The long-awaited lifting of the US cruise ban has finally arrived, but it comes as a poisoned chalice, fraught with catches. Cruise lines will now have to organize several trial cruises with volunteers to demonstrate the safety of their protocols. In Europe, the anticipated progress has been hampered by the second wave.
All entries related to the pandemic timeline are accessible here.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 55 – December 2020
First part CruisesNews nº52 Second part CruisesNews nº53 Third part CruisesNews nº54
On October 30, 2020, the CDC announced the lifting of the ban on cruise ship sailings from the US, but it did so under such intricate and imprecise conditions that two months later, not only has no shipping company set a date to resume sailing, but most have canceled cruises for the first quarter of 2021.
On the same day that Silversea took delivery of the Silver Moon at the Fincantieri shipyard in Ancona, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced its new framework for cruise ships to resume sailing from U.S. territorial waters. Cruise lines will need to recertify their U.S. sailing permits, which involves a series of steps including:
• Establish an onboard coronavirus testing laboratory
• Organize a series of test cruises with volunteers, designed to demonstrate that the cruise line is capable of mitigating COVID-19 on its cruises. Passengers and crew will be required to undergo coronavirus testing before boarding.
• Certify that the shipping company has cooperation agreements regarding COVID-19 cases with the health authorities of the ports in which it will operate.
Cruise lines received this framework with caution, as, although it represents progress toward resuming operations, it involves a significant investment in trial cruises, negotiations, and bureaucracy, without a clearly defined or guaranteed positive outcome. Thus, most of them have canceled cruises for the first quarter of 2021, as can be seen in the updated restart schedule published in this same issue.
Royal Caribbean took the initiative and launched a website to recruit volunteers for the trial cruises, and the result was overwhelming, as they received some 200,000 applications from all over the world.
On October 30, 2020, the CDC announced the lifting of the ban on cruise ship sailings from the U.S., but it did so under intricate and imprecise conditions.
Despite this apparent progress, three weeks later, the CDC issued an alarming warning, raising cruise travel to Category 4, “very high risk,” and requiring any (American) passenger on a cruise to undergo a coronavirus test between three and five days after disembarking and quarantine for seven days, even with a negative test result. Those who did not take the test were required to quarantine for 14 days. The same warning was issued for international flights; however, prime-time news programs only emphasized the cruise ship warning, even though virtually the entire fleet is idle, and the few ships operating in Europe adhere to a strict protocol that has proven effective, allowing thousands of passengers to travel safely. This erratic behavior by the CDC can only be interpreted as politically motivated.
Most shipping company CEOs agreed that 2021 would be the year of the partial restart of cruises and 2022 the year of the return to normal.
On November 3, Politours filed for voluntary bankruptcy. The historic and respected tour operator, which offered long-haul trips as well as river cruises in Russia and Central Europe, found itself unable to face a 2021 still full of unknowns after a completely lost 2020.
The International Maritime Organization and the World Tourism Organization issued a joint statement on November 5 supporting the safe resumption of cruise operations.
Most cruise lines have cancelled cruises for the first quarter of 2021, some even until May.
On November 8th, a cruise ship finally departed from a Spanish port. It was the Mein Schiff 2, sailing from the Port of Las Palmas, to begin a series of cruises stopping only in the Canary Islands. The passengers were German, arriving on chartered flights, and underwent a COVID-19 test before boarding.
In the middle of the month, Seadream, which had been very enthusiastic about starting operations in the Caribbean, was forced to interrupt its first cruise due to the appearance of coronavirus cases on board, seven passengers and two crew members, and finally suspended its cruises again for the rest of the year.
On November 26, the bankruptcy administrator of Pullmantur announced a cooperation agreement with Royal Caribbean Group to ensure the company's viability. This agreement provides Pullmantur with the necessary funds to develop a viability plan, reorganize the company based on the new circumstances, and offer customers a refund of all payments made or a credit for future Royal Caribbean cruises for 125% of the amount paid. Furthermore, the statement revealed that one of the options being considered by the company is acquiring two Millennium-class ships (from the Celebrity Cruises fleet) to resume operations.
On November 3, Politours filed for voluntary bankruptcy, leaving a large void in the river cruise market.
On December 1 and 2, Cruisesnews held the International Cruise Summit in Madrid, a hybrid event that featured the remote participation of many cruise line CEOs, and most of them agreed that 2021 would be the year of the partial restart of cruises and 2022 the year of the return to normal.
A day later, Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Seas began operating four-day nonstop cruises from Singapore with 50% of its usual passenger capacity. On December 7, the ship was forced to return to port after a passenger tested positive for COVID-19 on board. The passenger, an 83-year-old man, had tested negative in a pre-boarding PCR test. Once disembarked, and with all passengers confined to their cabins, he underwent two PCR tests at the hospital, both of which came back negative. Royal Caribbean canceled the following cruise, but on December 14, operations resumed without further incident, and authorities acknowledged the effective implementation of the cruise line's health protocol.
Pullmantur announced a cooperation agreement with Royal Caribbean Group to ensure the company's viability, which could include the use of two Millennium-class ships.
MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises were forced to suspend their cruises from December 20th to January 6th/10th due to Christmas restrictions imposed by the Italian government. Also in the middle of the month, we learned that Virgin Voyages was canceling the Valiant Lady's inaugural season in the Mediterranean, postponing its debut to November 14th, but in Caribbean waters. Similarly, the Scarlet Lady delayed its planned return to service to May 9th, 2021, as did Cunard.
Ships arriving and ships leaving.
On December 17, we learned that the Empress and Majesty of the Seas were leaving the Royal Caribbean fleet, and a few days later it became known that the Empress's destination was a new cruise company for the Indian market, Cordelia Cruises, whose parent company, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd., had also bought the Jalesh Cruises brand, which went bankrupt during the pandemic.
On November 8th, a cruise ship finally departed from a Spanish port; it was the Mein Schiff 2 from the Port of Las Palmas.
On December 18, Carnival will welcome the Mardi Gras to Meyer Turku, Finland. The ship has a capacity for over 5,200 passengers and 2,000 crew members, and features the first roller coaster at sea. Its hull is a sister ship to the AIDAnova and Costa Smeralda, and like them, it is powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).
On December 22nd, it was the turn of the Costa Firenze, built at the Fincantieri shipyards in Marghera. This 135,300-ton vessel has a capacity for 4,272 passengers in double occupancy and 1,400 crew members. Its hull is a sister ship to the Costa Diadema and Carnival Horizon, and its interior design, which pays homage to Renaissance beauty, is primarily aimed at an Asian market
