Posted on 03/19/2021 10:39:03 AM PDT by Capt. Tom
It looks like the comeback of big-ship cruising in North America is, finally, at hand.
Two of the world’s biggest cruise lines, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises, on Friday announced they would resume North America cruises in June with sailings out of the Bahamas and St. Martin, respectively.
Royal Caribbean — the world’s largest cruise line — said it would begin seven-night sailings out of Nassau in the Bahamas on June 12 that will feature calls in the Bahamas and Mexico. The trips will take place on the line’s 3,807-passenger Adventure of the Seas — a ship that originally was scheduled to spend the summer in Europe.
Celebrity, a sister line to Royal Caribbean, said it would begin seven-night sailings out of St. Martin on June 5 that will feature calls at such destinations as Aruba, Curaçao and Barbados. The trips will take place on the line’s 2,218-passenger Celebrity Millennium — a ship that originally was scheduled to spend the summer in Alaska.
In a departure from what is typical for big-ship Bahamas and Caribbean cruises, the sailings will not originate in or involve any stops at U.S. ports. This means they will not require the approval of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They only require the approval of officials in the destinations where the ships will visit, which the lines now have.
The CDC has blocked cruise ships that carry more than 250 people from sailing in U.S. waters since March of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The agency has not yet announced when cruise lines will be able to restart operations in U.S. waters.
The CDC prohibition on cruising in U.S. waters has forced major lines to repeatedly push back their plans for a restart to North American operations over the past year, as the lines typically operate North American sailings out U.S. ports such as Florida’s PortMiami and Port Canaveral. But a top Royal Caribbean official on Friday told TPG the line’s newly announced June restart was not something that was likely to be postponed.
“This is really happening,” Mark Tamis, Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of hotel operations, said in a one-on-one interview in advance of the line’s announcement.
Tamis said the CDC was aware of Royal Caribbean’s plans to restart North America departures out of the Bahamas, but he didn’t say if the agency approved of the move.
Still, Tamis suggested the increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines made now the right time to start returning to operations in North America. He said Royal Caribbean was taking a “measured approach” in its cruising comeback and noted the line had been operating cruises out of Singapore since December without a single incident related to COVID-19.
The cruises out of Singapore, which only are open to local residents of Singapore, have had more than 45,000 passengers on them in all, Tamis said.
“With the game-changer of the vaccines in combination with this measured approach that we’ve taken through protocols, and the learnings we have had from Singapore, we really feel like this is the right time,” he said.
Both Royal Caribbean and Celebrity said adult passengers on the newly announced sailings would need to show proof of a vaccine for COVID-19 to sail. The lines said children under 18 could sail with proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are the first of the cruising world’s big brands to announce a definitive restart date for North America cruising.
Their announcements come just days after Crystal Cruises, a relatively small cruise brand that focuses on luxury sailings, announced it would restart cruising in North America in July with its own first-ever sailings out of Nassau in the Bahamas.
Taken together, the announcements mark a significant milestone in the comeback of cruising worldwide after a year-long halt to nearly all cruises due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A very limited amount of cruising has restarted in parts of Europe and Asia in recent months. But the Bahamas and Caribbean are the world’s most popular cruise destinations, accounting for the highest percentage of cruises taken by all cruisers worldwide.
The new Royal Caribbean sailings out of Nassau will feature a stop at Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas and back-to-back stops at Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s recently revamped private island in the Bahamas. They’ll also include a stop at Cozumel, Mexico.
The trips are scheduled to continue through at least August and will mark Royal Caribbean’s first sailings ever out of Nassau.
Celebrity will offer two different itineraries out of St. Martin. One will feature calls at Aruba, Curaçao and Barbados. The other will bring visits to Tortola, St. Lucia and Barbados.
In a statement accompanying Celebrity’s announcement, Celebrity president and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo praised the government of St. Martin for helping to make the line’s new sailings happen.
“That we will sail from the magical island of St. Maarten is very special,” she said. “I am forever grateful for the support and collaboration of the St. Maarten government.”
The island known as St. Martin is divided between French Saint-Martin and Dutch St. Maarten. Cruise lines operate from the Dutch side, St. Maarten.
Royal Caribbean’s Tamis had similar things to say about the government of the Bahamas.
