Major cruise lines are continuing the trend of canceled cruises. As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads, the industry is definitely hurting. We first started to see itinerary cancellations after a few recent outbreaks, and it seems that we should expect more. For now, here’s an update on the biggest cancelations that you may have missed.
Crystal Cruises
Perhaps the most significant news of the past week came from luxury line Crystal Cruises. While they weren’t the subject of any major scandals involving outbreaks, they have still decided to enact a rather significant new policy. They won’t be sailing – at all – until the end of April. Jack Anderson, Crystal’s president, was quoted as saying that their choice was “a prudent one given the current business environment and recent developments with our parent company, Genting Hong Kong.” Their ships that are currently sailing will finish their itineraries, meaning that this pause of operations won’t truly be in effect until February 4th. They will then wait until April 29th to resume ocean cruises and June 1st to resume river cruises.
Norwegian Cruise Line
On January 19th, Norwegian canceled a slew of cruises on their ship Pride of America. Pride was set to start cruising around Hawaii in late February, but this restart will now take place in April. Many of their other ships also saw cancellations, with a rolling set of dates for a pause in operations across much of their fleet. You can read the full list here. Some of the dates that are most important are a new April 19th restart date for Norwegian Sun and a new April 23rd restart date for Norwegian Spirit. Yeah, that’s a long wait.
Royal Caribbean
Royal has yet to cancel any major sailings in America. They are, however, removing some of their itineraries that were set to sail from Hong Kong. Spectrum of the Seas was to sail on January 21st, 23rd, 26th, 28th, and 31st. These are now all canceled. This is in light of the recent restrictions imposed by the government of Hong Kong to help stop the spread of COVID.
Celebrity Cruises
Celebrity also announced cancellations this week. Celebrity Eclipse had four itineraries between now and April 16th; these will no longer happen. The company cited health concerns when making their decision.
Unfortunately, these cancellations are part of a trend that is becoming all too familiar. The best we can hope for is a swift decline in Omicron-related cases. This may allow the cruise industry to open back up again faster than they are currently expecting. In truth, though, we can only guess as to what will happen next.
