Crystal Ball: When Will We Sail the High Seas Again?
Day 300, Pandemic
Sunday, Jan. 16, 2021; Dallas
Three hundred days ago today we arrived at home after abandoning our 2020 World Cruise. We had no idea at the time that we would not be back for the 2021 World Cruise. Now I’m wondering about the 2022 World Cruise. But the 2023 World is opening this week for booking!
When we came home in the middle of the 2020 world cruise, no one realized just how catastrophic the pandemic would be. Cruise lines have taken a real hit. Most attempts to restart late last year failed to prevent covid-19 outbreaks. The industry continues to bleed money and slowly is decommissioning ships. Every month or so cruise lines cancel more scheduled cruises.
Covid-19 vaccines should be a game changer. I’m eager to get mine, even knowing that we’ll still need to follow mask and social distancing guidelines. But the vaccine is the first step in the return of cruising.
As much as I miss cruising, I’m waiting until 2022 to sail. I don’t want to be limited to bubble-like small-group ship-organized tours, or dining apart from other cruisers, which are likely to be among the restrictions of early cruises.
First up for me is the 2022 world cruise starting in Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 3. It is planned to follow the itinerary of the canceled 2021 world. Other than for a few days while sailing up the Amazon, it will be a Northern Hemisphere cruise (as opposed to the 2020).
I say planned because we really have no idea which ports will be open to U.S. cruise ships in a year. My sisters and I haven’t booked any tours or made port plans yet. Given all the uncertainty, I’m only giving it even odds that this cruise will actually sail.
One reason for my skepticism is that Holland America this week is opening booking for the 2023 World Cruise, about five months earlier than usual. It’s another great itinerary, and we have already pre-booked it. But why announce it and open booking so early? Is it as an alternative to soften the blow of cancelling the 2022 world? Or perhaps the cruise line just wants to improve its cash flow with early deposits.
Speculation is the new pandemic parlor game on the world cruise threads on Facebook and Cruise Critic. I’m sure the cruise lines also wish for more clarity from their crystal balls, too.
Being a planner and not having a lot else to do, I just signed up for SIX back-to-back cruises on Holland America’s Volendam for the summer of 2022. The mostly two- and three-week cruise segments start in mid June, sailing from Rotterdam to the Polar Ice Cap and Iceland, to the northernmost parts of Norway, through the Baltic to Saint Petersburg, around the British Isles, Belgium and France, and finally to Rome, arriving in mid September.
Friends from recent World and Grand Asia cruises are doing the same, and they have suggested leaving the ship for a few weeks to explore parts of Europe before rejoining the Volendam for the transatlantic return to Florida. It should get us there about six weeks before the 2023 World Cruise begins. If all goes as planned, I may be close to just living on a cruise ship for a year or so. Or it all could fall apart. That’s a long time to be away.
As I wrote in my Christmas card note a month ago, “this pandemic taught me to plan in pencil, not pen.” It’s fun to dream. Who knows when we will cruise again? All I can do for now is continue to stay healthy, get vaccinated, plan and take each day as it comes.
Meanwhile, I’m in Dallas for a few months and don’t anticipate any travel to blog about. So I’ll relive some interesting cruises of days gone by. I’ll start with blogging and sketching about a 2013 cruise from Galveston to Dubai. Watch for the first blog post in the next few days.
Can’t wait for the first messasge!
So happy to hear from you!!! We have missed your posting and your drawings. We are also looking forward to cruising and since we aren’t traveling what better way than to plan for cruises for 2022 and 2023. Oh and Alaska August 2021 – fingers crossed. Our 2022 will be a South Pacific cruise from CA to Sydney, Sydney to Perth (we really want to see that area), Auckland to Seattle. Then in the fall is a RT from NY to Europe, Baltic and British Isles and a RT from NY to Norway to find the Northern Lights. In time to return home for Thanksgiving and Christmas to catch the 2023 World Cruise. We have decided not to do 2022 due to the ports planned. Praying to get the vaccination in the next couple of months.
Barbara, I like your 2022 cruise plans! And after recently re-listening to Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” about his travels around the continent, I’m ready to spend an extended land vacation there someday.
Wishing someone had a crystal ball! You are making some reasonable projections though… We have been totally quarantined and are so glad that we have done all the cruising we have and hope that more will be in the future. hats off to making some bookings. Our heads are not there yet. We shall see.
Loved the line from your Christmas card about planning in pencil instead of pen! I will try to keep that piece of wisdom in mind for more than just vacation planning.
Fantastic! So glad to hear all about your future plans. You have a great attitude towards all the disappointments you experienced last year as a long-time cruiser. I think the Volendam 2022 plans are outstanding, and with a land part and then the TA – over-the-top great!
Good to hear you will be posting about cruises form the past. Looking forward to the first.
Take care and stay safe for cruising in the future!
Patricia
Happy New Year to you!
Thanks for the update! Optimism is key. We bought tickets for Hawaii in august but are getting our first shots tomorrow so may move that up sooner.
Stay safe. We can dream. Thinking of booking a greek islands cruise for next summer.!
As always Jo, I enjoy your thoughtful commentary. It sometimes seems like you are reading my mind.
Take care!
Toya
Good to hear from you again Jo. I’m planning in pencil also, and praying we can do the world cruise in 2022. There’s no time to waste anymore, our lives are passing us by?
Ally, we have a Facebook group for the 2022 World Cruise, and Peter (The Inside Cabin blogger) is hosting biweekly zoom calls for planning purposes. It’s been fun to see people I know on the call and talk about the cruise. Join up if you want. I think someone also put information about it on the Cruise Critic roll call. I’m praying with you that we go!
Can’t wait to hear about your past cruises.
Hey, pencil plans are better than no plans! I’m wishing the best for you and your world cruises, Jo. I am still on the books in ink for a small ship tour (40 ppl) among the Scottish Isles in late August 2021. (This was rescheduled from August 2020.) I dunno. It’s not looking promising, but we’ll see.
Lila, that sounds like a wonderful trip, and assuming that vaccines are available quickly, it may just go. I’ll cross my fingers for you.
In case you get to make the cruise that takes you up the Amazon, you must read River of Doubt by Candice Millard, a true account of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing trip through an uncharted SA river. It will ready you to fear every hanging branch and jungle noise–much more exciting drama than watching out for covid. 🙂
But don’t fear. It’s an amazing River.
Mary, I will add the book to my reading list — it sounds wonderful! I love reading about where I will be travelings and have no excuse with the entire 2021 at home. Thanks! (And how about those Chiefs?!)
Jo, would you blog about how to deal with one’s prescriptions when sailing long cruises? I had such a hard and expensive time just getting 10 extra days of one of my meds. I can’t imagine asking them for six months worth. Thank you.
Cool to dream of future cruises. I just booked one for right after Thanksgiving, so that I could take along friends who wouldn’t afford it.
Darlene, getting meds is a great idea for a blog post. But I can give you my simple answer now. Ask your insurance company about its prescription vacation override policy. Mine have made exceptions for the 90-day limit, and usually my pharmacist gets it. But sometimes I have to call the insurance first. I offer to provide proof I will be out of the country, as you cannot use US prescriptions in other countries to my knowledge. I don’t have to pay any extra for the meds; just what I would have paid otherwise.