This morning, Carnival Cruise Line
announced its plans to slowly "phase in" cruises in certain parts of the
country. While all North
American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled, there will be a
return in offerings come later this year.
Beginning
August 1, Carnival plans to resume cruises in Galveston, Miami, and Port
Canaveral. The ships affected are Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom, Carnival
Horizon, Carnival Magic, Carnival Sensation, Carnival Breeze, and Carnival
Elation.
Other than the aforementioned service from Galveston,
Miami, and Port Canaveral, all other North American and Australian homeport
cruises will be cancelled through August 31. The cruise line offers guests the
option to make their selections online, to alleviate the burden on phone-in
services that are still functioning on a remote-work basis.
Carnival stated in their release today, "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."
The cruise line said that they continue to engage experts,
governing bodies, and stakeholders on the next steps and protocol as they
proceed to transition some of their lines back to service. Carnival, in its
release, expressed a desire to provide a safe, friendly, and healthy travel
experience to its customers.
