Travel News August 2020
LEADING PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS TO OVERSEE DEVELOPMENT OF ENHANCED CRUISE LINE HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARDS C
RUISE industry leaders Royal Caribbean
Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced a collaboration to develop enhanced cruise health and safety standards in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The companies have asked Governor Mike Leavitt and Dr. Scott Gottlieb to serve as co-chairs of a newly formed group of experts called the “Healthy Sail Panel.” The panel is tasked with collaboratively developing recommendations for cruise lines to advance their public health response to COVID-19, improve safety, and achieve readiness for the safe resumption of operations. The expert panel has been working for nearly a
month and will offer its initial recommendations by the end of August. The cruise lines said its work will be “open source,” and could be freely adopted by any company or industry that would benefit from the group’s scientific and medical insights. “This unprecedented disease requires us to develop unprecedented standards in health and safety,” said Richard D. Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. “Bringing aboard these respected experts to guide us forward demonstrates our commitment to protecting our guests, our crews and the communities we visit.”
“We compete for the vacationing consumer’s business every day, but we never compete on health
Princess Cruises Cancels Three 2021 Voyages
PRINCESS Cruises has announced that it has cancelled three 2021 voyages as well as redeploying three of its ships for summer 2021. Majestic Princess will sail for the first time in Alaska, replacing Regal Princess which will return to Europe. Majestic will replace all Regal’s Seattle Inside Passage departures from May to September, except the May 5 five-day Alaska Sampler, which has been cancelled.
Regal Princess will sail from Southampton, replacing Grand Princess and offering 17 roundtrip departures to the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Iceland and other destinations in Europe.
As a result of this change, the Regal Princess South
Pacific Crossing and two Grand Princess seven-day Europe cruises have been cancelled.
Grand Princess will be deployed to Los Angeles for a new summer Mexico and California coast season.
AFTER a successful return to sailing last month, Hurtigruten has released its plans to further ramp-up operations with 14 of 16 ships returning in August and September. In addition, Hurtigruten launches a series of new itineraries in the British Isles over the coming months.
Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam said: “With the
safety and well-being of our guests and crew as our number one priority, the response to our successful return to sailing last month has been extremely positive from both the local communities, our guests and crew. As travel restrictions are lifted, we are now entering the next phase of our step by step return to full operation.” Hurtigruten marked the return of cruising as
MS Finnmarken became the first ocean cruise ship in the world to return to sailing with her June 16 departure. With limiting capacity and strict hygiene measures, Hurtigruten currently operates five ships on international and domestic Norwegian itineraries. Now the world’s largest expedition cruise company has stepped up its rebound strategy, with plans to bring 14 of their 16 ships back in operation by the end of September: Hurtigruten marks the return of Arctic expedition cruising, as battery-hybrid powered MS Roald Amundsen and MS Spitsbergen starting Mid-July will offer 6 to 15 day voyages on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
Step by step seven additional ships will be introduced on the legendary Bergen to Kirkenes voyage along the Norwegian coast in August and September. As of this week, Hurtigruten already operates 4 ships in what’s known as “the most beautiful voyage in the world”. Hurtigruten launches a series of exclusive British Isles itineraries on the world’s first battery hybrid powered cruise ship the MS Roald Amundsen. Departing from Portsmouth (Sep 2), Liverpool (Sep 7 and 17) and
A group of cruise industry leaders will collaborate on developing enhnaced health and safety protocols for cruise lines in response to the Covid-19 crisis
and safety standards,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. “While the cruise industry has always had rigorous health standards, the unique challenges posed by COVID-19 provide an opportunity to raise the bar even higher.
“Health and safety are the highest priority for all
CLIA cruise line members as demonstrated by this initiative on the part of two of our largest members. We commend this and parallel efforts of all of our members, large and small, who are working tirelessly to develop appropriate protocols based on input from health authorities and medical experts in the U.S. and abroad,” said Kelly Craighead, President and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Fain and Del Rio said they initiated the panel to assure the plans they will submit to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulators apply the best available public health, science and engineering insights. The work of the panel will be shared with the entire industry and regulators.
