Cruise’s Moving Target: Navigating a Careful Return to the Water

Janet Bava remembers the exact moment in 2020 when a sense of dread crept in.

Bava is the chief marketing officer for AmaWaterways, a river cruise company that operates across Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. She was about to leave for a trip to Toronto, but President and CEO Rudi Schriener asked her to stay close to the office as the executive team monitored the increasing threat of the coronavirus.

Less than a month later, in March 2020, AmaWaterways made the painful decision to pull the plug on operations for its 23 ships in Europe and Asia. It was a split-second decision, made just before the crews were about to board flights to report to their assignments. There was too much that was still unknown to risk sailing. “We didn’t want to be caught up in a logistical challenge,” says Bava, citing particular concerns about the potential hurdles of getting guests back home to the United States and Canada.

As it would turn out, massive logistical challenges like these came to define travel in 2020. Soon, both the U.S. Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would advise Americans to avoid cruise travel altogether. According to one estimate from Cruise Lines International Association, the shutdown was projected to result in a loss of $32 billion, along with more than 250,000 jobs. Hundreds of cruise ships were docked for months. We spoke with executives across the cruise industry to understand the true impact of COVID-19 on cruises — and what long-term changes advisors should anticipate.

Avoiding mass cancellations and other logistical challenges

For Riviera River Cruises, a U.K.-based company that operates a dozen ships in Europe, simply parking ships was not, in fact, so simple. “A ship is not like a car, where you can just turn the key and walk away from it,” explains Marilyn Conroy, executive vice president of sales and marketing in North America for Riviera. “You have to keep the engines running. You have to have a minimal crew on board to keep the emergency lights on.”

Most of AmaWaterways’ ships never left their berths, but many of the supplies — including a large volume of food and wine — had already been procured and therefore redistributed. Other ships were left moored or docked at cargo ports, raising concerns about essential maintenance, bad weather conditions and mounting fees.

During that early scramble, there was optimism that such an enormous disruption would be short-lived. “We were thinking that it would be over in a couple of months,” says Conroy. “So, it’s not like we just canceled everything we were doing for the whole of 2020 at the beginning of the year. It was always like, ‘Hold your breath, it’ll get better.’ It was devastating to see all the work that’d been done, the business relationships you had, to see all your business just canceled.”

The industry faced a potential wave of mass booking cancellations, many forced by government no-sail orders — a problem for cruise lines and their partners. Focus and communication pivoted from acquiring new business to retaining existing business. “We had to say, ‘OK, this is going to pass,’ and try to incentivize guests so we didn’t have to refund them their money,” says Bava. “Because we knew that if we did, the travel advisor community would also be impacted by it.”

MSC Cruises, a global cruise line headquartered in Geneva, focused on protecting commissions on any canceled travel for advisors, as well as providing full commissions on rescheduled cruises that advisors booked. Ken Muskat, EVP and chief operating officer of MSC Cruises USA, says the company also offered enhanced booking flexibility with Total CruiseFlex. It offers guests the ability to move a booked cruise to any ship and any sail date up to 48 hours prior — just the kind of safety net an anxious potential cruiser might need to feel secure finalizing a booking.

By midsummer, MSC was able to bring more than half its fleet back to sea. Many more have also now returned, with the introduction of protocols meant to help slow any spread of coronavirus.

Operating in the new normal

A new normal has dictated virtually all aspects of the travel industry, but cruising faces its own unique challenges: guests and crew from all over the world, living in relatively close quarters and constantly on the move.

“It’s a bit of a moving target because we have to go by the mandates of each particular country,” says Conroy. Crafting itineraries can be complicated, given the continued uncertainty surrounding new coronavirus variants. “We wouldn’t go to Budapest if the museums and the rest of it were locked up,” says Conroy. “It’s not just a question of what we’re doing, but what the countries we’re visiting are doing, as well. You can hit five European countries on one cruise. You have to make sure they’re all on the same status.”

On board, the protocols typically resemble what many have already become accustomed to with restaurant dining: masks on when moving about, only removed when actively eating and drinking (while being served by masked staff). Social distancing requirements remain. Buffets have generally been eliminated, with all tongs and utensils being wielded by staffers rather than guests. Cabins and public spaces are being disinfected regularly. Reservations are replacing open dining on many ships. And proof of vaccination may be required, often in tandem with a negative test — something that advisors should be mindful of when facilitating bookings.

