Looks like this pandemic is never going to end? I was informed a few weeks ago that of course my planned trip to depart next week on a cruise from Barcelona, Spain to San Juan, Puerto Rico has been canceled. Not only that, but my cruise at the end of January 2021 from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Antarctica was on the chopping block as well! So here I go again dealing with hotels and airlines with cancellations, refunds, and/or future credits. What a hassle!
I have been getting smarter and no longer book anything that does not offer refunds or credits….no more taking advantage of discounts by booking nonrefundable hotels and airfares. It is just not worth it! Luckily every airline has implemented coronavirus flexibilities and credits, but you are still restricted by dates of booking and dates of usage for most airlines. So in other words these future credits expire! So far I have been able to shift things around and make use of those credits, but how much longer can I put them off? https://travelingfrommexico.com/places-planned-booked/
NCL had an excellent sale last month for their Latitudes frequent cruisers members and I was able to rebook most of my cruises for 2021 and 2022. But of course my “hot deals” that I had before are still not as good as these new cruise fares even with the discounts during that sale. I have updated my future plans page, so you can see what I am up to for these coming years.
However, I am still sitting on pins and needles worried about an April 2021 cruise from NYC, New York to Southampton, England. But after these recent vaccine announcements by Pfizer and Moderna, maybe we are getting around the corner? I SURE HOPE SO! But sure enough this cruise was canceled in February 2021. Now I am getting worried about my June 2021 cruise getting canceled.
It was sure interesting to note that Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s offer for volunteers to do the trial cruises rounded up over 100,000 volunteers including myself. It shows people want to cruise and they want to cruise now. Let us hope that we can all do so in the near future!
Yes, it is all quite a mess.