“In convening the Healthy Sail Panel, we sought the participation of a diverse group of leading experts in areas of science and public health that are directly relevant to the considerations listed by the No Sail Order,” said Governor Leavitt. “We view our work as a profoundly important public health effort. The health and safety of passengers, crew, and the communities that cruise ships visit will be the principal focus of this project.” Dr. Gottlieb said: “We know that the public health issues that must be addressed are complex,
Glasgow (Sep 12), the short expedition cruises will take guests to off-the-beaten-track destinations such as Isles of Scilly, Fowey, Rathlin Island, Fortwilliam, Oban, Fishguard and Waterford.
Skjeldam continued: “We are thrilled to announce our new British Isles itineraries, and put a lot of pride into handpicking the destinations. We wanted to make sure guests can enjoy the British Isles like never before, visiting remote isles, seeing rugged nature and amazing wildlife, and enjoying charming coastal cities, towns and villages while avoiding the mass tourism crowds.” In June, Hurtigruten also announced their 2021 plans for year-round expedition cruise departures from Dover and Hamburg to Norway, Southern Scandinavia and the British Isles.
“Our British Isles departures have proven extremely popular. With the addition of 2020 expedition cruises, we will offer guests a unique opportunity to explore unique destinations already this fall,” Skjeldam added. The newest addition to Hurtigruten’s fleet of custom built expedition cruise ships, battery-hybrid powered MS Fridtjof Nansen, marked the return of international cruises as she departed Hamburg, Germany on June 26 for the first in a series of summer 2020 expedition cruises to the Norwegian coast. The 14 night itineraries will continue into September, exploring world heritage fjords, glaciers, bird cliffs, narrow inlets and other sites under the midnight sun – all the way to the iconic North Cape. Skjeldam said: “As travel restrictions are lifted, we
offer German and international guests two distinct and unique ways of exploring Norway. Expedition cruises departing from Hamburg, and the original voyages along the Norwegian coast. This summer, we will have the fjords all by ourselves. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the rugged beauty of the Norwegian coast.”
and in some areas, tackling them will require novel approaches. Our goal in assembling this team of leading experts was to develop best practices that can improve safety and provide a roadmap for reducing the risks of COVID-19.”
The panel is co-chaired by Governor Leavitt, former Secretary of the U.S. Department Health and Human Services (HHS), and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The panel’s members are globally recognised experts from various disciplines, including public health, infectious disease, biosecurity, hospitality and maritime operations. The members of the expert panel are: Governor Mike Leavitt, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Helene Gayle MD, MPH, Julie Gerberding, MD, MPHSteven Hinrichs, MD, Michael Osterholm, MD, PhD, Stephen Ostroff, MD, William Rutala, PhD, MS, MPH, Kate Walsh, PhD, Captain Patrik Dahlgren and Robin Lindsay.
In addition, several experts will also serve as senior advisors to the panel, including Dr. Caitlin Rivers, who is a faculty member and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and an expert in emerging infectious disease epidemiology and outbreak science, and Dr. Phyllis Kozarsky, who is a professor emerita of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and an expert in pre- travel health advice and education, global health, and the epidemiology of travel related infections and infectious diseases. Dr. Kozarsky serves as an expert consultant to the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine in travellers’ health with the CDC.
Hurtigruten Returns 14 Ships to Service With Plans to Ramp Up Operations
Hurtigruten is the world’s largest expedition cruise line and has operated in polar waters continuously since 1893. As the most experienced operator on the spectacular Norwegian coastline, Hurtigruten is the only cruise line to offer year-round sailings on the Norwegian coast.
“We are seeing a strong demand across all markets and all destinations, including the Norwegian coast, the Arctic and Antarctica. The demand reflects our predictions that small-ship cruising, with all our advantages such as more flexibility and fewer guests, will prove even more popular post-COVID-19,” Skjeldam said. There have not been any confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on any of Hurtigruten ships. Hurtigruten have implemented strict procedures to ensure the health and safety of guests and crew. These include reduced guest capacity to allow even
more social distancing, strict hygiene protocols, health checks and -screenings, frequent temperature readings upon boarding and entry to restaurants, and numerous other measures.
