It's been a while since our last blog post. Why? Frankly, the travel world was a bit depressing during COVID. Not things I want to dwell on. But it seems we're entering a period where we can actually talk about travel again. And more importantly, we can actually travel to real places. So let's get back up to speed with river and ocean cruising.
Photo Courtesy AmaWaterways. Magna on the Danube wine cruise
River cruises in Europe will reopen in mid March 2022. Bookings have been strong for 2022 and 2023. AmaWaterways as well as others are offering some good deals on select sailings. But for many 2022 sailings, availability is becoming limited. There's some new itineraries in Europe highlighting Burgundy and Provence, Holland & Belgium as well as on the Seine.
As a reminder, here's all the places you can go via River Cruise: Europe (Belgium and Netherlands, Upper and lower Danube, Rhine, Moselle, France Rhone, France Seine and Bordeaux), Vietnam & Cambodia, Egypt Nile, Sub-Sahara Africa safari and a future destination in Columbia South America (!)
Most are open and are easing mask requirements as COVID numbers subside. There's generally strong demand as people feel cooped up and ready to head to find adventures. Plus not all fleets are fully operational. Crystal Cruises has gone bankrupt, Carnival sold some ships and itineraries continue to be adjusted for COVID reasons and now around the Ukrainian War. For example, Viking cancelled it's Kiev, Black Sea and Bucharest itinerary and Norwegian replaced St. Petersburg Russia with other ports of call. The same is true for all cruise ship operators such as Carnival, Costa, Celebrity, Silversea, Regent, MSC.
Recall that Azamara was sold by Royal Caribbean and is now independently owned and operated. They are finding their own way and it will be interesting to see how they perform. For example, they are offering for the first time a 5 month world cruise. They are also offering a Switzerland Glacier Express train excursion (part of it's AzAmazing Journeys)
For the first time in a long time, we're thinking about traveling in the future. Just yesterday we were thinking about a trip to Scotland with some friends. Planning and looking forward to travel is half the fun - and mentally a great relief. We can't wait to a lot more of it. We'll continue this blog a lot more regularly from here on out.