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All in Cruise News
Saga’s 2021 season is scheduled to begin on 27th June when Spirit of Discovery will set off from Tilbury a six day trip Scottish Highlands and Islands Cruise visiting the Shetland Islands and Scotland ports.
All guests will be UK passport holders, in the over 50 age group and must have completed a full vaccination cycle. Pre-departure testing will take place in the London Cruise terminal before boarding, and include a full medical screening.
If you’re booking a cruise for 2021 there are some things that YOU can do that will reduce the chances of it being cancelled… here are our FIVE Top Tips…
Pre Covid we are used to being free to go ashore when and how we wanted when a ship arrived in port. However the new post Covid Cruise Protocols being published by the cruise line and organisations all seem to be suggesting that organised shore excursions may be compulsory if you want to leave the ship.
After eight weeks of uneventful cruising on their Italy/ Malta route for Schengen Zone passenger only, the crew aboard MSC Grandiosa had their first real test of their responses to a positive COVID test today.
On the very day that their season should have begun, Hurtigruten have made the decision to cancel the entire 2020-2021 Antarctic Expedition season for its ships - Fram, Roald Amundsen and Fidtjof Nansen. The hotly anticipated winter season included the once in a lifetime chance to view a southern hemisphere solar eclipse from the South Orkney islands at the beginning of December.
The Singapore Tourism Board has announced that the pilot scheme will begin with itineraries offered by two lines that are based there − Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean - beginning with a short itinerary for Gentings newest ship, World Dream, leaving Singapore on November 6th
As MSC Grandiosa leaves Genoa, on the fourth of its ‘post COVID 19’ itineraries, it really does begin to feel as if MSC may be providing a blueprint that the rest of Cruising can follow. Their enhanced Health and Safety precautions seem to be working and it almost feels normal to see pictures of the ship leaving port and heading off on its Genoa, Civitavecchia, Naples, Palermo, Malta circuit.
Could this be the start of a ‘Slow Cruise’ movement…
In the same way that the extremes of Nouvelle Cuisine led to the founding of the Slow Food movement and restaurants service food celebrating ‘regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life’ I think we may see the beginning of a “slow Cruise’ movement. As the actual process of disembarking a ship and spending a day ashore becomes more difficult, that we will become much more discerning about what we do and where we decide to visit. Maybe we will even learn to wind down, relax, stop rushing around and appreciate our time onboard a little more.
Its reassuring to see that MSC Cruises are definitely taking a zero tolerance approach to rule breaking their first post-Covid Cruise which left Genoa two days ago. Following its first port call to Naples, MSC have denied boarding to a family who left the ‘bubble’ of
So after a disappointing summer, where Cruising seems to have been made the scapegoat for the COVID 19 woes of the entire travel industry, the hopes of Cruising in Europe are now resting on the large independent Italian company MSC Cruises.
