Tag Archives: Germany cruise

German Cruise Line AIDA Delays Service Resumption, Pending More Approvals

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German Cruise Line AIDA Delays Service Resumption, Pending More Approvals
AIDA Perla
he German cruise line AIDA cancelled its planned resumption of service this weekend over an approval technicality.
The line, which is owned by Carnival Corporation & plc., has implemented new health and testing protocols that had caught 10 crew members who were positive for COVID-19 after they boarded two AIDA ships but before any passengers came aboard.
The hold-up for AIDAperla and AIDAmar, leaving on short cruises August 5 and August 12, though, came because the country of Italy, where the ships are flagged, had not given approval for the ships to sail, the company said in a release.
“Contrary to our expectations, the final formal approval for the start of the short trips from August 5, 2020, by our flag state Italy is still pending,” the release said. “We assume that we will receive the last formal approval by the flag state Italy in a timely manner.”

While COVID-19 is not cited in the release, the spectre of coronavirus hangs over international ships coming back into service, after virus outbreaks among passengers and crew occurred last weekend

 in two separate corners of the world.

In Norway, Hurtigruten faces an investigation after 36 crew and five guests have tested positive for COVID-19. And in French Polynesia, passengers on Paul Gauguin are quarantined on the ship and getting tested, after the ship’s doctor found a positive result with a guest. Both lines had resumed sailing with reduced capacity and improved health and safety requirements; Paul Gauguin and French Polynesia both require passengers to present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding or entering the country.

Norway Says No To Cruises After Hurtigruten Coronavirus Outbreak

AIDA, too, has implemented strict health and safety guidelines for its resumption. Those guidelines, in fact, had detected the COVID-19 cases among the crew before sailing resumed and passengers could be exposed.
No cases had been detected among crew coming on board AIDAperla, which was the first ship in the fleet to have a scheduled cruise. The incidents had been reported on AIDAmar and AIDAblu on July 22, well before those ships were slated to cruise on August 12 and August 16, respectively.
Current policies call for all crew members to be tested for COVID-19 in their home countries before flying to Rostock, Germany, and getting on board the ship. The crew members then take a second coronavirus test while they are secluded on the ship.
Once the 10 infected crew members were detected, they were taken off the two ships and the remaining crew members were contained to the ship in isolation and underwent a third round of tests, the line said.

Untapped German demand is still very high, survey finds

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AidaPrima in Hamburg. Photo credit James Jones

Many Germans want to go on a cruise holiday even though relatively few have actually been on an ocean trip so far, according to a new survey by GfK.

Plenty of pent-up demand in Germany for Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines, researchers say
Photo: RCL/Michel Verdure
Cruises are not only one of the fastest-growing holiday segments in Germany but also have the greatest potential, a recent study by market researchers GfK found. Only 7% of German tourists have taken a vacation on a ship over the past five years. Yet as many as one in four finds this way of travelling personally very attractive.

This gap between high attractiveness and an actual lack of travel experience is bigger than with any other kind of holiday, according to GfK. This means that more than two-thirds of those who find cruises very attractive were not yet on a cruise ship.

Almost 2.4 million ocean cruises were undertaken by Germans in 2016. It was the first sea voyage for a good third of the passengers while 63% had booked a cruise again. Both these factors support continued growth for this holiday segment, as the level of attractiveness for cruises more than doubles once tourists have actually been on a cruise holiday.

“Cruise operators are managing to win a high proportion of first-time customers,” commented Dörte Nordbeck, Head of Travel & Logistics Germany at GfK. “It is very likely that many of them would like to repeat this special experience.”

Cruises are particularly attractive to those who have already been on an ocean cruise (60%) or a river cruise (41%).

In general, the attractiveness of cruises increases with age. Although every third woman between the ages of 25 and 34 is enthusiastic about a holiday at sea, only 16% of young men are. Only with increasing age do the holiday preferences in favour of a cruise between women and men become more and more similar.

In contrast, river cruises are only an ‘in-trend’ for 24% of Germans and just 18% describe this form of holiday as “very attractive”. Yet even this figure is three times higher than the 6% of Germans who have holidayed on a boat in the past five years.

River cruises are considerably less attractive for younger people, with only 10% of men and 18% of women aged 25-34 describing it as “very attractive”. Respondents aged 65 and over, however, favor river cruises just as much as ocean trips.