Just Cruises Plus

Why aren’t cruise lines offering deals? The simple answer is that many 2022 cruises are close to sold out and the cruise lines don’t have to offer “deals”. The reason is twofold. First, cruise lines stopped sailing in March of 2020. After more than a year without a vacation, there is huge pent-up demand.

Second, when sailings were cancelled, many cruise lines offered generous perks to passengers who maintained their booking. For example, if you had a cruise booked that cost $1000, some cruise lines offered a voucher worth $1250 that could be used on any cruise before September 2022. This is why space is scarce in 2022 — especially the summer of 2022.

If you want to cruise in 2022, we urge you to book now, especially if you are looking for:

– Summer Sailings
– Alaska
– Hawaii
– Europe – limited space on some itineraries
– Sailings from New York, Bayonne (Cape Liberty) and Baltimore
– Cabins that can accommodate 3 or more
– Cabins that are adjacent/connecting or if a particular location on a ship is important to you

Give us a call or send us an email with the itineraries and dates you are interested in and we will help you navigate availability!

Breaking News! The CDC is giving clearance to the cruise lines to begin sailing from US ports beginning in mid-July! While we await the specifics, come learn with us at a virtual event with Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity will host the virtual event on Tuesday, May 4th, 4-5 PM ET. This event will focus on post Covid19 sailings. The event is for selected travel agencies and their clients. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions of the Celebrity staff, so we encourage you to attend. Join us and learn with us as Celebrity shares its future.

Registration is by invitation only. Celebrity has reached out to us and we in turn are reaching out to our clients.

NOTE:
– When you register, please list Just Cruises Plus as your travel agency.
– You may leave the captain’s club number blank during the registration.

Click for More Information and Registration

– Photo credit to The Daily Beast

The Max8 has been cleared by the FAA to resume flying following two crashes that killed 346 people. Is the Max 8 a safe airplane and would I fly on one?

Boeing was a storied aeronautics company which built the most advanced, safest planes in the world, until the “bean-counters” took control of the company from the engineers. Great engineering was sacrificed for the bottom line. The result was the Max 8, an obsolete plane that needs computer software to fly safely. As 346 people found out, the software did not always work. This plane was the result of the “bean-counters’” quick fix which enabled Boeing to compete with Airbus on the cheap.

Concluding an 18-month probe in September of this year, the final House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s 245-page report found that “Boeing failed in its design and development of the MAX, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft.”

I will not fly on a Max 8 because I believe that, although the software fix has been extensively tested and probably works very well, the “bean-counters” are still in charge and the company remains ethically challenged and I prefer to give my business to ethical companies.

Despite great news from pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, it will be many months before a significant portion of the population is vaccinated.  Meanwhile, masks are still the best defense against Covid-19.

If you intend to cruise in the next 18 months, we urge you to book your cruise before November 30^th.  If you book a cruise before  November 30^th, most of the major cruise lines are allowing you to cancel that booking at the last minute and receive full cruise credits.  This is in addition to the current policies in place.  Each cruise line has slightly different rules so you should call us so we can go over the rules with you.

Booking by November 30^th allows you to take advantage of these “cancel for any reason” options.

US Map

We have hand-picked the following cruises that sail from US ports and have interesting itineraries that appeal to us.

Cruises From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

1/9/22 Celebrity Equinox, 12-night S. Caribbean

Ports of Call:  St. Croix, USVI; Basseterre, St. Kitts; Roseau, Domenica; St. George, Grenada; Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia and St Johns, Antigua

2/14/22  Vision of the Seas, 11-night S. Caribbean

Ports of Call: Puerto Limo, Costa Rica; Colon, Panama;  Cartagena, Columbia; an overnight in Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstad, Curacao

Cruises from Cape Liberty, New Jersey

5/15/21 Celebrity Summit, 10-night Bermuda, Newport and Charleston

Ports of Call:  Newport, RI; overnight in Charleston, SC; 2 overnights in King’s Wharf, Bermuda

6/4/21, Celebrity Summit, 9-night Bermuda and Charleston

Ports of Call:  Charleston, SC; 2 overnights in King’s Wharf, Bermuda

7/11/21  Celebrity Summit, 7-night Newport/Bermuda

Ports of Call:  Newport, RI; 2 overnights in King’s Wharf, Bermuda

1/31/22  Anthem of the Seas, 11-night S Caribbean

Ports of Call:  San Juan, PR;  Philipsburg, St. Maarten;  St. Johns, Antigua;  Castries, St. Lucia;  Basseterre, St. Kitts

Cruises from Honolulu, Hawaii

8/14/21 and 1/22/22 Pride of America,  7-night Hawaiian Islands

Ports of Call:  Sail round trip from Honolulu, 2 days in Maui, 2 days on the Big Island (Hilo one day, Kona the next), 2 days in Kauai and an afternoon cruise along the spectacular Napali Coast

Cruisetours in Alaska

8/9/21  11-night Southbound Cruise-tour

Land Portion:  Anchorage, Denali, Talkeetna and Alyeska

Ports of Call:  Seward, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, Inside passage, Vancouver

Land Packages Within the United States

For those who prefer to travel within the United States in 2021 and 2022, land tours and packages have been a hot request.  Think Tauck Tours, Globus, Insight, Disney and Collette.  Some tour operators offer small group or private travel options, for example, if you would prefer to travel exclusively with family and friends.   Let us know what you have in mind and we’ll find options for you!

