As Holland America Line continues to prepare and develop its plans to meet the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the company announced on Wednesday afternoon it is extending its pause of cruise operations for all departures through April 30, 2021.
This includes Alaska, Mexican Riviera, Pacific Coast, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Canada/New England departures.
The line also will cancel all Alaska cruises through mid-May, Alaska departures on three ships through early June, any Land+Sea Journeys connected with cancelled Alaska sailings, Mediterranean cruises through early June and Zaandam’s Canada/New England itineraries through August.
Cruises impacted by this pause in operation are:
All cruise departures through April 30, 2021.
Alaska: Eurodam and Oosterdam through the first week of June (roundtrip from Seattle); Koningsdam through mid-May (roundtrip from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada); Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam through mid-May (roundtrip Vancouver and between Vancouver and Whittier, Alaska); and Zuiderdam through early June (roundtrip from Vancouver).
Mediterranean: Volendam cruises through early June (between Venice and Civitavecchia [Rome], Italy); Westerdam through early June (roundtrip from Venice or between Venice and Piraeus [Athens], Greece).
Canada/New England: Zaandam cruises through August (between Boston, Massachusetts, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
Guests and their travel agents are being notified of the cancellations and options for Future Cruise Credits (FCC) and rebooking.
Despite having operated for centuries, the Port of Charleston got into the “cruise game” only a decade ago. Since then, it created an effective and efficient area for cruise calls and built a good working relationship with Carnival Cruise Line.
“We currently have homeports for Carnival Cruise Line. We’re very happy with them. We feel as if they’re very happy with us, we hope to continue that relationship,” Jerry R. Matthews, Director, Breakbulk & Roro & Cruise Operations at South Carolina Ports Authority, told Cruise Industry News. “We work well with all the lines, but for right now (they) have been here for the past six years, I believe… We’d like to have a nice, long-term, five to 20-year contract.”
Plans for the Future
As well as doing everything it can to resume operations in 2021, the port is also preparing to build a proper cruising facility in the next three to five years.
“I think we have a really solid potential to offer more sailings, more short distance sailings to these destinations for the lines. Moving forward, hopefully, again, with building a new facility, being able to hand properly maybe a slightly larger vessel… I think that’s probably the place where we can zone in more, just trying to take advantage of the great location and great weather where we are,” Matthews said.
Another thing the Port of Charleston is looking into improving is security systems at the port – such as facial recognition.
“Things like that that might be [done] with the help of CBP,” he said.
Matthews said that the port’s team has already worked hard to make the site a safe environment once cruise sailings resume and passengers come through. This includes things like more frequent disinfection and cleaning.
“We went through and identified social distancing identifications, markers, signs, stickers, postings, all that we could – we’ve opened more things to have outside as we can. We added more hand sanitizing stations. We have plenty of masks, gloves on hand,” Matthews said adding that part of the process was sitting down with all the employees and vendors to explain the new procedures.
The Port of Charleston also communicated with cruise lines to get a good understanding of their work calendar.
“We got with the cruise lines, and we asked them, ‘what are your plans internally on the vessel to make sure when passengers are embarking or debarking, we have enough space between them, are there any changes we should make?’,” Matthews explained.
“We spent a lot of time making sure that from the time they arrive at the terminal to the time they get on the vessel, it is as safe and productive as it can be for the passenger,” he added.
‘One Family’
Matthews said that he hopes that the entire industry recovers soon after the “unfortunately long pause.”
“We’re kind of like a family: we want everyone to take it back, to go on, and wish nothing but the best for everybody. There’s no competition or competitiveness there – if one of us succeeds, all of us succeed,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of starting very slow to make sure all the safety protocols and safety measures are in place to protect everyone, to be as safe as we can. But hopefully, we’ll find a way to rebound back slowly but surely, and get back to normal within a year or two.”
Cruise lines will need agents “more than ever” as the sector emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic over the next year.
Martin Alcock, director at Travel Trade Consultancy, said that cruise “would take a bit longer to bounce back” from the crisis than other parts of the travel industry.
But he added there was significant growth potential as cruise still represents just a “small portion” of the overall holiday market.
“It’s always been a complicated product to sell and cruise lines will need agents more than ever,” said Alcock during Barclays’ Travel Industry State of the Nation online event. “There will be more commission and more in the way of overrides.”
Alcock said that one of the “upsides” to this year’s crisis was that it had “accelerated” the retirement of older vessels which would reduce worldwide cruise capacity by 8%-10% in 2021. Fleets will also be more efficient and sustainable as they comprise more modern ships.
“The 10% reduction in capacity will help from a price perspective,” he added. “There’s plenty of opportunities to grow.”
Alcock said that while the cruise industry’s core demographic had been “more affected” by the pandemic than other age groups, they were also likely to be “inoculated more quickly than other demographics”.
“Cruise has unfairly had a disproportionate share of bad press but I don’t think it’s terrible news. It’s not a total disaster,” he added.
Alistair Pritchard, travel and aviation lead partner at Deloitte, said the extra complexities created by a combination of Covid and Brexit would lead to more consumers looking to the trade for advice and support.
“They [agents] will need to help support customers across the whole journey – not just when booking,” he added. “They [customers] want advice just before travelling and whilst they are abroad. That’s where the consumer wants to support.”
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