Three cruise lines, Princess, Costa, and Virgin Voyages, have just announced some recent changes to their schedules for future cruises. Cruising is still in a very unsteady place, and there are growing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic getting more serious as winter comes. This just means that you should keep an eye out for more itineraries to be changed, moved around, and cancelled.
Princess Cruises
The last we heard about Princess’ plans to get back to sailing was back in August. At that point, they decided to extend their global pause of operations for all regions until at least December 15th, 2020. They have now announced that they will be extending this pause even further for their Australian and New Zealand itineraries due to strict lockdowns. They will now not be sailing to either of those regions until May 31st, 2021. Guests will automatically receive a 125% future cruise credit if they do not elect to get a cash refund via this form.
Costa Cruises
Costa has been making headlines recently due to its recent return to service. While it was looking like the company would be able to have a successful sailing season across Europe this winter, they are now making some changes to their plans. Costa Deliziosa and Costa Smerelda will sail across Italy and Greece until January 2021 and February 2021, respectively. Costa Diadema’s restart date has been pushed back to April 6th, 2021. Costa Favolosa will also begin sailing in April 2021 with some Mediterranean itineraries, as will Costa Diadema. Finally, Costa Deliziosa’s world cruise has been completely cancelled with no plans for rescheduling.
Virgin Voyages
Virgin really picked the wrong time to try to get their cruise line up and running. They had plans to have their maiden voyage back before the pandemic began, but complications have made them push this voyage back again and again. The date that they have now set for the first itinerary of their ship, the Scarlet Lady, has been set for January 3rd, 2021. Scarlet Lady will sail from Miami to the Bahamas.
As always, if your itinerary has been cancelled, reach out to either your travel agent or the cruise line itself to find out details about refunds. It is highly likely that cancellations are going to continue coming throughout winter, so pay close attention to the cruise lines that you might be booked with!
