Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival cancel more cruises into spring

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced Tuesday that it would cancel sailings on all three of its cruise lines until May.

“The suspension now includes all voyages on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises embarking through April 30, 2021,” Norwegian said in a news release. “The Company will continue to work in tandem with global government and public health authorities and its Healthy Sail Panel expert advisors to take all necessary measures to protect its guests, crew and the communities visited.”

Norwegian continues to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention toward a return to cruising.

And it’s not the only cruise company to have canceled cruises into spring.

Royal Caribbean Group cancels cruises

Royal Caribbean Group announced earlier in January that it would cancel more cruises on its cruise lines into the spring, including on subsidiary Azamara, which was sold to a private equity firm, the company announced Tuesday.

The company, which is also parent to flagship Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Silversea Cruises, said the cancellations were necessary as Royal Caribbean Group continues to focus on a safe return to cruising.

“As we work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and government authorities around the world toward this shared goal, we are extending the suspension of certain sailings for our cruise lines,” Royal Caribbean said in an announcement posted to its website.

The schedule changes for each Royal Caribbean Group cruise line are as follows:

Royal Caribbean International

• All sailings canceled through April 30, including Spectrum of the Seas from Feb. 16-28

• Quantum of the Seas, which sails shorter itineraries in Singapore, is excluded from the cancellations

Celebrity Cruises

• All sailings canceled through April 30

• Celebrity Apex’s transatlantic cruise, scheduled to depart on May 1, is also canceled.

• All European and transatlantic cruises on Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Constellation scheduled to sail from May through October are also canceled.

Silversea Cruises

Story continues

Azamara

Royal Caribbean Group added that it continues to work with its Healthy Sail Panel as they plan to welcome passengers back on board.

New cruise ships set to launch in 2021: Celebrity Apex, Odyssey of the Seas

Carnival Corp. cancels more cruises

giant Carnival Corp. canceled more cruises for ships scheduled to sail in both U.S. waters and abroad.

Princess Cruises has announced it will cancel all cruises from U.S. ports through May 14 — more than a year after the industry came to a standstill in the middle of March last year.

Princess itself was impacted by the pandemic early on: two of its ships, the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, were among the first vessels to quarantine passengers because of coronavirus infections.

Late in 2020, Princess Cruises canceled all itineraries through March 31. The additional cancellations come as the cruise line works on restart plans that will satisfy the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Framework For Conditional Sailing” announced in October.

The further suspension also applies to European cruises scheduled prior to May 15, Negin Kamali, spokesperson for Princess Cruises, told USA TODAY.

Holland America Line has also canceled all of its departures through April 30 as it prepares to meet the CDC’s guidelines, according to a statement provided by Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corp. spokesperson.

“The line also will cancel all Alaska cruises through mid-May, Alaska departures on three ships through early June, any Land+Sea Journeys connected with canceled Alaska sailings, Mediterranean cruises through early June and Zaandam’s Canada/New England itineraries through August,” Holland America said in the statement.

Carnival Cruise Line announced an extension to its sailing suspension, canceling cruises scheduled through March 31 in U.S. waters.

Carnival also canceled select domestic itineraries into fall and one international cruise internationally in June, according to a statement provided by spokesperson Vance Gulliksen.

While many of the schedule changes are in relation to pandemic-induced regulations, including voyage-length restrictions, some are also related to rescheduled dry-dock work.

The cancellations include:

• All sailings from U.S. ports through March 31.

• Carnival Freedom’s April 10 sailing from Galveston.

• Carnival Miracle’s sailings from San Diego and San Francisco through Sept. 16.

• Carnival Liberty’s sailings from Port Canaveral from Sept. 17 through Oct. 18.

• Carnival Sunshine’s sailings from Charleston from Oct. 11 through Nov. 13.

• Carnival Spirit’s 15-day voyage from Singapore to Brisbane set to depart June 12.

“We are sorry to disappoint our guests, as we can see from our booking activity that there is clearly a pent-up demand for cruising on Carnival,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in the statement.

Duffy added that the cruise line plans to resume operations in 2021 with a “phased-in approach,” a strategy the cruise line’s parent company, Carnival Corp., has referenced frequently since the onset of the pandemic.

The Carnival Corp. US-based cancellations came as the country continued seeing an upward trend in COVID-19 cases, reaching 21 million cases last week, just over four days after reporting 20 million cases, Johns Hopkins data shows. And Georgia became the fifth state to report a case of the more contagious virus strain first identified in the United Kingdom, joining Colorado, California, Florida and New York.

Another Carnival Corp. subsidiary, P&O Cruises Australia, also announced Wednesday cancellations of its New Zealand cruises into April.

“P&O Cruises Australia is extending its rolling pause in operations in New Zealand to departures on and before 25 April, 2021, as the cruise line and the wider industry continue to work with government and public health authorities on the appropriate time to restart sailing,” the company said in a statement provided by spokesperson Lindy Lamme.

The cruise line plans to return to New Zealand in July 2022 for a 150-day season in the area.

“We know that much better days lie ahead and we remain positive about the resumption of cruising. While we’ve paused operations, P&O Cruises together with the wider industry has been using the time wisely to plan for cruising’s return,” Sture Myrmell, president of the cruise line, said in the statement.

Carnival Corp.’s German line, AIDA Cruises, also canceled more sailings, extending their pause in operations through the end of February after Germany extended its lockdown through the end of January, the cruise line said in a release provided by Lamme.

AIDA hopes to resume cruising in multiple locations after February concludes with several voyage departure dates set for March 6.

‘I am ecstatic’: COVID-19 vaccine inspires confidence among cruise passengers, industry

Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez and Jessica Flores

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival cancel cruises into April, May