Carnival Cruise Line said they will phase in a resumption in their North American service beginning on August 1 with eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston, and pause operations in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31.
A statement from the company said, “Carnival Cruise Line issued the following update to our news release today concerning a further delay of operations for most of our fleet until August 31.
“Some of the media reports have not fully conveyed the contents of our previous media statement and why certain itineraries were not being cancelled. Carnival reiterates that this is our current plan contingent on a number of factors.
“Any resumption of cruise operations – whenever that may be – is fully dependent on our continued efforts in cooperation with federal, state, local and international government officials. In our continued support of public health efforts, any return to service will also include whatever enhanced operational protocols and social gathering guidelines that are in place at the time of the resumption of cruise operations. We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation and will continue to keep our guests, travel agent partners and other stakeholders informed.
“Carnival Cruise Line advised guests and travel agents today of our plan to phase in a resumption in our North American service this summer, beginning on August 1 with a total of eight ships from Miami, Port Canaveral and Galveston. In connection with this plan, our pause in operations will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31.
The key elements of this plan include:
- All North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled.
- Beginning August 1, we plan 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.
- Other than the above referenced service from Galveston, Miami, and Port Canaveral, all other North American and Australian homeport cruises will be cancelled through August 31.
- All Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle will be cancelled, as well as the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on September 25 and the Honolulu-Brisbane transpacific cruise on October 6.
- All Carnival Splendor cruises in Australia from June 19 to August 31 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.
“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.”
