Carnival says it will be another 4 months before cruises can set sail from Charleston
As it continues to navigate the deadly coronavirus pandemic, Carnival Cruise Line confirmed it will be at least another four months before its Sunshine cruise ship sets sail out of the Port of Charleston.
Carnival Cruise Line on Wednesday announced its decision to cancel future voyages from the Holy City. The earliest possible cruise from Charleston is not expected until March.
The same goes for six other ports: Baltimore, Jacksonville, Long Beach, Mobile, New Orleans and San Diego.
It marks the seventh time this year that Carnival Cruise Line has had to reevaluate when it will be safe to bring passengers back to the seas.
In a statement and a tweet, the cruise line said it is working on “building a gradual, phased-in approach to resume guest operations” that will begin in two of its Florida ports: Miami and Port Canaveral.
“We are committed to meeting the CDC requirements and keeping our guests and business partners informed of our progress,” Christine Duffy, the president of Carnival Cruise Line, said in a statement.
The Centers for Disease Control lifted its sailing ban for cruise ships on Oct. 31 but ordered cruise lines to follow specific guidelines before they could return to the seas.
For example, initial phases of the CDC guidelines say cruise ship operators must show an adherence to testing, quarantine and isolation, as well as social distancing requirements. Additionally, ships must build laboratory capacity necessary to test crew members and future passengers.
In later phases, cruise ships must also conduct simulated voyages with volunteers playing the role of passengers as a way to test the ability of cruise ship operators to mitigate COVID-19 risk. Certifications will be issued for ships that meet specific requirements, according to the CDC’s 44-page framework.
The cruise line says 16 of its Carnival ships are currently following the CDC process for an eventual return to guest services in the United States by 2021. Carnival Sunshine, the 892-foot vessel that welcomes passengers at Charleston’s Union Pier Terminal, is among the 16 ships gearing up for a return.
Carnival cruises from the pair of Florida ports, Miami and Port Canaveral, could start as early as February.
Excursions from most of Carnival’s other home ports would gradually follow. The last U.S. port to resume Carnival cruises would be Tampa, which would not see any of its cruise ships depart until late March.
Carnival Cruise Line said it has notified guests and travel agents of the additional canceled cruises for the first part of 2021, but listings on its website Wednesday projected optimism.
The cruise line is already accepting reservations for a five-day cruise to the Bahamas that leaves Charleston on March 1.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
