Norwegian Cruise Line will resume cruises from Barcelona and Rome in 2021
Norwegian Cruise Line has announced its restarting cruises from Barcelona and Rome in 2021, with Norwegian Epic sailing previously scheduled port-intensive itineraries to the Mediterranean and Greek Isles from September 5th. Norwegian Cruise Line will resume cruises with two homeports, in Barcelona and Rome. While Norwegian Epic will cruise from Barcelona, Norwegian Getaway will cruise from Rome.
Epic will sail seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries from September 5th until October 24th, while Getaway will sail a mix of 10 to 11-day Greek Isles voyages from Rome (Civitavecchia) from Sept. 13th until October 25th. The announcement that Norwegian Cruise Line will resume cruises from Barcelona and Rome comes on top of the cruise line’s announcement of restarts from other cruise destinations.
Norwegian Jade will cruise roundtrip from Greece, Norwegian Joy will homeport in Jamaica and Norwegian Gem will cruise from the Dominican Republic.
Norwegian Cruise Line, like other major North American cruise lines, has focused on putting in place plans to return to cruise service in the Caribbean, selling fly-cruise packages to its US source market.
However, Europe is also a top cruise market for the brand, and is coming back into service much faster than the United States, where the CDC only very recently showed signs of allowing a potential resumption of cruises from US ports for the summer.
“Europe is a top travel destination, so we are very much looking forward to returning to some of our most beloved homeports, resuming those itineraries and welcoming our guests to experience a vacation of a lifetime in the safest possible manner,” said Harry Sommer, President & CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line.
“We are actively working with our local partners and government officials, as we plan for resumption of voyages in the region with Norwegian Epic and Getaway joining Norwegian Jade this summer,” he added.
Sommer said that re-launching Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Getaway will give the cruise line greater flexibility to provide a wider variety of sought-after itineraries.
“While cruising has not yet restarted from Spanish ports, the Port of Barcelona has been closely working and cooperating with the Spanish Ministry of Health and with the Health Department of the local government of Catalonia towards the same objective,” said Mercè Conesa, President of the Port of Barcelona.
Conesa described that objective as the resumption of cruise traffic following the safest protocols for guests, crew and the inhabitants of Barcelona. “We are hopeful that we will soon welcome Norwegian Cruise Line and its guests to Barcelona,” Conesa added. In conjunction with the redeployment announcement for Norwegian Epic and Getaway, Norwegian Cruise Line also canceled all voyages on Norwegian Bliss and Pride of America through July 31st, 2021.
All cruises on Norwegian Getaway through September 2nd, 2021 and Norwegian Dawn, Spirit and Star through September 30th, 2021 have also been cancelled.
Other cancelled itineraries include Norwegian Sun through October 7th, 2021; Norwegian Escape through October 10th, 2021; Norwegian Breakaway through October 17th, 2021; and Norwegian Gem from October 29th through November 17th, 2021.
