Another week, and more headlines dominated by an international pandemic, and our ineffectiveness at taming it.  For most of us, this provokes fear, anger, anxiety, or depression (or perhaps all those things).

Yet there are indications of progress if you look for them, and you can choose to feel hope.

One of the things that has made me a committed life-long traveller is that by leaving home, and exploring other parts of the world, I get to learn about different cultures and their people.  Unfortunately, our media only references the rest of the world anecdotally – something I learned first-hand when I have lived abroad. 

This is a shame – particularly now.  If we were willing, there is much to be learned from other countries as they fight the common enemy known as covid-19.  The reason I am hopeful is that Europe (as well as a number of other jurisdictions that have managed the pandemic well) are returning to a new normal as it relates to travel and tourism.

Perhaps the best illustration of this point is that AMA Waterways is resuming river cruising in Europe in August.  The reason this stands out to me, is that AMA is an American Company.  It is true, there will be very few Americans on board, as those coming from the US are still required to quarantine in Europe for 14 days, but the Europeans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis will be sailing.

As a general rule, the regulatory agencies in Europe are more stringent than ours, so you can imagine there are some new conditions for sailing there:

• Daily temperature checks
• Public health officer on every sailing
• Maximum 100 guests aboard the ship
• Crew to wear masks at all times.  Guests asked to wear them when moving through the ship.
• Seating dining and Room service, as opposed to “drop-in” dining.
• Plexiglas dividers in lounge
• No recirculation of air in staterooms or public areas.
• Reduced group sizes, and social distancing for shore excursions.

It won’t be the same as it was before covid, but these few compromises will not diminish the experience of a river cruise. 

CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) has been mostly missing in action since this whole situation began six months ago, and it appears as though the individual cruise lines have become impatient waiting for either CLIA or the CDC to provide any guidance for the resumption of operations. 

This is GOOD news.  The cruise lines are looking at guidelines imposed in other jurisdictions (such as Europe), and working with epidemiologists and medical experts to redefine the cruising experience so it provides maximum safety and is still an enjoyable experience.  The individual cruise lines provide more details on each of their websites, but here are some of the steps being taken:

• Reduced capacity – Fewer people on the ship, and restrictions on the number of people at a time in restaurants, entertainment venues, fitness centers, and elevators.
• New embarkation procedures – Assigned times for boarding, temperatures checks, and health questionnaires prior to boarding.
• Enhanced cleaning protocols – Luggage will be disinfected prior to boarding.  More frequent disinfection of high touch areas with medical grade disinfectants.  Even more hand sanitizing stations.
• Social distancing and facial covering guidelines.  Masks will be provided and required for guests and crew in spaces where social distancing is not possible (tenders, elevators, etc.).
• Health monitoring throughout a cruise.  Temperature checks and medical screening.
• Medical Resources – New testing equipment and quarantine facilities on ships with separate air filtration systems.
• Dining – Self-serve options eliminated.

Finally, while we tend to think that the only way out of this is for a widely available, effective vaccine, it is important to remember that countries that have done the best through this emergency (Iceland and South Korea come to mind), have done it through wide-spread testing and contact tracing. 

There is some positive news on the testing front:

The Germans are opening walk-in testing centers at Frankfurt and Munich Airports.  This will enable users to submit to a test and receive the certified results within a few hours, and thereby foregoing any quarantine requirements.

So… will life return to “normal” in the coming days or weeks?  NO.

We will however, adapt to a new normal that will allow travel and tourism again.  The signs of this are already evident in those countries and jurisdictions that more aggressively managed the Corona virus at the outset. 

Reason for hope, indeed.

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If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Recovering from a pandemic must be a marketing professional’s dream. 

There are a million different promotions out there, all trying to attract people to travel again. 

For those of us in the trenches, it seems like a full-time job to keep track of who is marketing what, and identifying companies that are actually sending out value-added offers rather than just generating noise.

