Carnival Cruise Line reveals next round of cruise restarts
Carnival Cruise Line will bring an additional seven cruise ships into service between November this year and January, 2022. Carnival Cruise Line already has eight ships back in operation, with more restarting in September and October, sailing from the US, and now plans to expand its restart.
Carnival Valor will resume cruising on November 1st from New Orleans, Carnival Legend will restart on November 14th from Baltimore, to be joined by Carnival Pride on September 12th, and Carnival Radiance will resume cruising on November 5th from Long Beach.
The Carnival Radiance cruises are being billed as her maiden voyage as they will mark the first voyages since she was thoroughly refurbished, transforming her from Carnival Victory into Carnival Radiance.
Carnival Pride will also be cruising from Tampa from November 14th, while Carnival Conquest will resume cruises from Miami on October 8th, and Carnival Sensation will restart from Mobile on January 22nd, 2022.
“We are very pleased with the progress of our restart which will grow to 15 ships sailing from seven U.S. homeports by mid-November,” said Christine Duffy, President of Carnival Cruise Line. “We are making slight adjustments to our timeline to take into account supply chain realities and ensure that our destination and shore excursion offerings can meet the strong demand we are seeing from our guests,” she added.
Carnival is also advising guests booked in November and December that it will continue to meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) standard of vaccinated cruises and that guests will need to present proof of both vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test at check-in.
There are a small number of capacity-restricted exemptions granted for children under 12 and other guests who cannot be vaccinated.
Carnival is working to set up mobile pre-cruise rapid testing sites at all of its homeports as a back-up alternative for vaccinated guests who aren’t able to make arrangements (the cruise line has said details are forthcoming).
In addition, guests will continue to be asked to wear masks in most indoor venues of the ship where people congregate. Full details of the cruise line’s COVID-19 safety measures are available on its website.
With the extension of Carnival Sensation’s restart, five ships operating out of U.S. homeports will be moved to 2022: Carnival Liberty (Port Canaveral), Carnival Sunshine (Charleston), Carnival Paradise (Tampa); Carnival Ecstasy (Jacksonville) and Carnival Sensation (Mobile). Separate from its U.S. operations, Carnival has cancelled four additional sailings for both Carnival Spirit and Carnival Splendor out of Australia. Cruises on both ships are now cancelled up to and including December 16th, 2021, with the two vessels having recently spent some of their time in lay-up in Dubai at Carnival’s new Dubai Harbour Cruise Terminal.
