Royal Caribbean, Silversea Execs Talk Navigating the Cruise Restart travelagentcentral.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from travelagentcentral.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
North Americans want to cruise, and if their home countries continue to make it difficult to cruise in U.S. and Canadian waters, lines will consider launching elsewhere.
The Crystal Endeavor.
The abrupt cessation of all cruises in March, which has mostly lasted nine months (and counting), presented cruise lines and travel advisors with the herculean task of handling refunds and exchanges for millions of passenger bookings.
Many of the lines had reduced the size of their workforce and call centers, and remaining staff, working from home, were unable to access internal systems efficiently.
Many travel agencies had likewise reduced the size of their staffs who could work on refunds and rebookings. The time to process the deluge of cancellation-related requests lengthened considerably beyond normal. Anger, complaints and bad press followed.