South Florida Sun Sentinel
May 12, 2021 12:43 PM
PortMiami Director Juan Kuryla, at the podium, speaks in early April alongside port workers and elected officials asking for the federal government to allow the return of cruising, In the background is Carnival Cruise Line’s Horizon ship. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)
Carnival Cruise Line says it will attempt to gradually restart sailings from PortMiami and Galveston, Texas, in early to mid-July.
From Miami, the first sailing is scheduled to be July 4 aboard the Carnival Horizon, the company announced this week.
From Galveston, it plans to start cruises July 3 aboard the Carnival Vista, and on July 15, aboard the Carnival Breeze.
“We continue to have constructive discussions with the CDC but still have many questions that remain unanswered,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in a statement. “We are working diligently to resume sailing in the U.S. and meet the CDC guidelines.”
In an email to employees posted last week on Cruise Hive’s website, Duffy urged all Carnival employees to get vaccinated as soon as possible but acknowledged some live in places where vaccinations are rolling out slowly. Carnival will provide opportunities for those employees to be vaccinated, she said, just as it arranged to vaccinate crew members aboard Breeze and Vista.
The line said it will cancel scheduled sailings on all other ships through July 30. Passengers whose cruises have been canceled are eligible for full refunds or future cruise credits and onboard credits.
The company is exploring ways to resume sailings to Alaska, where ships have been barred from sailing because of a cruise ban by Canada.
Last week, the company declined to discuss its itineraries after the South Florida Sun Sentinel asked about a number of scheduled July voyages that vanished from the company’s website.
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