DCL Alaska cruises removed

[BartmanLA]

Basically the 2021 Alaskan season is history, with Canada not receiving foreign cruise ships into their ports for the bulk of this year, sailing the Wonder to the West Coast is economically just not feasible, even if they were to move her through the Canal they would have to do it empty as they can't conduct any passenger cruises of more than 7 nights and the PC trips at a minimum with no port stops would be at least 9 or 10 nights from New Orleans (OR Port Canaveral) to San Diego, once in SD they would be at the whim of the CDC to conduct any cruises to the Mexican Riviera (3 or 4 night trip). Above all and BEFORE any of this can happen each of the DCL ships have to qualify for the CDC's Certificate of Conditional Sailing, which includes test cruises, but even before doing any of them they have to go through a 60 day preparation period to get all the ships configured, examined, shore facilities prepared, medical personnel hired and trained before they can even do a test cruise. This puts any ship into potentially May or maybe even June just to get to that point. Granted so much of this could change if the vaccine rolls out globally much sooner than we have been told it would, but at this point, I just don't see any possibility of them being able to do any Alaskan season this year, sadly as it appears to be. Once Canada re open's their ports we might get a better idea when they can resume those cruises.

 

[Roughians_satchel]

Basically the 2021 Alaskan season is history, with Canada not receiving foreign cruise ships into their ports for the bulk of this year, sailing the Wonder to the West Coast is economically just not feasible, even if they were to move her through the Canal they would have to do it empty as they can't conduct any passenger cruises of more than 7 nights and the PC trips at a minimum with no port stops would be at least 9 or 10 nights from New Orleans (OR Port Canaveral) to San Diego, once in SD they would be at the whim of the CDC to conduct any cruises to the Mexican Riviera (3 or 4 night trip). Above all and BEFORE any of this can happen each of the DCL ships have to qualify for the CDC's Certificate of Conditional Sailing, which includes test cruises, but even before doing any of them they have to go through a 60 day preparation period to get all the ships configured, examined, shore facilities prepared, medical personnel hired and trained before they can even do a test cruise. This puts any ship into potentially May or maybe even June just to get to that point. Granted so much of this could change if the vaccine rolls out globally much sooner than we have been told it would, but at this point, I just don't see any possibility of them being able to do any Alaskan season this year, sadly as it appears to be. Once Canada re open's their ports we might get a better idea when they can resume those cruises.

Good points - I didn't think of this but given how California has handled the restrictions, I can't imagine the ports in San Diego are going to open to cruise ships even if the CDC allows them. ALL West coast sailings in 2021 are probably a no go... and I would be hesitant about any spring Mexican ones in 2022.

 

[BartmanLA]

Good points - I didn't think of this but given how California has handled the restrictions, I can't imagine the ports in San Diego are going to open to cruise ships even if the CDC allows them. ALL West coast sailings in 2021 are probably a no go... and I would be hesitant about any spring Mexican ones in 2022.

Agreed, I hadn't included that in my opinion, but it does have merit in the end result, thanks for pointing that out!

 

[otten]

It probably depends a lot on whether they can actually make money not doing this option. Having potentially 4 ships in one area is probably not economical either. They have left the Magic in the Med so its likely they are aiming for Med cruises this year if possible so I guess it would only be 3 but even so unless they can sell cruises on the Wonder from PC then I think they will still be aiming to sail her across. Realistically if they want to reschedule entire season then they would have to do so pretty quickly in order to get the sales otherwise they are paying for a ship to sit idly in the sea which is also uneconomical if they do allow sailings

It is hugely expensive to go through the Panama Canal. All of the spring west coast cruises have already been cancelled, and we can assume that Alaska will soon be as well. That leaves a relatively small number of fall west coast cruises and it’s really not worth the Panama Canal toll for that.

There is also the fact that the Florida government is much more keen to reopen than California. The federal government has jurisdiction over cruises but California’s much slower reopening isn’t likely to inspire Disney to risk having a ship based there right now.

 

[AquaDame]

It’s not like they can go driving around in the woods anymore.

Driving around in the woods is one of the last things we CAN do up here in the pacnw...! I know a few people wintering up in the mountains around LA... thankfully not ALL of them burned.

 

[gismo1554]

It is hugely expensive to go through the Panama Canal. All of the spring west coast cruises have already been cancelled, and we can assume that Alaska will soon be as well. That leaves a relatively small number of fall west coast cruises and it’s really not worth the Panama Canal toll for that.

There is also the fact that the Florida government is much more keen to reopen than California. The federal government has jurisdiction over cruises but California’s much slower reopening isn’t likely to inspire Disney to risk having a ship based there right now.

Although I completely agree it is also expensive for them to cancel those remaining cruises as well as the fact having 3 ships from 1 port may not be viable in any way so they will be loosing money from one of them. For DCL it may be better to spend money and cross the canal if they know they can get money out of it longer term. I don't believe they have written off the season completely or they would just cancel the 12 west coast cruises at the same time as Alaska as they wouldn't make much of a difference to the call numbers trying to sort out cancellations. Its weighing up the extra expense verses what they would do instead and if they don't feel they can use the ship in Florida along with the two they already have there then I feel they would still use this option. A lot though will depend on California opening up

 

[leannak]

What is the latest on 2021 Alaska cruises? Have they been officially canceled yet?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

What is the latest on 2021 Alaska cruises? Have they been officially canceled yet?

No, but it seems likely DCL was trying to get through release booking before dealing with cancel phone traffic.

 

[travelmomof3]

The big concern a lot of Holland America passengers are expressing today is that their Future Cruise Credit expires. It has been and will continue to be extended, but only as long as they aren't operating cruises. Many of those folks are concerned that once the cruise lines start operating, with new restrictions like those shared by Carnival yesterday, passengers with Future Cruise Credit will have to decide between cruising under those restrictions (many of which they don't like) or losing their money. I wonder if DCL will handle it differently, but I doubt it.

We have credit with HA from our cruise that was supposed to sail last year for spring break. It took 4 mos to get a portion refunded and they still have a good amnt of our $ tied up in credit. They were not good to work with last year so part of me doesn't want to sail with them anyway but that credit is also burning a hole in my virtual pocket...