Do I Think Cruising Will Happen in 2021?

By: Alana DeRose

Originally this was going to be me wondering if we'll be able to travel at all in 2021, buttttt - that's already happening so I'll be wondering if we'll be able to return to cruising in 2021.

If you've seen my first every video, or my three news articles, then you know that Norwegian, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean all have delayed the sailings of some of the ships in their fleet until April 30, 2021.

Welll I have some bad news for you.

Norwegian has recently cancelled all of their May 2021 sailings, and many cruisers are upset as they believe this is a constant recurrence among, not just Norwegian, but all cruise lines, and the cruisers believe that the cruise lines shouldn't accept any more bookings until they're certain that they can start cruising again.

So this raises the question -- will we be able to sail again in 2021? And my verdict is [long pause but short] yes. I do believe we'll be able to start sailing in again in 2021, but not until the end of the year.

As we also know from my first video and first three news articles, the CDC has put in place the "Conditional Sailing Order" on October 30, 2020, which gave cruise lines the green light to start sailing again only IF they met the many many requirements stated in the Conditional Sailing Order Document (Just in case you want to check it out).

Some say it's just a new "No Sail Order" with a different name, and as the CDC still doesn't recommend cruise travel on their website, it shouldn't come as a shock to people that the CDC is being super strict on cruise lines right now. The CDC also said themselves that they don't have enough information at this time to say when it will be safe for cruise lines to resume sailing with passengers.

BUT! The CDC has created a color coded chart on which American cruise ships [ships that sail in U.S. waters] are allowed to embark and disembark crew members during this time, which allows the ships to properly train the crew members for when it is time to sail again, one of the requirements in the CDC's Conditional Sailing Order, and cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean have been ahead of the game.

Literally, Royal Caribbean started sailing their Singapore ship Quantum of the Seas to no where in December of 2020 with only Singapore residents being allowed on the ship. However there was someone diagnosed with Covid 19 on that sailing, but Royal Caribbean being the elite cruise line they are, handled it it very well as they turned the ship around and headed back to port, keeping everyone safe, as they stayed in their rooms, with crew members delivering food to the rooms, (Lucky they got free room service!).

Royal Caribbean's swift and precise actions has made it possible for them to continue the sailing of Quantum of the Seas, with them later allowing people from other countries to sail on board the ship too. Also it has made it possible for Royal Caribbean to start sailing their other Asian ship Spectrum of the Seas, as there are currently China itineraries up for the ship in March of 2021.

So this makes it seem as if Royal Caribbean is slowly working their way up to cruising their entire fleet, as they've also stated they're not planning to further delay their fleet after April 30, 2021, after Norwegian cancelled the sailings of their ships through May 2021.

So in about 10 months [December of 2021], or maybe even in six months [August of 2021], Royal Caribbean may be able to start up and running their American fleet.

Now I won't lie if a year ago you asked me this same question, I've probably would've had the same answer, but I wouldn't have had the same evidence. Also the difference between this year and last year is well, we have vaccines being distributed right now, and well new leadership in office.

So unless it'll take 10 months for the general public [ages 16+] to be able to receive the vaccine, which I don't think it will, and for cruise lines to figure out how to functionally run even under the CDC's strict requirements, which I also don't think will, then yea, cruising won't happen in 2021.

But also remember in 10 months [February - December], we went from still enjoying our normal lives, to getting the first Covid vaccine approved. Shoot I was at AllStar weekend in February, an event with 20,000+ people, to not even being able to be in a closed space with more than 10 people in March. That's only a month! So imagine all that can happen in 10 months, and yes it's a lot.

So this raises the question -- will we be able to sail again in 2021? And my verdict is [long pause but short] yes. I do believe we'll be able to start sailing in again in 2021.