For more information or any requests, please call us at (215)364-3310 or email us at info@justcruisesplus.com.

Porto, Portugal

Considering a cruising to Alaska, Bermuda, Europe or Canada/New England next year?  Celebrity is offering incentives to book now.  In addition to the usual number of perks, you will receive another $300 per stateroom shipboard credit.

This promotion applies to most 6-night and longer sailings between May and November of 2021 and for the itineraries listed above.

Call us at (215)364-3310 or email us (info@justcruisesplus.com)  with the itinerary and date range you are interested in and we will check for you!

If you’ve already sailed with Azamara Cruises or if you’d like an introduction to a cruiseline with  smaller ships and more time in port, we invite you to register for Azamara’s Virtual Evening.

Immediately following the event, for a small window of time, we are offering an exclusive bonus that can be applied to most sailings.  Book between 8/28 and 9/4 and you will receive:

– 50% Deposit

– Shipboard Credit ranging from $250 to $1000 per stateroom (depending on stateroom type)

Remember to register for the event!

Bergen, Norway

Viking continues to offer the Traveling Virtually with Viking series which we are posting here for your enjoyment and enrichment.  These are mostly destination-focused webinars that represent a mixture of River, Ocean and Culinary Experiences.  This week, enjoy experiences ranging from an exclusive culinary journey in France to a “tale of two cities” in Budapest; from a Rhine river cruise to an Ocean Cruise in the Fjords of Norway.  To sign up for an event, simply click on the name of the event.  This week, we translated times into Eastern Time.  When you click on any of the links, Viking expresses in Pacific Time.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

12:00 PM ET – Tour Scenic Fjords, Towns & Cities on Viking Homelands

3:00 PM ET – Travel to Switzerland, Virtually

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

12:00 PM ET – Learn about A Tale of Two Cities in Budapest

3:00 PM ET – Exclusive Culinary Journey – Culinary Delights of France

Thursday, August 27, 2020

12:00 PM ET – Sail to Lands Rich in Tradition with Passage to E. Europe

3:00 PM ET – Explore Castles & Cathedrals on Rhine Getaway

Friday, August 28, 2020

12:00 PM ET – Travel to Vienna, Virtually

3:00 PM ET – Sail the Colorful Caribbean with West Indies Explorer

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel

When will it be safe to cruise?  To answer this question, the Royal Caribbean Group (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara and Silversea) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas and Oceania) have jointly formed a panel of public health, infectious disease, biosecurity, hospitality and maritime experts.  The panel is co-chaired by Dr. Scott Gottlieb (former FDA Commissioner) and Mike Leavitt (former Secretary of Health and Human Services).  You’ve probably seen Dr. Gottlieb interviewed on TV regarding Covid 19.  The group is called “Healthy Sail Panel”.

The job of the panel is to come up with procedures, guidelines and recommendations for the cruise lines to use to keep their passengers and crew as safe as possible.  The group is expected to come up with recommendations by August 30^th.  We’ll let you know as soon as they make their report.

Royal Caribbean has come up with a new and novel method to meet Safety at Sea requirements while keeping passengers safe from crowds.  The following (from their website) describes this innovative procedure.

“Royal Caribbean Group is replacing one of the least-loved but most important parts of a cruise vacation — the safety drill — with Muster 2.0™, an entirely new approach to delivering safety information to guests. The innovative program, the first of its kind, reimagines a process originally designed for large groups of people into a faster, more personal approach that encourages higher levels of safety.

With Muster 2.0, the key elements of the safety drill — including reviewing what to expect and where to go in case of an emergency, and instructions on how to properly use a life jacket — will be accessible to guests on an individual basis instead of a group approach that has been followed historically. New technology, eMuster^TM, will be used to help provide the information to guests via their mobile devices and interactive stateroom TVs. Travelers will be able to review the information at their own time prior to setting sail, eliminating the need for the traditional large group assemblies. The new approach also enables everyone on board to maintain better spacing as guests move about the ship, and it allows guests to enjoy more of their vacation with no interruption.

After reviewing safety information individually, guests will complete the drill by visiting their assigned assembly station, where a crew member will verify that all steps have been completed and answer questions. Each of the steps will need to be completed prior to the ship’s departure, as required by international maritime law.”

Of course, these procedures will be available to all companies that fall under the Royal Caribbean Brand:  Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and Silversea.

Thank you, Royal Caribbean!