GALVESTON, Texas — Carnival Cruises announced Monday morning a plan to "phase in" cruise service again starting with ships in Galveston, Miami and Port Canaveral.
The cruises are set to begin Aug. 1, the company stated in a press release.
But the current "pause in operations" due to coronavirus will be extended in all other North American and Australian markets through August 31.
Carnival to set sail again - key takeaways
The company stated the following key elements in their announcement Monday morning:
- All North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 will be cancelled.
- Beginning August 1, we plan to resume cruises on the following ships:
— Galveston: Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Vista
— Miami: Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sensation
— Port Canaveral: Carnival Breeze and Carnival Elation - Other than the above referenced service from Galveston, Miami, and Port Canaveral, all other North American and Australian homeport cruises will be cancelled through August 31
- All Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle will be cancelled, as well as the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on September 25 and the Honolulu-Brisbane transpacific cruise on October 6.
- All Carnival Splendor cruises in Australia from June 19 to August 31 will be cancelled.
Info for Carnival guests
From Carnival:
"Impacted guests and their travel advisors are being notified by email, including options for a combined future cruise credit (FCC) and onboard credit (OBC) package, or a full refund. Booked guests can make their selection online, alleviating the need to contact Carnival's customer service center, which is still operating in a work-from-home status due to locally-imposed office closures in South Florida.
We are committed to supporting all public health efforts to manage the COVID-19 situation. We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of homeports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests.
We will use this additional time to continue to engage experts, government officials and stakeholders on additional protocols and procedures to protect the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we serve. We appreciate the understanding and support of our guests and travel agent partners and look forward to welcoming them on board as the environment for travel and tourism improves."