While sorting through all of this in the past few weeks, I’ve discovered another dimension:  how multiple or varying offers from the same company combine.

I went looking to see if there was a secret password or a decoder ring that would allow me to figure this all out.  Alas, the only path through all these offers is to simply cross-check one against the other and look through the fine print for exclusions and/or combinability.

Sound confusing?  Yes, it really is.

However, the effort is worth it. 

Specifically, I found some interesting opportunities with Seabourn that expire at the end of July, with multiple offers that have turned out to be combinable. 

Here are two cruises that really stood out in terms of the value:

Alaska – May 28, 2021 ($3499 per person)

Juneau to Vancouver (7 nights), with Glacier Bay and Misty Fjords.

What makes this combination of deals stand out:

• Sensational Suite Sale means you get a Veranda Suite for the price of an Ocean View room.  Remember all staterooms on Seabourn are suites.
• Shipboard credit of $250 per guest
• Air Credit of $750 per guest
• 300 internet minutes
• Virtuoso Voyage with a host on board, and exclusive events, PLUS an additional $150 per person on board credit.
• Our agency has a group on this sailings to get you an additional $125 per person on board credit (if you’re keeping track, that brings your total OBCs to $525 per person).
• 10% off if you pay in full at the time of booking.
• They have also adjusted their cancellation policy to account for the COVID-19 situation.  You can cancel your trip with no penalty up to 30 days in advance of sailing.

With all these combined offers layering on top of each other, you can go to Alaska on a luxury small ship for what you normally pay to go on one of the mega-ships. 

If you’d rather not fly to Alaska for just one week, here are some common (and highly recommended) add-ons available for this cruise:

• 6-day extension to Denali National Park (Includes a ride on Alaska’s famed domed rail car, and a flight-seeing tour over Denali)
• 7-day cruise (to make it a 2-week cruise) visiting Ketchikan, Sitka, Glacier Bay, Icy Strait Point, and Haines.
• Rocky Mountaineer (Luxury Rail journey through the Canadian Rockies between Vancouver and Calgary).

Baltics & Russia – July 10, 2021 ($4699 per person)

Stockholm to Copenhagen (7 nights) including 2 nights in St. Petersburg, Russia.

What makes this combination of deals stand out:

• Sensational Suite Sale means you get a Veranda Suite for the price of an Ocean View
• 300 internet minutes
• Virtuoso Voyage with a host on board, and exclusive events, PLUS an additional $150 per person on board credit. 
• Our agency has a group on this sailing to get you an additional $125 per person on board credit (bringing your total OBCs to $275 per person).
• 10% off if you pay in full at the time of booking.
• They have also adjusted their cancellation policy to account for the COVID-19 situation.  You can cancel your trip with no penalty up to 30 days in advance of sailing.

Here are some common add-ons for a Baltic cruise:

• Stay on the ship for an additional 2 weeks, and sail up the coast of Norway
• 10-day post-cruise extension: UNESCO Imperial Heritage of Europe (Copenhagen/Berlin/Dresden/Vienna/Budapest)

If you’re unfamiliar, here’s a little background on Seabourn.  The first time we went on Seabourn, it became very clear, very quickly, that this wasn’t like other cruise ships we’d been on.  It was really our first small ship experience, and once you get hooked, it’s hard to go back:

• All suites.  All the staterooms on Seabourn are in fact suites that are 300 square feet or larger.  The in-suite bathrooms all have a full soaker tub, and double sinks, with granite counter tops.  It’s nicer than our bathroom at home!
• Small Ship.  There is a huge difference sailing with only 450 guests as opposed to 4500 guests.  Besides the added service and intimacy, there are also logistic issues – like NOT having to line up to embark and disembark.
• All inclusive.  It’s nice to have everything in the price, but it also changes the culture on board the ship.  When you order a glass of wine, they’re not asking for your key card, they just bring your wine (and top it up regularly).  This is different than other cruise lines where SOME passengers have beverages included.
• Great value.  Given that the best-priced suite on Seabourn is larger (and better appointed) than the highest cabin category on the premium lines, the value per dollar is quite evident.
• Thomas Keller Grill.  I’ve never eaten at the French Laundry in San Jose, or Per Se in NYC.  Perhaps because I’ve never gotten around to it, or perhaps because paying $350 each, and waiting 6 months for a table reservation is a bit beyond me.  I’d rather experience Thomas Keller’s food on a Seabourn ship, where it’s included in the fare.
• Ventures by Seabourn.  I like the option to be able to do some expedition offerings right off a luxury ship.  These active options are particularly good if you’re going back to place you’ve already been.  It is also much less spartan than many expedition ships.