“We’re just very happy to be able to not only be sailing, providing great vacations to guests who really need a great vacation at this point, but to do it in the Bahamas, which is a place where we have one of our closest partnerships,” Tamis said. “We’ve been able to have very open dialogue with them, [and] they’ve been very cooperative in every phase of discussing the technical aspects of sailing out of Nassau … they’ve been great partners.”
The Royal Caribbean sailings will open for bookings on March 24, and the Celebrity sailings will open for bookings on March 25.
Both lines said they would operate the new sailings with a long list of new health and safety measures designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on board the ship, some of which would be announced at a later date.
Royal Caribbean said that, in addition to a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all adult passengers, it would require that all crew on Adventure of the Seas be vaccinated for COVID-19 before the sailings begin.
Royal Caribbean noted that passengers would have to meet additional requirements being imposed by the government of the Bahamas that might include receiving a negative COVID-19 PCR test result before their arrival in the country, testing upon arrival into the country and filling out appropriate entry forms.
Seems like the Cruise Lines are getting tired of our CDC delays and have to get some income stream going to keep the creditors, and business from further deterioration.-Tom
More Losing!
Problem is airfare to St Martin and it’s regulations. Bahamas, cheap to get to etc.
“More Losing!”
I believe like myself, The Cruise Lines thought a less political naive Pres. Trump would be re-elected, and the problems with cruising would be worked out.
Now like us, the Cruise Lines have to deal with a hostile indifferent political force, and the Cruise Lines have to make radical adjustments to survive.
AS I have said, probably too often, this Cruise shutdown, is like watching a slow motion train wreck. (unfortunately that train wreck example also, IMHO, applies to our country) -Tom
Paris, germany, italy, brazil on lockdown again and 12 states heavily vac’ed in the US surging again. So YEAH life and commerce have to go on again cause nothing seems to stop the FungYouFlu man made in China with maybe the he$p from the US (dems) also:-(
THANKS CDC and all you DEMOCRATS that don't want anyone to have FUN!
I’m not getting on a boat with 3800 passengers and close to 1200 crew members. Almost 5000 folks? No thanks.
“THOUSANDS of JOBS LOST here in Florida!!! THOUSANDS!!
THANKS CDC and all you DEMOCRATS that don’t want anyone to have FUN!”
The Demorat(socialists-communists- American haters) get a bonus out of keeping Florida shut down on Cruising.
Places like Florida’s Port Miami and Port Canaveral, have spent hundreds of millions to modernize Cruise facilities. They also employ thousands of workers in the Cruise industry collaterally, or directly.
Florida Gov. DeSantis is a leading Republican candidate for re-election or to even make a VP or Presidential bid.
So the democrats are not inclined to help out Florida in any way. -Tom
As i’ve said numerous times the leftist a-holes who infest the CDC think cruise ships are nothing but floating playgrounds for rich White people. They would like to see the ships scrapped, hundreds of thousands of US jobs be damned.
And they want to nail DeSantis.
“As i’ve said numerous times the leftist a-holes who infest the CDC think cruise ships are nothing but floating playgrounds for rich White people.”
Then they have never been on a cruise out of Galveston (African-American) or any cruise to Hawaii (Japanese, Chinese other East Asian).
Is it made in China...?
No here in the US its $12...
Hamiltons make all their own items...they have the accounts for most of the heritage societies...DAR, etc
You will also be happy to know they now make a mask holder...I guess thats like a money holder clippy thingy only bigger...
hamiltoninsignia.com
:)
Thanks!
On the one hand, I’m delighted that they make their stuff here.
On the other hand, I will never buy that pin, or carry a dang card.
And I toss my disposable masks after removal so I won’t need a mask holder.
But I’ll check out their website to see what else they have! :-)
I love their Liberty Tree pendant!
Thanks, TN!
The Gov of NJ has just warned his people not to throw away their vax cards...they might need them to travel etc...
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3943616/posts
“The Gov of NJ has just warned his people not to throw away their vax cards...they might need them to travel etc...”
Florida’s Gov DeSantis doesn’t agree. see FR Thread below. -Tom
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/3943624/posts
As I said before, the Cruise lines should invite the leaders of the CDC for a nice cruise in a gorgeous suite.......and tell them how much they HATE DeSantis! :)
Yes you are right the truth is all kinds of people go on cruises.
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