The Carnival Horizon cruise ship has arrived back in Miami, Florida, on Monday morning to prepare for resuming cruises. It’s always a good sign when the largest and one of the newest ships in the fleet makes a return, and due to the suspension of operations, there’s nothing better than seeing the vessel as part of the Miami skyline.
Carnival Cruise Ship Back in Miami!
Carnival Horizon, which is a Vista-class cruise ship, arrived back at PortMiami, Florida, and is the first in the fleet to return for the preparation of cruises. Before she arrived in Miami, the ship spent a lot of time anchored at sea and only being in port to pick up supplies and offload waste.
The difference this time is that Carnival Cruise Line is putting the pieces in place ready for resuming cruises in February 2021. Before that happens, the Carnival Horizon needs to prepare, including getting crew members back onboard from their home countries, training them on new health measures, testing new protocols on trial sailings, and much more in-line with the CDC Conditional Sailing Order.
Even though Royal Caribbean has already opened up with a way for people to apply as guest volunteers, Carnival Cruise Line has not yet done the same. A good way forward could be using the crew on the trial sailings. We’ve already looked into this in an earlier post on Cruise Hive.
It’s going to take time to get the vessel ready for the first passengers. Carnival needs to get the new health measures stress-tested first, and when the cruise line does finally kick-start cruising again, all eyes will be on them.
When is Carnival Horizon Sailing Again?
Currently, Carnival Cruise Line has suspended operations from all U.S. ports until February 2021. According to Carnival’s booking engine, there are ten cruise ships scheduled to depart from Miami, Port Canaveral, and Port of Galveston through February.
Carnival Horizon Cruise Ship: 12 Must-Know Things
Carnival Horizon’s first cruise is set to depart Miami on February 14 on a 6-day itinerary in the Western Caribbean, including calls to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It is important to know that because the situation is very fluid, cruise itineraries could change, do always check with the cruise line first.
From March 2021, even more cruise ships are set to resume operations and more homeports will open up. You can check all the details right here.
Carnival Horizon is the second Vista-class cruise ship that entered service in 2018 and is 133,500 gross tons with a guest capacity of 3,960 at double occupancy along with 1,500 crew members.
Carnival Breeze will also be arriving back in Florida sometime this week to begin preparing for resuming cruises. A total of 16 Carnival cruise ships will sail in 2021 and it will be a phased-in return.
Photo Credit: Carlos Yudica / Shutterstock.com
