Skip to main content

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD OF CRUISING?

To complete my focus on travel, I see a trend that will soon prevail for all cruises:  you will need to show proof of completing your COVID-19 vaccination requirement before you are allowed to board.  Likewise, cruise lines will attempt to get their staff similarly protected.

Royal Caribbean has already made this announcement.  Will their Wonder of the Seas make its debut this year?  This will be the largest cruise liner, with 18 decks, 5,000 guests and 2,200 crew members.  Their current biggest, is Symphony of the Seas, which is 4 feet shorter, but has a capacity of 6680 passengers.

What this will mean is that all those cruises now showing total bookings this year will quickly show openings to the point that many of them will begin to provide incentives for you to make a reservation.  Norwegian is scheduled to start their weekly Hawaiian Island cruise in June.  A few days before these Saturday sailings there will be so many vacancies that anyone living in Honolulu should be able to get a once-in-a-lifetime fare.  Would not surprise me if free alcohol, WiFi, gratuities and tours will be offered for $200/day.

This opportunity will disappear by late summer, though, for most will be vaccinated by then.  Certainly older people, who are the ones who cruise.  There will be a high desire to travel by this Fall.

By the way, I provided the various costs of a Fall around the world trip and the 2022 world journey, but did not add them up.  So to provide completeness, here are some details.

First of all, you can do this for a cheaper price.  For example here is a book that can go global for $50/day.  But is that a way to live?  For us:

  • Beginning October 2021
    • Star Alliance:  $12,500
    • Celebrity cruise:  $4,000
    • Crystal Christmas Cruise:  $3,000
    • Hotels (50 nights? at $250/night):  $12,500/2 = $6750 each for two
    • Food (we will stay at Marriotts, many of which have an executive club that provides immense breakfast buffets and sufficient appetizers with free drinks in the evening):  $1000
    • Other ground transport:  $1000
    • Tours, etc:  $1000
    • October 2021 to January 2022 TOTAL COST = $29,250
  • Second around the world beginning January 19, 2022 on the Island Princess from Los Angeles: 
    •  $27,000 for balcony room, or $40,000 for a mini-suite.  
    • The balcony cabin is sufficient, or $27,000
    • If that cruise can be bought with free drinks and Wi-Fi, then tours, etc. will cost something= $2000
    • As the flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu will still be available from the Year One Star Alliance ticket, no cost for air transport.
    • Amtrak from Los Angeles to Paso Robles and back:  $100
    • Hotels:  $1000
    • January to May 2022 TOTAL COST = $30,100
  • TOTAL COST FOR TWO AROUND THE WORLD ADVENTURES:  $59,350.
  • For 200 days, that is a cost of $297/day.  This not that much more than I pay 15 Craigside/day to live in a cocoon.    Of course, I will still need to pay them $33,442 during my 6+ months absence, so my cost will actually be $92,792.  A lot of money.  But I can't take any leftover funds to Heaven...if there is one.

This is not generally known, even by cruisers, but there are only two dominant cruise companies: 

  • Carnival Corporation (39.4% of revenues)
    • Cunard
    • P&O
    • Costa Cruises
    • Holland America
    • Princess
    • AIDA
    • Seabourn  
  • Royal Caribbean (20.2%)
    • Celebrity
    • Azamara
    • Oceania
    • Silverseas
  • Norwegian (12.6%) also operates Regent Seven Seas
  • Genting (5%)
    • Star Cruise
    • Crystal Cruise
    • Dream Cruises
About river cruises and approximate cost/day:
  • Crystal  $800
  • Tauck  $700
  • Uniworld  $500
  • AMA Waterways  $500
  • Scenic  $400
  • Viking $300
Which is the best?
  • According to one source, Scenic Luxury Cruises of Australia is the best river cruise line.   They operate around the world...but not in Australia.  Their Emerald Waterways is their low-cost river option.  
  • Travel+Leisure last year had Crystal at #1, Tauck (the one I took six years ago) at #4 and Viking at #6.  
  • In 2019 USA Today rated Viking as #1. 
  • Cruise Critic says choose Uniworld over Viking if you can afford it:  When comparing similar itineraries, it's important to take into account that Uniworld is all-inclusive, with unlimited drinks -- including premium brands -- additional onboard facilities and gratuities included in the fare. Viking includes wine, beer and soda with lunch and dinner.
Regarding seniors, according to Mapquest:
  • Azamara has been voted to be the best cruise line for seniors.
  • Celebrity:  Glass dining rooms, formal foyers, libraries, bars, lawn games, live entertainment, and casinos make Celebrity Cruises the quintessential senior cruise experience. There are also facilities for the deaf/hard-of-hearing and blind/visually impaired. If you provide enough notice in advance.  To the right is that Celebrity Solstice cruise from Yokohama to Singapore in 2021.
A fine way to start your week:


The Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 174 to 32,952, again breaking it's all time record.  The $1.9 trillion stimulus package was the reason.

-
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo.  We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings  We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo.  So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines.  We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station.  This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site.   It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance.  This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of  ten of those already waiting to enter.  However...
Post a Comment
Read more

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that   Oktoberfest   in Germany is mostly in September?  The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3.  Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September?  The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich?  These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11.  Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town.  It was drizzling a bit.  We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served.  We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall.  So no one came to serve us beer.  After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine.  Thus, we might have been the ...
Post a Comment
Read more