Earlier this week, we talked about how unlike Norovirus, Coronavirus comes from a wider virus group, supporting a correspondingly wide variety of diseases. That’s generally bad news for travelers, resulting in closed destinations, cancelled flights, redeployment of cruise ships and it’s just getting started. To help with the “To Travel Or Not To Travel?” decision, we begin with links to the most current information from a variety of sources.

• Carnival Cruise Line
• Royal Caribbean International
• Celebrity Cruises
• Princess Cruises
• Holland America Line
• Azamara Club Cruises
• Windstar Cruises
• Crystal Cruises
• MSC Cruises
• Norwegian Cruise Line
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• WHO Travel Advice
• United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC)
• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
• CLIA Coronavirus FAQs
• CLIA Public Health and Medical Policy

To Travel Or Not To Travel?

At the end of the day, the choice whether to sail or cancel may be a personal one, subject to each individual’s comfort level with the unknown. We’ll have more information to help each traveler make that decision soon…but right now this situation is developing rapidly. So what to do right now?

1. Nothing- It would be premature to cancel a sailing 30 days or more into the future. We just don’t know enough to make that call today.
2. Know Your Options– If you purchased travel insurance with a “cancel for any reason” option, know the procedure for doing just that.
3. But Wait- Cruise lines are already starting to offer the opportunity to move your sailing forward. Viking Cruises, for example, allows moving a booking forward as late as a day before scheduled embarkation.
4. No Travel Insurance? All Is Not Lost- Cruise line bookings are currently coming in a good 50% lower than normal. Deals will be coming to keep you sailing with your favorite cruise line.
5. Continue To Trust Cruise Lines- One of the biggest selling points for cruises is the mobile nature of their assets. This usually comes into play with there are different dangers on a given itinerary. Cruise lines can and do move ships out of harm’s way and not just when a hurricane is coming.
6. Reality Check- Lisa and I were talking this morning and we agreed: if we were really fearing for our lives, we would not sail even if it meant losing what was paid for a cruise. You do have that option.

Sailing in less than 7 days? You might as well wait and see what happens. Cancelling now will bring a 100% cancelation penalty for many travelers. Also without “cancel for any reason” coverage, your intolerance for a potential health hazard may not be covered. $0 refund. Still, deal-savvy cruise lines are beginning to roll out new options.

Stay tuned, we will update this story with the latest information as the situation develops.

Information About Coronavirus