9 Key Things to Know Before Booking Your First Cruise After COVID

After the last year, who isn’t thinking about a vacation? And while cruises were certainly one of the hardest-hit areas in all of the travel industry, there are hints of optimism as the world looks to combat the health crisis and get back to sailing.

In fact, cruise lines have repeatedly mentioned a promising level of demand for sailing, especially given that there is no exact timeline to returning. There is no doubt that after roughly a year of without sailing, millions of passengers are looking at cruising again and thinking about booking that next trip.

If you’re in this group, you are definitely not alone. But before you book that cruise — or even re-book a cancelled trip — there are a number of important things you should know before you do.

Perhaps the most important thing to know is that at this point no one knows for certain when cruises will return. When cruises were originally suspended back in March 2020, the initial pause was for just 30 days. It’s now been close to a year.

If Your Cruise Is Cancelled, Expect to Be Reimbursed

While the bad news is that more cruise cancellations are possible, the good news is that if you book a trip and it is later cancelled, there isn’t much risk of losing your money. Throughout this entire ordeal, cruise lines have made passengers whole when they’ve had to cancel trips.

While there have been some stories here and there about lengthy refund times, most people are refunded relatively painlessly. We’ve personally had several cruises cancelled and have had no issues receiving credit and our money back.

There is no reason to think that anything will be different in the months ahead if more cruises have to be cancelled. That means you can book without much worry that you’ll lose your money.

In fact, if you choose to get a refund in the form of cruise credit, you could actually end up ahead of what you originally paid.