It was a historic and exciting time over the weekend, as Celebrity Millennium set sail from Philipsburg, St. Maarten late Saturday night, becoming the first “big ship” to sail with guests aboard from anywhere in North America since the pandemic shut down cruising last year. Sailing with a reduced guest capacity of under 50 percent, the Celebrity Cruises’ ship is docked at Bridgetown, Barbados Monday.
All Celebrity Millennium guests 16 and older were required to be vaccinated and submit a negative COVID-19 PCR lab test prior to boarding. All crew are vaccinated. Travel Agent is onboard, and advisors can tune in later today for our first of several reports from the ship.
While that first Caribbean restart this year is a positive step, Florida’s new law of no vaccine mandates for Florida businesses remains an issue. The state had sued the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the federal government over that requirement as part of the Conditional Sail Order rules. A judge ordered the parties into mediation, but after a week of talks, the parties were at an impasse.
With the impasse, Royal Caribbean International has dropped its initial mandate for all guests on Florida-departing cruises to be vaccinated, instead saying that’s highly encouraged. The cruise company on Friday afternoon announced plans for restarting service from U.S. ports.
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Among other positive “cruise recovery” tidbits for the week, MSC Cruises announced that it will resume operations in Spain starting on June 26.
In addition, Tauck announced the official restart of its operations in Europe and Africa. The company plans to reopen in stages, beginning with select departures of its “Iceland” and “Treasures of the Aegean” small-ship ocean cruises in June and July. Also scheduled to resume in July are cruises in the Galapagos Islands.
For 2022, Hurtigruten Expeditions announced two new, lengthy expeditions—one a 93-day, pole-to-pole expedition cruise on Roald Amundsen, the other a 66-day journey on Fram.
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