New developments across major cruise lines with ship cancellations, including Disney Cruise Line’s new ship. It’s been a busy week with Carnival Cruise Line as two ships are to leave the fleet and is no longer waiting on Australia to reopen to cruises in this week’s cruise news update.
Cruise News Update
Another busy week in the cruise industry across the major cruise lines as more cancellations and delays are announced. Disney’s new vessel is no longer arriving as scheduled, there are canceled cruises for a Princess cruise ship, all the latest changes from Carnival Cruise Line, including the two ships leaving the fleet and the cruise line giving up on Australia. There are also some Holland America cancellations and find out when the Norwegian cruise ships are making their comeback.
In This Article…
Disney Wish Delayed
Despite their best efforts, the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany cannot complete the build of the new Disney Wish on time. The newest addition to Disney Cruise Line is highly anticipated, and the cruise line has been steadily building up that anticipation over the past year, but we’re just going to have to wait a little longer.
The shipyard informed Disney Cruise Line it would be unable to deliver Disney Wish in the specified time frames and the first sailing date of June 9, 2022. At least the first 12 voyages for the Disney Wish have now been canceled. The cruise line did announce a new sailing date from her homeport of Port Canaveral on July 14, 2022.
As Disney works through the changes that have happened, it has temporarily closed all bookings for its newest ship. A message on the company website states that these bookings will be unavailable until February 8. This will enable Disney Cruise Line to make the changes to the affected voyages, and book guests on the maiden voyage to the new maiden voyage on July 14.
The Meyer Weft is building Disney Wish in Papenburg, Germany. The cruise ship will have space for 4,000 passengers and comes in at 144,000 gross tons. The ship will be sailing 3- and 4-night itineraries sailing from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas with calls in Nassau and Disney’s Castaway Cay, the 4-night cruise will have a day at sea.
Diamond Princess Cancellations
As travel restrictions continue and different governments adapt their health and safety protocols, Princess Cruises has made the difficult decision to cancel Japan sailings aboard Diamond Princess through June 9, 2022.
This suspension affects 10 upcoming Diamond Princess sailings, with embarkation dates ranging from April 28 through June 9, 2022. The affected itineraries range from 5-14 days, and include the Golden Week sailing, Korea and Japan getaway itineraries, and Southern Islands voyages.
Princess Cruises has identified equivalent sailings in 2023, and guests on the canceled cruises will be moved to those new cruises automatically. This will keep the guests’ vacation plans intact with the same fare price, incentives, and promotional offers, as well as the same stateroom category where available.
The replacement cruises are scheduled for embarkation from April 29, 2023 through June 8, 2023, depending on the sailing. The itineraries are very similar, but guests should note that some of the voyages are not for the same number of nights.
Westerdam Cruises Canceled
In September, Holland America Line had announced that the Westerdam was to have begun sailing again with a series of 7-day Alaskan sailings from Seattle, Washington, beginning May 8, 2022. That restart has now been changed, with several early sailings canceled.
The ship’s first return-to-service sailing will be a 7-day Alaskan Explorer itinerary that departs on June 12, 2022, and returns to Seattle on Sunday, June 19. Further Westerdam sailings in June and throughout the summer have not been changed.
For guests booked on the now canceled Westerdam sailings, their reservations are being transferred to comparable sailings on the slightly larger, Eurodam. While the cruise itineraries are similar and both vessels are sailing from Seattle, Eurodam does depart on its 7-day voyages on Saturdays, whereas Westerdam departs on Sundays.
Reservations are being transferred automatically, and guests are receiving the same or equivalent stateroom category with all incentives and promotions of their cruise fare protected.
Carnival Cruise Line Deployment Changes
The cruise line has provided a further update on ships still waiting to resume operations, including additional details on an update released on February 1, 2022.
Carnival Ecstasy is still scheduled to take over Carnival Sensation sailings from Mobile, Alabama, on March 7, 2022. The Fantasy-class vessel will remain sailing from the Port of Mobile through October 10, 2022. The scheduled sailings from Mobile from October 15, 2022, through September 30, 2023, have been canceled, and Carnival is set to announce new plans for cruise operations from the port in the future.
As the cruise line previously announced, we already knew that Carnival Sensation, which was originally set to resume cruises from Mobile on March 7, 2022, was to remain on hold even further.
However, that is no longer the case as Carnival Sensation, which entered service for the cruise line in 1993, will no longer return to operations. The cruise line has also announced that Carnival Ecstasy, which entered service in 1991, will also leave the fleet after completing her final voyage on October 10, 2022. It’s not known if the two Fantasy-class vessels have been sold for scrap or purchased by another cruise line.
Carnival Changes for Australia
In an email to booked guests on February 4, Carnival Cruise Line has informed guests that its Carnival Splendor will temporarily relocate to North America.
It is not yet known where Carnival Splendor may be situated as a homeport. The announcement letter only indicates the ship will be positioned in North America, but no specific homeport is named. Those details will likely be forthcoming soon as new itineraries will be planned.
The repositioning of Carnival Spirit was announced earlier this week, and that ship has already departed Dubai, where she was waiting for redeployment orders, and is now heading to Jacksonville, Florida, to restart sailings on March 5, 2022. Carnival Spirit is replacing Carnival Ecstasy at that port, which is moving to Mobile, Alabama to complete her final voyages before leaving the Carnival fleet entirely in October.
With both Carnival Spirit and Carnival Splendor now leaving Australia, additional sailings have to be canceled in that region. According to Carnival Cruise Line’s travel advisory website, Carnival Spirit‘s cruises have been canceled through and including October 5, 2023, and now Carnival Splendor‘s Australia sailings are canceled through and including September 26, 2022.
No cruise ships have resumed operations in Australia since the industry-wide shutdown began in March 2020.
Norwegian Cruise Ships Returning
Just weeks ago, Norwegian Cruise Line halted operations for no less than 11 cruise ships. Three ships have resumed operations again, and eight are scheduled to resume in the coming weeks and months.
Of those three cruise ships that did restart after the temporary suspension, Norwegian Dawn is currently sailing from Tampa Bay, Florida; Norwegian Getaway is sailing the Western Caribbean from the brand new cruise terminal in PortMiami. Norwegian Escape also resumed operations, sailing from Port Canaveral.
Norwegian Cruise Line will be expanding its operational activity worldwide in the next three months. The cruise line intends to start cruises in various countries, including Italy, Spain, Panama, Tahiti, and the United States.
Norwegian Pearl will be making her comeback on February 7 when she sets sail from Miami, Florida. On March 2, 2022, Norwegian Sky will be setting sail to the Eastern Caribbean, also from Miami. The first ship to resume operations outside the United States will be Norwegian Jewel sailing from Panama City. Departing on March 29.
On March 30, Norwegian Jewel will return to operations from Civitavecchia near Rome, in Italy. Norwegian Star will also be operating in Europe, sailing from Barcelona, Spain, starting April 3. By April 9, 2022, the moment that many guests have been waiting for will finally happen. Pride of America, the only large US-flag registered cruise ship, will start her sailings on April 9, 2022, from Honolulu, Hawaii.
More Headlines!
Those were just a handful of the news stories from the past, we’ve got everything covered, including Carnival Cruise Line suffering a website glitch, Royal Caribbean providing a business update, MSC Cruises details its winter 2022-23 season with 21 vessels, Dream Cruises suspends bookings for an additional two weeks, Princess Cruises expands contactless payment to destinations, repairs are to begin on the iconic Queen Mary in Long Beach and loads more.
