Wise to book cruises for 2022?

The Telegraph had a Cruise supplement yesterday with dates well into 2023. Can’t see the point at the moment wondering how things will be so far ahead,

Might be as much planning as we can contemplate!

My husband and I love cruising and he keeps informing me of upcoming cruises and I know he would like to go on one again. However, even though I have had my first vaccination and my husband hasn’t, I am not wanting to cruise any time soon.

I always enjoy the planning and imagining. We used to book far in advance so we things to look forward to. Meanwhile I'm enjoying the brochures and websites!

and I understand that totally- my comment about THIS year, holidaying would be self drive and self catered- was about this current context and not a value judgement at all, as some took it unfortunately.

The idea of a massive cruiseship with Covid in the background just does not bear thinking about.
As Visgril says 'floating petri dishes' yuk.

As value judgements go, that one must be a 10 on a scale of 1-10! ???

I'm not thinking of booking anything as yet - I want to see my family near and far before anything but we will wait and see what happens first.

We had 3 cruises cancelled in 2020. For 2 we took refunds the other, cruise credit plus 25% bonus. Rebooked for July 2021 - Norwegian Fjords. I doubt this will happen so will take a refund and book when things are more certain. If cruise prices are high we will take the hit as we have saved on lack of holidays during lock down. I also want the experience to once again include the chance to socialise and self-service buffet dining to be an option.

yes, Calli, the value judgement was on the subject of the OP- eg the timing of booking in relation to Covid.

self-service buffet dining
I'm intrigued as to how this will work on cruises in future. I would think twice now about picking up serving spoons touched by dozens of other people. Will there be waiter service only?

self-service buffet dining

I wondered about the safety of that too Ellianne. I'm not at all sure I'd want to eat from a self service buffet where dozens of other people have breathed all over the food, picked up the same spoons and serving forks and put them back and touched the sides of the tables. I can't see how that can possibly be COVID safe.

That's why I won't cruise in the foreseeable future unfortunately. The experience will not be what we have enjoyed in the past. We know with Covid precautions self service buffets will not be on the menu and and neither will the ability to join tables with others be possible. So no I won' be booking in 2022 yet.

I like cruising but a lot of Americans go on cruises and they really are not coping with the virus so are more likely to spread it. If it was Australians and New Zealanders only I would certainly go but it isn’t going to happen.

We still have a large (for us) deposit with a cruise company. It can be used up to 24 months after our cancelled cruise. That would be up to Spring/early summer 2022. It was to have been a big trip. Our thinking is to just use up the deposit to pay for the majority of a shorter river cruise instead of an ocean one but we're really not sure.

A few are saying the river cruises are safer but I am not so sure. On one of the river cruises we went on, Budapest to Amsterdam, there was a woman with a bad flu coughing and sneezing. We both caught it and so did half the others on board. I have never caught anything on a sea cruise . The ships are so huge which is an advantage if you want to get away from someone !

Wouldn't think of booking a cruise yet.
We had a cruise booked for Jan 21 which was cancelled and two last year which were cancelled.
One cruise was cancelled and we were stranded in the Indian Ocean so don't want a repeat of that.
Only just received all our refunds, what a year trying to get the money back, complete nightmare experience.
I think the cruise ships need to change the air conditioning bringing clean air in from outside before we would consider booking.
This will be expensive for the industry but passengers need to feel they are safe.