foreseeable future.

How the Different Cruise Lines are Handling the Change in Policy

*Sailings on or before 9-2-19.  Sailings after 9-2-19 will automatically be canceled and deposits refunded.  Customers affected may book a future NCL cruise with a %20 discount.

The Oasis of the Seas is coming to Cape Liberty, New Jersey in 2020.  Until now, this class of ship could not sail from Cape Liberty because it is too tall and could not get under the very high Verrazano Bridge.  Most sailings will be 7 nights to the Bahamas although there will be 2 short sailings to Canada in June of 2020.  If you would like more information, call Just Cruises Plus (215) 364-3310 or email us at info@justcruisesplus.com.

Terry is on the edge.  Actually she is on the Celebrity Edge, the brand new Celebrity cruise ship.  Celebrity Cruises invited Terry to sail on her inaugural cruise from the U.S.  Terry has sent back amazing photos and we want to share some of them with you.  The first ever “Magic Carpet” is the most notable of the many innovative features of the Celebrity Edge.

The Magic Carpet is a unique venue that changes mood, function and even its location as the world’s first cantilevered, floating platform.  Terry’s first three photos show the Magic Carpet as the platform where you board a bucket-seated tender (third photo) when needed to reach an exotic shore.  The fourth photo shows the Magic Carpet in its cafe form.

Edge will sail in the Caribbean during the winter months and then will move to Europe in the spring.  If you want to be among the first to cruise on this amazing new ship, give us a call!

Magic Carpet as tender boarding platform.

Magic Carpet as a tender boarding platform.

Magic Carpet viewed from tender.

Edge tender with bucket seats.

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Magic carpet in its cafe form.

Do you cruise in an inside stateroom?  We doubt it.  Only about 1 in 20 of our clients book an inside room.  Before the cruise industry discovered balconies, cruisers could select ocean-view or interior rooms.  More than 25% of our clients chose interior rooms. Since the introduction of balconies, cruise lines have had a hard time selling inside rooms.  Even ocean-view rooms have become less popular (Princess has eliminated them on their newer ships).

Cruise lines hate inside rooms.  They are far less profitable than balcony rooms.   A typical example is the March 3^rd sailing of the Crown Princess.  An interior room is priced at $649 while a balconied room is $1499.  Passengers in each get the same food, room service, entertainment and ports of call.  You can see why cruise lines hate inside rooms.  However, they are stuck with them.  With every deck of balconies, there is interior space that needs to be filled, thus we have a surge in unwanted interior rooms.

How do cruise lines handle this problem?   They offer extra discounts to the point that they are breaking even (or worse) on the sale of the interior rooms and are hoping that they make money with on-board spending.  Note that many cruise lines do not give amenities to passengers who select interior rooms.  They want these clients spending their own money.  Celebrity Cruises is having an “Insider” sale of interior rooms (click for sale).  If you’re one of the 5 percent who can live with an interior room, check out the Celebrity sale.  It ends Monday.

Royal Caribbean has sharply reduced the number of interior rooms on their Oasis class ships using a very unique design.  The Oasis Class ships are twice as wide as other cruise ships.  This enabled the architects to build two superstructures on the double-wide hull.  One side of each superstructure faces the ocean while the other side faces an open-air interior space.  They put balconies on both the ocean-facing and the interior facing superstructures.  In the interior facing space they created Central Park and Boardwalk.  The balconies overlooking Central Park and Boardwalk command a much higher price than a traditional interior stateroom.

Call us on Monday if you’re interested in the Celebrity Insider’s sale.

Celebrity is building a ship specifically designed for the Galapagos Islands.  The 100 passenger ship is the smallest ever built for Celebrity Cruises.  The Ecuadorian government restricts the size ships that are allowed to visit these islands that are rich in wildlife seen exclusively in this part of the world.  The ship will be named Celebrity Flora and will begin cruising in May of 2019.

This “soft adventure” cruise will be premium priced because this is one of the world’s most sought after destinations and government restrictions limit the number of visitors.

The Jones Act has been in the news because of the hurricanes and the need to get supplies into hurricane ravaged US territories.  It was enacted in 1920 and was designed to protect the American Merchant Marine which would be needed in time of war.  Its basic tenant is that in order to carry goods or passengers between US ports, a ship must have the hull of the ship built in the US and at least 75% of its crew must be US citizens.  During the ongoing emergency at St Thomas, St Johns and Puerto Rico, there are too few US flagged ships available to move supplies to these territories.  Therefore the Jones Act was temporarily suspended.

How does the Jones Act affect the cruise industry and its customers?

There are a number of cruise lines whose ships ply US rivers who meet the Jones Act requirements.  The most well known is the American Queen.

However, most of the large cruise ships were built in Europe and are flagged in small countries that have low tax rates.  They cannot carry passengers between US ports without stopping at a foreign port.  There is one large cruise ship that meets the Jones act provisions.  It is NCL’s Pride of America. Its hull was built in the U.S. It’s flagged in the US and carries an American crew.   It’s based in Hawaii has weekly cruises in the Hawaiian Islands.

It is the only large cruise ship that can do this itinerary and therefore it is no competition.  NCL has the only 7 day cruise in the Hawaiian Islands.

How does the lack of competition affect price?

We compared a Balcony stateroom on a 7 day cruise around Hawaii with an NCL 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Norwegian Getaway.  Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Carnival, Princess and others provide stiff competition on this itinerary.

The lowest priced balcony on the March 3^rd 2018 sailing of the Pride of America from Honolulu is $2599 per person while the lowest priced balcony on the March 4^th Norwegian Getaway is $1179, less than half the price of the Pride of America.

Itineraries are also affected by the Jones Act.  For example, for a round trip Alaska cruise from Seattle, one of the ports must be in Canada.

You can go to Hawaii on a cruise line other than Norwegian Cruise Line.  However, the ship will stop in Ensenada or Vancouver on its way to or from the West Coast of the United States and it will be an 11 or 12 night cruise with a lot of days at sea..

Are there benefits to the Jones Act?

Yes, crews receive higher wages and working conditions are better and safer.  Also, there are stricter environmental requirements for US flagged ships.

When NCL initiated Hawaii cruises on the Pride of America, they hired young Americans as waiters and room stewards and guess what happened?  Passengers complained bitterly about the quality of service.  It seems that the young Americans pictured themselves as laying out on deck during the day and partying at night with a smidgen of work here and there.

NCL had to build a facility in Maryland to train American staff in the art of service.  They are now able to weed out the party people before they board the Pride and service is now very good.