Carnival Corporation Brands Resume Cruising in Europe, Caribbean
Seven cruise line brands from Carnival Corporation & plc have announced plans to resume guest cruise operations this summer, with AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn and P&O Cruises (UK) sailing from global ports in Europe and the Caribbean.
Additionally, as the company continues to work with authorities to resume sailing in the U.S., its Carnival Cruise Line brand has announced possible U.S. restart plans and hopes to begin operating sailings in July on three ships from ports in Miami and Galveston, Texas. The company and several of its brands are also hopeful that cruises will be allowed to sail to Alaska for part of the summer.
Collectively, the brands resuming sailings from global ports over the next several months will be using a gradual, phased-in approach, including limited itineraries that have been announced on 16 initial ships to date, representing nearly 20% of the company's global fleet. The initial cruises will take place with adjusted passenger capacity and enhanced health protocols developed in conjunction with government and health authorities, and informed by guidance from the company's public health, epidemiological and policy experts.
Three Carnival Corporation brands – P&O Cruises (UK), Cunard and Princess Cruises – will each offer a series of cruises this summer sailing around UK coastal waters, including the inaugural sailing for P&O Cruises' new flagship, Iona. Cruises will also resume this summer around the Greek Islands with four of the company's brands – AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line and Seabourn. Additionally, Seabourn has announced plans to restart in the Caribbean with a series of new summer sailings out of Barbados.
The newly announced voyages build on recent cruising restarts from the company's Germany-based AIDA Cruises brand, which resumed in late March sailing in the Canary Islands, and its Italy-based Costa Cruises brand, which restarted in May sailing to Italian ports. In addition to dozens of successful sailings from both brands in 2020, the most recent 2021 sailings from AIDA and Costa have demonstrated the effectiveness of enhanced health protocols developed in conjunction with local, national and global experts, and have generated high guest satisfaction scores, measured by detailed net promotor surveys.
"For all of our brands, our highest responsibility and top priorities are always compliance, environmental protection, and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, our shipboard and shoreside employees, and the communities we visit," said Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation. "We are excited to have the majority of our leading cruise line brands resume sailings this summer, as we are seeing strong pent-up demand from our past guests and consumers in general to get away on a cruise, one of the world's most popular vacations."
Added Frizzell: "The resumption of our cruises marks a critical step in the recovery of our brands and the industry as a whole, which provides a major economic impact and supports jobs across multiple sectors around the world. As our cruise line brands gradually resume cruising, we will continue to work as an industry to share important learnings and best practices to help ensure the resumption of cruise operations is done in the best interest of public health."
In working with global and national health authorities and medical experts, as well as authorities in destination countries, the company's brands have developed a comprehensive set of health and safety protocols for protection and mitigation across the entire cruise experience for its initial cruises. This includes cross-industry learnings and best practices based on the proven health and safety record of industrywide sailings and input from top science and health experts and health authorities.