Guests booked aboard the January 26, 2025 departure of Celebrity Ascent have been notified of an itinerary change that is removing one port of call and substituting an alternate destination. This is in line with other itinerary changes from Royal Caribbean International removing the same port of call – Labadee, Haiti – from various sailings.
While Celebrity Ascent is not part of the Royal Caribbean fleet, Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International are owned by the same parent corporation, Royal Caribbean Group, and both share rights to visit the private destination.
“Due to a change in our itinerary planning for our winter 2024-2025 sailings, we are removing our visit to Labadee, Haiti, on our Celebrity Ascent January 26th, 2025, sailing,” the email notification read. “We’ll now enjoy a visit to Falmouth, Jamaica, on Day 4 instead of visiting Labadee.”
The January 26 departure is a 7-night roundtrip sailing from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In addition to the call at Labadee – now Falmouth – the ship will also be visiting Bimini and Grand Cayman. Those port of call visits have not been changed.
Because the ship’s planned route goes around Cuba, adding the visit to Jamaica instead of Haiti is a simple adjustment for the overall sailing route. The visit will still be on the original day – January 29 – but the times have been slightly adjusted.
Celebrity Ascent was scheduled to visit Labadee from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., but will be visiting Falmouth from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The duration of the visit is unchanged.
Any pre-paid excursions booked through Celebrity Cruises for Labadee will undoubtedly be cancelled and refunded, and guests will be able to book tours and activities for Falmouth instead.
Royal Caribbean Group has been increasing its offerings of short sailings for 2024 and beyond, starting with the “ultimate weekend” cruises aboard the upcoming Utopia of the Seas, the sixth Oasis-class ship set to debut in mid-July.
Celebrity Cruises has also been introducing shorter sailings, which undoubtedly is impacting some overall scheduling in various itineraries in order to balance port availability.
Labadee Visits Cancelled Through September 2024
While the email notification for Celebrity Ascent‘s cancellation of Labadee does not note the recent violence in Haiti as a concern, it could indeed be a factor in the itinerary change.
Less than two weeks ago, Royal Caribbean International confirmed that all Labadee visits have been cancelled at least through September.
“We have suspended all visits to Labadee fleetwide through September 2024, and we continue to monitor the situation with our Global Security & Intelligence team. Please know that the safety and comfort of our guests are always our highest priority,” the notification on the cruise line’s website states.
The cruise line first began suspending visits to the private destination in Haiti in the wake of increasing violence and a state of emergency in the troubled country in mid-March.
Interestingly, Celebrity Summit is scheduled to visit Labadee on October 6 as the ship repositions to begin homeporting from San Juan. That itinerary may likewise be adjusted to remove or replace the destination. Several Celebrity Cruises ships – Apex, Beyond, Eclipse, and Ascent – also have Labadee visits planned in November and December.
Read Also: Who Owns Celebrity Cruises?
Undoubtedly, multiple factors have been considered for Celebrity Ascent‘s January itinerary change, while other ships may still plan to visit Labadee if the situation has stabilized by the time of their sailings later this year.
Celebrity Ascent is the newest ship in the Celebrity Cruises fleet, having just debuted in December 2023. The 140,600-gross-ton ship, fourth in the innovative Edge class, is spending the summer of 2024 in the Mediterranean, and will arrive in Fort Lauderdale for the winter season in early November following a 13-night transatlantic cruise from Barcelona departing on October 26.
