There was a glimmer of hope for those hoping to cruise this year as Carnival Cruise Line has today advised guests and travel agents of their plan to resume cruises in North America this summer, starting on 1st August 2020 with a total of eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston. For the rest of their fleet, operation suspension will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets until 31st August, when it will be re-evaluated.
At a glance:
All North American cruises from 27th June until 31st July will be cancelled.
From the 1st August Carnival plans to resume cruises on the following ships:
Galveston: Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Vista
Miami: Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sensation
Port Canaveral: Carnival Breeze and Carnival Elation.
All other North American and Australian homeport cruises will be cancelled for the month of August.
All Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle will be cancelled, as well as the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on 25 th September and the Honolulu-Brisbane transpacific cruise on 6th October.
All Carnival Splendor cruises in Australia from 19th June to 31st August will be cancelled.
Impacted guests and their travel advisors are being notified by email, including options for a combined future cruise credit (FCC) and onboard credit (OBC) package, or a full refund. Booked guests can make their selection online, alleviating the need to contact Carnival’s customer service center, which is still operating in a work-from-home status due to locally-imposed office closures in South Florida.
Carnival says: “We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation. We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests.
We will use this additional time to continue to engage experts, government officials and stakeholders on additional protocols and procedures to protect the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we serve. We appreciate the understanding and support of our guests and travel agent partners and look forward to welcoming them on board as the environment for travel and tourism improves.”