For AmaWaterways, protocols had to be registered with European authorities to accommodate summer voyages. Capacities have been reduced to 75% — that means about 110 passengers on a ship with a capacity for 150. A handful of staterooms have been designated as isolation rooms in the event that guests test positive. “We don’t want to create a situation where there’s spread and then the entire ship is in quarantine,” says Bava. She adds that AmaWaterways also has enhanced onboard ventilation systems — this actually predates the pandemic — to facilitate fresh air circulation.

Preparing for permanent changes

While many guests are eager to shed their masks once it’s safe — and will likely look forward to one day entering a dining room without being confronted by a bottle of hand sanitizer — some protocols might be here to stay. The use of QR codes in place of paper menus has proved popular, as has the push to utilize mobile applications for everything from onboard reservations management to contact tracing.

Conroy says that Riviera presently only permits registered guests on board — something she suspects will remain in place for quite some time. “We used to be very good about letting people come on board,” she says. “You know, ‘I have a cousin who lives in Paris and can he visit me on the ship?’ sort of thing. But now we’re really being extra cautious about who’s on board in order to provide the safest possible environment.”

Safety will obviously be paramount to get guests back on ships. But so much of building and sustaining a business is based on momentum, and it will likely take some time for the cruising industry to recover fully.

Managing through recovery

For Riviera, the universal complications of 2020 were further exacerbated by a very particular situation: The company had launched in the North American market just four years earlier. Riviera faced a rapid loss of hard-won traction in a highly competitive marketplace, where brand loyalties can be extremely durable. “By 2019, we really started to feel good because clients were saying we had a really good product,” says Conroy. “So, we were just getting this moment of breaking through and then boom, 2020 just didn’t happen. The momentum that we had — which was so important to us — we lost it in 2020 and we’ve lost it in the first half of 2021. So now we are literally starting all over again.”

Many cruise lines have confronted some version of “starting over” — particularly when it comes to an assessment of how the COVID-19 crisis might impact plans for the direction they thought they might be heading. For some, new ships have been postponed and itineraries have been scaled back — at least for now.

Bava says that, thanks to AmaWaterways’ strong financial position, it has been able to continue with shipbuilding as planned. The company is presently building one new ship in Egypt, which is nearing completion. Another ship, the AmaSiena, debuted in Italy in July. A third new ship, the AmaLucia, is also scheduled to set sail in 2021. “We just said that the show must go on,” says Bava. “We knew that this would eventually pass.” AmaWaterways has already added additional capacity for its Christmas markets’ sails due to heightened demand. In 2022, the company will add two new ships to its fleet; in 2023, it will launch a 46-night river cruise through Europe — one of the longest river cruises ever.

MSC Cruises is also plowing ahead. Between 2019 and 2023, the company will have added a total of five ships — including the MSC Virtuosa, which debuted in the United Kingdom in May, and the MSC Seashore, which launched this summer. A new MSC Cruises terminal will open in Miami in 2023.

Tracking new traveler preferences

For now, travelers are a bit more cautious — with many booking shorter itineraries that are closer to home, with more intimate activities. River cruise lines see an advantage in their smallness, with some guests preferring to sail with dozens or hundreds, rather than thousands, of other people. Conroy is hoping that Riviera can capitalize on size as a differentiator: “We don’t have a hundred riverboats; we have 12. And we have the ability to really communicate with agents and guests on a one-on-one basis.”

Muskat says that Ocean Cay, a private island in the Bahamas, has been a particularly appealing draw. “Guests can spread out across the island’s 95 acres and 2 miles of white-sand beaches while enjoying a relaxing day, or plenty of ocean discovery activities,” he says. “On many itineraries, guests will arrive at Ocean Cay early in the morning and stay docked until late in the evening, allowing them a full day to enjoy the island. And, in some cases, ships will stay docked overnight.”

In the absence of a crystal ball, cruise lines remain cautiously optimistic about the remainder of 2021 — especially as case counts once again inch up and the delta variant throws a wrench into plans to restart. But they’re wildly positive about 2022, which feels far enough away that even highly cautious cruisers might consider booking for next year to be a safe bet.

“We’re seeing a lot of people who are wanting to travel now, but you also have people who are so weary and they’re booking — and spending a lot of money — for future dates,” says Bava. “We know the future is bright and we’ll all be there, and successful, very, very soon.”

Originally appeared in the fall 2021 issue of The Compass Magazine.