If neither of these cruises stand out for you, there are other options as well, where multiple offers overlap and combine like the examples given above.

You’ll want to get in touch soon if one of these cruises interests you – these prices expire on July 31^st.

Have something to say about this?

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If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

There is a cycle by which people start planning their travel through to when they actually go.  We’ve seen that cycle significantly interrupted this year as a result of the pandemic, so we’re learning to roll with the new cycle – mostly by listening carefully to the cues from our clients.

In a normal July, we would typically be seeing people planning their winter trips for November through March.  For our clients, July is when they most often book trips to Australia/New Zealand and Tahiti, and also the exotic, extended cruises through SE Asia and India. 

This year, not so much… probably not a big surprise.

I suspect that once Australia and New Zealand open back up that we’ll see a bit of a rush for people to travel there:  those countries have hardly had any covid, and it is easy and safe to travel there.

Here are some other trends that are beginning to emerge:

Tahiti is open to US passport holders as of next week and might be worth looking at for this coming (northern hemisphere) winter season.  Lots of cruise lines visit Tahiti and French Polynesia, and our favorite cruise line for this part of the world is Paul Gauguin. 

Domestic Travel.  We’re still seeing strong demand for Mississippi and Columbia River cruises for this year.  Here’s a link to an article we published a few weeks ago about those rivers:   https://pamperedcruiser.com/river-cruising-in-the-us-mississippi-columbia-snake/

We are also getting a lot of interest for 2021 for Alaska and Canada/New England cruises.  It is disappointing to have lost the 2020 season, but it is a reasonable assumption that Canada will open its ports for 2021.

River Cruises.  Life-long ocean cruisers are asking us a lot of questions about river cruises.  Particularly those travellers who most often sail on Celebrity, Holland America and Princess.  I think these lines will still have a loyal following, but their recovery will be a bit slower compared to river cruise and small ocean ship lines.  People are understandably more comfortable travelling on ships with under 200 people, as opposed to 2000 or more. 

We have seen Crystal River Cruises put on some incredible pricing for Rhine and Danube River cruises for 2021.  Here’s a link to an article we wrote about this in June, and I’m happy to report not only have they extended this deal to July, but they’ve also added some additional sailings that include the Christmas markets in late 2021: https://pamperedcruiser.com/best-prices-on-2021-river-cruises/

Europe 2021.  The river cruise lines in Europe are fuller for 2021 than they normally would be 12 months in advance.  This also seems to apply to small-ship ocean cruises in the Baltic Sea, as well as those focused on the UK/Ireland.  This probably stands to reason, as many people picked up their 2020 Europe plans, and bunted them ahead a year.  If the Baltics are on your horizon, I’ll write next week about a deal I’m investigating for that cruise market.

Caribbean.  Believe it or not, we’re seeing strong demand for small ship Caribbean cruises this fall.  I think this might be function of people just really needing to travel, but the demand is certainly being helped along by some of the incredible deals we’re seeing on the small ship ocean lines.  Here’s a link to an article we wrote a month ago about Crystal Ocean:  https://pamperedcruiser.com/unheard-of-opportunity-for-caribbean/

Longer Lead Times.  Our normal interval between someone booking a trip, and someone taking that trip between 6 and 12 months, with the average being almost exactly 9 months.  In the last several weeks, we have seen this interval lengthen to about 14 months on average.  Some people are just not ready to travel yet, but that hasn’t stopped them from planning their next trip.  Planning and dreaming is half the fun of travelling, so why not?