Silversea Extends Cruise with Confidence Initiative
SILVERSEA is extending its ‘Cruise with Confidence’ programme to all voyages departing prior to 30 April, 2021. The company credits the initiative for giving travellers the confidence to make future cruise plans with peace of mind. Launched in early March, the programme lets guests cancel their cruise for any reason up to 48 hours prior to sailing and receive a 100% Future Cruise Credit for the amount paid, which can be redeemed up to two years from the date of issue.
CRUISE NEWS 19
Princess Cruises Confirms Refunds Nearly 60% Complete
PRINCESS has processed nearly 60% of refund and future cruise credit requests.
The cruise line said it understood clients’ frustration over delays, but stressed it was continuing to make progress on payments. Princess said extra resources have been sought to speed up the process, which has been complicated by having to deal in more than a dozen currencies and across a number of payment methods.
In an update, the cruise line said: “Processing
refunds has remained one of our top priorities since our company paused operations. “Despite significantly increasing people resources in this area, we needed to also ramp up our systems capabilities to be able to handle higher volume and significant complexity.
“With a global scope, our refund process is an
involved one, dealing with 13 different currencies and various payment methods.
“Our teammates are making their way through the backlog more quickly now, and have completed nearly 60% of refunds so far.”
New UK-Based Cruise Line –
Tradewind Voyages A NEW UK-based cruise line, launched by a group of travel industry veterans, will begin sailing in summer 2021.
Tradewind Voyages will operate Golden Horizon, the world’s largest square-rigged sailing ship, from May to August 2021.
Capable of carrying up to 272 passengers, the vessel will sail an initial nine North European voyages, seven from Harwich and two from Glasgow, with itineraries featuring Denmark, Iceland, the Norwegian Fjords and the Baltics.
The ship will then transfer across the globe to feature destinations in Australia, the Indian Ocean, Japan, Alaska, the Americas and the Pacific Islands in late 2021 and 2022.
Golden Horizon will allow guests to explore the world’s oceans more sustainably, with voyages planned using the prevailing winds and currents.
Majestic Line Announces New Destination
SCOTTISH small ship cruising company The Majestic Line announces new destination with cruises to the Orkney Islands in 2022.
The company has just launched a new brochure
for 2021/22 offering a choice of 18 itineraries which includes Orkney cruises as well as an extended season with additional Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal cruises. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season the company has taken the decision to focus on cruising in 2021 and 2022.
The Orkney Islands are perfect for small ship
cruising with 70 islands and over 600 miles of coastline. The Majestic Line’s newest ship MV Glen Shiel (launched in 2019) will take a maximum of 12 guests on 6-night cruises round the Orkney Islands. There will be 4 departures in July and August 2022.
Commenting on the addition of Orkney to the small
ship cruises offered, Ken Grant, Managing Director of the Majestic Line said, “Orkney has always been somewhere we have wanted to cruise, so with the launch of MV Glen Shiel last year it seemed that it was the right time. This year has been a difficult year and we hope that in 2021 and 2022 more people will choose to discover the islands and coastlines of their own country with a small ship cruise.”
Complementing the cruises around the Orkney Islands there is also the chance to experience the vast area of the west and north coast of Scotland on two epic 10-night one-way cruises, Oban to Orkney and Orkney to Oban. Experience part of the North Coast 500, but from a different perspective.
Starting the season in March might seem a bit too early but with the sheltered calm waters of the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness what better way to shake those winter blues off? Gentle cruising, warm and welcoming cabins, gourmet food, drinks and socialising in the evening… you might even see Nessie! The company offered all of its 2020 guests the opportunity to rebook their cruise into the two following years and the majority of guests have stayed loyal and are looking forward to a cruise in calmer waters next year.
Celestyal Cruises Extends
Suspension of Cruise Operations CELESTYAL Cruises has announced the further suspension of its sailings until the already announced 2021 season commencing March 6, 2021. Celestyal was one of the first cruise lines worldwide to take the immediate decision to temporarily suspend cruise operations in mid-March out of concern for our guests, crew and local communities. This decisive action resulted in no COVID-19 cases on our ships and we were able to repatriate our guests and crew safely before international air travel and borders globally shut down.
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