| USA TODAY
Cruises: What will they look like during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Cruise Lines International Association, which represents 95% of the cruise industry, has introduced mandatory requirements to be able to sail again.
USA TODAY
Princess Cruises has announced that it will cancel all voyages from US ports until May 14 – more than a year after the industry came to a standstill in mid-March last year.
Princess herself was affected by the pandemic early on: two of his ships, the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, were among the first vessels to quarantine passengers due to coronavirus infections.
Previously, Princess Cruises canceled all itineraries until March 31st. The additional cancellations come because the cruise line is working on redeployments that will comply with the “Framework for Conditional Sailing” announced in October by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The further suspension also applies to European cruises planned before May 15, Princess Cruises spokeswoman Negin Kamali told the USA today.
Carnival Cruise Line also announced an extension of its sailing suspension, canceling the cruises scheduled for March 31 in U.S. waters.
According to a statement issued by spokesman Vance Gulliksen, Carnival also canceled certain local itineraries until the autumn and one international cruise internationally in June.
Although many of the schedule changes are related to pandemic-induced regulations, including travel length restrictions, some are also related to rescheduled dry docking.
The cancellations include:
- All sailings from US ports until March 31st.
- Carnival Freedom’s 10 sailing from Galveston.
- Carnival Miracle’s cruises from San Diego and San Francisco to September 16th.
- Carnival Liberty’s cruises from Port Canaveral from September 17 to October 18.
- Carnival Sunshine’s cruises from Charleston from October 11 to November 13.
- Carnival Spirit’s 15-day cruise from Singapore to Brisbane departs on June 12.
“We are sorry to disappoint our guests as we can see from our booking activity that there is clearly a pent-up demand to sail on Carnival,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in the statement.
Duffy added that the cruise line plans to resume in 2021 with a “phased-in approach”, a strategy that the cruise line’s parent company Carnival Corp. has been referring to regularly since the start of the pandemic.
The cancellations come because the U.S. sees a steady upward trend in COVID-19 cases, reaching 21 million cases Tuesday night, just over four days since 20 million cases were reported, Johns Hopkins data shows. And Georgia became the fifth state to report a case of the more contagious virus strain identified in the United Kingdom, joining Colorado, California, Florida and New York.
Another Carnival Corp. subsidiary, P&O Cruises Australia, also announced cancellations of its New Zealand cruises until April on Wednesday.
“P&O Cruises Australia is expanding its ongoing interruptions in New Zealand after departure before and on 25 April 2021, as the sailing line and the wider industry continue to work with the government and government health on the right time to start sailing again,” the company said. in a statement by Lindy Lamme, spokeswoman, said.
The cruise line plans to return to New Zealand in July 2022 for a 150-day season in the area.
“We know that there are many better days ahead and we remain positive about the resumption of the voyage. While we interrupted operations, P&O Cruises, together with the wider industry, wisely took the time to plan for the return voyage, ”said Sture Myrmell, president of the cruise line, in the statement.
‘I’m ecstatic’: COVID-19 vaccine builds confidence among industry travelers
Contributions: Adrianna Rodriguez and Jessica Flores