More flexible booking arrangements.  The cruise lines are doing their best to make it easy for people to dream, so most of them have adjusted booking conditions in place that enable changes on short notice without penalty, should the pandemic continue to wreak havoc with travellers’ plans.

Oberammergau.  We’re getting lots of enquiries about the Passion Play that happens once every ten years in Oberammergau, Germany.  Unfortunately, it was scheduled for 2020, so it was cancelled and rescheduled for 2022.  We are expecting cruise packages to Oberammergau to be released before the end of the summer, but we are in a holding pattern on this for now.  If this is on your radar… stay tuned. 

I wrote last week about how life has largely returned to normal for people who live in Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  We are a few weeks behind these other countries, but looking to what is happening in those places is a good indication of what we can expect here in the coming months.  Those countries are all open to each other, and we are slowly seeing people cautiously returning to travel.

Of course, this is taking longer than any of us would like, but we will get there.

Stay safe.

Have something to say about this?

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If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Do you remember what you did on Independence Day in 2003? 

Nope… me neither.

I’m guessing 2020 will be a year we all remember, though. 

For some, it will be the Independence Day when they stayed at home with family and had a more muted celebration. 

Others may attend some form of community event, but it won’t be the same as other years – there will some variation of social distancing in place, and some activities will not be possible.

It would be very easy to look at these scaled-back celebrations along what we’ve all endured for the past several months and feel great despair.  And yet, I’m hopeful.

I was born in the United States and am very proud of my heritage.  I am also a citizen of this planet.  The two are not exclusive of each other.  Perhaps that is why I have always been a wanderer – both here and abroad. 

The more I’ve travelled, the more I have learned about the world.  I’ve discovered that although there is good, bad, and ugly to be found everywhere, the overwhelming majority of citizens of this earth are good people who just want to live their lives with their families in peace.

In the United States, we are struggling to tame the pandemic.  Our closest friends and neighbors around the world are having similar struggles. 

If we look at Europeans – who were challenged sooner (and initially much more severely) than we were – they are returning to some variation of normal, where most people are able to get back to living their lives.

Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada are other nations that we share many common values with, and they are also recovering from covid-19. 

Their stories give me hope.  It is taking us a bit longer to get to the “new normal”, but I remain optimistic we will eventually get there too.  It may take longer than many of us would like, but we will get there.

Americans need to be out in the world.  Not only because it is critical for us to learn more about this big, beautiful marble we all live on, but because tourism can be a very positive force in the world. 

The countries I mentioned above have advanced economies similar to ours.  European countries, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will all feel the bite this summer without American tourists visiting them.  However, they are rich countries, like ours, and they will be able to weather the storm. 

Much of the rest of the world will not be as fortunate.  Tourists from the United States and other advanced economies are critical to the economic well-being of so many middle and developing economies. 

Globally, one of every ten jobs are part of the tourism industry.  One in five new jobs is in the tourism sector.  In the most vulnerable countries, it is more like one in two jobs.

Think about your last cruise vacation.  Perhaps you were on a river ship in Western Europe.  There is no doubt that France and Germany will miss your tourist dollars this year.  Now think about the nationalities of the crew on board your ship, and remember that because Americans are not cruising, all those people from Eastern Europe and Asia are not able to send money home to their families.

That is the impact that tourism has on the world.

We have plenty of challenges ahead, and the borders to other countries will only be open to us once we demonstrate that we are not adding risk to their populations. 

Once that opportunity is made available to me, I’ll be ready.  It is taking longer than I want, and I have the same frustration everyone else does with the current situation.

But I am hopeful and optimistic we will be there sooner than we might think.

