What's Next?

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As you can imagine, being a Cruise Planner hasn't been particularly profitable lately, not that it ever really is, to be quite frank.

Let me start by stating what seems obvious but may not filter through the noise.

If you are young, healthy and have travel departing in the next month and a half, you may find yourself on less crowded planes where you can stretch out and definitely on cruise ships with a guest-to-staff ration more like expensive deluxe lines.

Most people I speak with fear being quarantined more than the virus itself, despite the hype in the media about "Trump hiding the truth about how dangerous Coronavirus is."

It must be noted that thus far anyway, only two ships have been quarantined.

For the most part, people with trips scheduled to depart before summer have been the ones contacting me.

I have received a few inquiries from people hoping to take advantage of the current Coronavirus panic to book cheap deals in the summer or at Christmas.

For some reason, many of these folks are looking into suites, but with early booking with non-refundable deposits to wealthy buyers well beyond living paycheck-to-paycheck being the norm, suites tend to be in "strong hands" for future cruises and prices are about the same as they would otherwise be.

Two nights ago, President Trump announced a 30-day moratorium on travel from Europe.  Fear of quarantine more than the virus once again put the skids on Americans traveling to Europe as well as Europeans traveling to the US for Caribbean cruises and other vacations.

Viking River Cruises, which has been on the cutting edge of response to this crisis, soon announced they would simply suspend the start of their season to May 1, cancelling all cruises between now and then.

Previously, they had been an early proponent of allowing anyone with a spring time cruise to move their payments to other cruises or future cruise credits, which has been widely adopted throughout the industry.  Some of my clients who actually didn't particularly want to change nonetheless took advantage of this program, and apparently that was not uncommon.  In any case, Viking responded to Trump's new ban by taking decisive action that preserved its prime season.  Smart.

Surprisingly, one of the ocean giants, Princess Cruises, followed suit, cancelling a full two months of cruises.

Of course, Princess has the distinct disadvantage of being the poster child for Coronavirus, and as such, I think it probably was also smart for them to pull the plug on cruises for the next two months with full refunds.  They also attract a lot of passengers from other parts of the world.

It's one thing to deal with all the cancellation-and-explanation-headaches, but Princess as a result of having the ONLY two ships quarantined, has its logo emblazoned on the lovely smokestack shown on television multiple times every hour. 

Princess simply had to get out of the headlines, even if the old marketing adage was "just spell the name right."

It's not just cruises.  My discount air-inclusive, packaged-tour vendor Gate 1, which always operates on razor-thin margins, followed Viking's lead by cancelling all their tours through April 30.

I am not an epidemiologist, but I personally think we all will look back at these three months in 2020 as one of the most bizarre paragraphs in our life stories.

We will wonder, "What was everyone thinking?"

While President Trump has taken some truly extraordinary actions in first banning travel from China and assorted places in Asia to now banning travel from Europe, it does seem to me a bit like swatting a fly on your porch with a machine gun.

At the same time, please note that President Trump has urged calm, stating clearly that for most people in good health, the situation is not that critical.

Wash your hands.  Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough.  Stay home or at least avoid crowds, if you feel sick.

All common sense we all should ALWAYS follow.

He just wanted to impede the spread of this Coronavirus.

Now Dr. Fauci, who has been anointed by the media as the only truth-speaker in the Trump Administration, undoubtedly hates cruises, making a point to say all seniors should avoid cruises every time he speaks.

Norwegian Cruise Lines has been the first to institute a policy I expect to become widespread, which is to require anyone over age 70 to get a doctor's note saying they are fit enough to travel.

That actually makes a lot of sense to me, because it is without doubt the elderly with pre-existing conditions who are the ones most endangered by all viruses and diseases, including Coronavirus, as evidenced by the mortality rates in nursing homes.

However, the President's critics --- and let's face it, there are a great many, perhaps including you --- like to pile on to any issue and call him a liar.  That has obvious ramifications but also what I would call ridiculous situations like people buying all the toilet paper and pasta in big city grocery stores.

If your plan is to sit on your butt at home for two weeks eating pasta, most likely you aren't going to need that toilet paper.  Diarrhea is a symptom more associated with Montezuma's Revenge than Coronavirus.

Anyway, we all will believe what we will, and because as something of a Christian Scientist myself, I believe we all determine at least to some extent how any situation will effect our health. 

I encourage you to do what you have to do.

I went on a long cruise to South America, then skiing in Montana, and drove back to California yesterday, but that's just me.

When you find yourself with Tripophobia --- fear of missing out on travel --- rather than fear of leaving home, send me an email, and I'll be happy to help you plan your next great vacation.

Wes