While it would be easy to attach a memory of divisive debates over face masks to this year’s Independence Day, I prefer to attach my memory of this July 4^th to the anticipation of returning to the freedom to which I have become accustomed – to be able to travel all over this big beautiful planet.

Independence Day is supposed to be a celebration of freedom, and this seems even more appropriate to me this year.

Happy 4^th of July – I hope you are able to spend this time with those most important to you.

Have something to say about this?

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If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

As the cruise industry recovers from the pandemic, many cruise lines are offering extraordinary deals. 

However, it can be difficult to separate the marketing ‘noise’ from offers that are truly great value.

When everyone is shouting, how do you know who you should listen to?

I’ve got you covered.  I am constantly scanning and absorbing all the offers currently in the marketplace (and they change almost daily).  I won’t bother mentioning the ‘ordinary’ sales to you.  But when I see an offer that’s so exceptional it stands out above the others, I’ll be sure to bring it to your attention.

Next week starting on July 1^st, you will see Hurtigruten advertising a one-week “Flash Sale”, promising fare reductions of up to 50%.  I’m always skeptical of such offers, but this one is the real thing.  They have a number of sailings that actually are 50% off, and as such represent solid value if you’re in the market for an expedition cruise.

Hurtigruten sails mostly in the polar regions, and the pricing that caught my eye were the cruises to Antarctica.  If ‘The Last Continent’ is on your bucket list, you’ll want to take a close look at these cruises. 

Here are a few examples.  All three of these cruises visit Antarctica, Patagonia (Chilean Fjords), and the Falkland Islands:

• November 4, 2020 for 16 nights – $7782 per person
• February 28, 2021 for 18 nights – $8642 per person
• March 17, 2021 for 17 nights – $7552 per person

If you just want a “quick” trip to the last continent, without any port stops in South America, there is also a shorter 10-night itinerary:

• November 7, 2020 for 10 nights — $6270 per person

All of these sailings include between 5 and 9 days in Antarctica, with scheduled daily landings and zodiac trips included in your fare.  You’ll travel on either the Roald Amundsen or its identical sister ship the Fridtjof Nansen.  Both these ships are brand new and are the world’s first hybrid powered cruise ships.  Imagine sailing in the pristine waters of Antarctica without the dull roar of diesel engines!

Bob and I were lucky enough to be on the North American inaugural voyage of the Roald Amundsen last October.  Here’s a a short video of our time on that ship:

A few months before that, I sailed to Antarctica on one of Hurtigruten’s older ships.  Bob is still cranky he didn’t get to go on that trip, but he did help me put together a video of my Antarctica experience.  It gives you an idea of what the daily routine is like on an Antarctic cruise, and some of the images are stunning (see below):

If you’re still in the “dreaming” phase for your next cruise vacation, perhaps these videos will tide you over until you’re ready. 

If you’d consider Antarctica for this coming season, then I don’t think you’ll see prices any better than what I listed above.

If Antarctica is not really your speed (nothing wrong with that!) then here is a bit of an update on two other deals we’ve talked about recently:

Crystal 2021 European River Sailings for $3699.  The list of departure dates has been expanded to include some later in the year, which will be of interest if you want to do a Christmas Markets cruise.  If you missed our original post on this, here it is: Best Value on 2021 River Cruises

Fall 2020 Caribbean cruises on Crystal Ocean.  Originally there were only 6 cruise dates included on this deal, but now all the cruises on the Crystal Serenity between October 1, and the middle of December are available for prices starting at $1399.  The price is lowest in October and gets higher later in the year. All the prices are 50% or lower compared to what we’d normally expect.  Here the link to that original post if you missed it: Unheard-of Opportunity for the Caribbean

We are so excited for those of you who have already taken advantage of these Crystal deals! 

Keep your eyes open for Hurtigruten’s Flash Sale starting on July 1^st.  You don’t have to wait though, so if you’re interested in visiting Antarctica this season, get in touch right away so you’ll be first in line when bookings open up at 50% off.

Have something to say about this?

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2725179011097929

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley