AIDA Moves Restart Forward, Cruising from Italy In October

AIDA Cruises will expand its range of cruises this fall with new voyages visiting the highlights of Italy, starting on Oct. 17, 2020.

Carnival’s German brand is thus moving up its restart from November to October.

The new seven-day itinerary departs from Civitavecchia near Rome and travels to Palermo and Catania in Sicily, Naples and La Spezia. In Rome, an overnight stay is planned. AIDA did not say what ship will be put into service first.

The voyages will be offered weekly until Nov. 28, 2020.

Bookings open Monday, Sept. 21.

AIDA had previously announced its fall and winter program for 2020 and 2021, sending the AIDAmar to the Canary Islands, starting Nov. 1, 2020, followed by the AIDAperla Nov. 7, taking over the program originally intended for the AIDAnova.

The AIDAmar will sail from Las Palmas, while the AIDAperla will use Tenerife in addition to Las Palmas for turnarounds.

AIDA also plans to launch service in the Western Mediterranean with the AIDAstella on Dec. 12, 2020, sailing seven-day cruises from Palma, Mallorca.

 

Costa Ready to Restart Cruise Operations This Weekend

Costa Deliziosa

Costa Cruises is scheduled to restart sailing in Italy this Sunday, Sept. 6.

Carnival’s Italian brand will be followed by Germany-based AIDA Cruises scheduled to resume on Nov. 1.

The brands will begin in a gradual, phased-in manner with six initial ships and limited itineraries, becoming the first two of Carnival’s nine brands to resume operations.

“Our highest responsibilities and top priorities are always compliance, protecting the environment, and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, the communities we visit and our crew,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation. “We are engaged with a large number of medical experts and scientists around the world, and they are providing us with extremely valuable insight that we are using to develop new and enhanced protocols that are in the best interest of our guests, crew and overall public health. In areas of the world where community spread is largely mitigated and authorities are supportive of a gradual return to service over time, we look forward to again welcoming guests onboard.

The initial cruises will take place with adjusted passenger capacity and enhanced health protocols developed with government and health authorities to follow shoreside mitigation guidelines, the company said.

Costa Cruises is restarting sailing with two initial ships departing from Italian ports beginning Sept. 6.

The Costa Deliziosa will offer weekly cruises from Trieste on Sept. 6, 13, 20 and 27, visiting five destinations in southern Italy, including Bari and Brindisi in Puglia, Corigliano-Rossano in Calabria, and Siracusa and Catania in Sicily.

The Costa Diadema will follow on Sept. 19 from Genoa, calling at Italian ports in the western Mediterranean, including Civitavecchia/Rome, Naples, Palermo, Cagliari and La Spezia.

The one-week itineraries are being reserved exclusively for Italian guests.

AIDA Cruises will resume its cruise operations with two of its ships, sailing from the Canary Islands in November 2020, followed by an additional two ships departing from the western Mediterranean and the United Arab Emirates beginning in December 2020.

The first of the brand’s cruises are set to begin Nov. 1, with seven-day voyages to and departures from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, with AIDAmar, followed by sailings from Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife with AIDAperla on Nov. 7. In December, AIDA Cruises will resume sailing operations in the Western Mediterranean with AIDAstella departing on seven-day cruises from Palma, Mallorca, beginning Dec. 12. Additionally, AIDAprima will offer seven-day cruises from Dubai starting Dec. 11 and from Abu Dhabi beginning Dec. 15.

In working with global and national health authorities and medical experts, Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises have developed a comprehensive set of health and hygiene protocols to help facilitate a safe, healthy return to cruise vacations, according to a press release.

Aida Cruises aims to start sailing again in November

AIDAmar | Built by MEYER WERFT

German cruise line Aida has extended the suspension of cruises until November when it plans to restart operations with a Canary Islands itinerary.

The Carnival Corporation brand has cancelled its previously announced cruises for September and October and updated its autumn-winter programme because of Covid-19 restrictions.

It said in a statement on Friday: “Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the conditions are currently not in place in Germany’s neighbouring European countries, especially in the north with Norway and Denmark or the Baltic states.

“For many distant destinations outside of Europe, the Federal Republic of Germany has issued a travel warning or the respective countries have prohibited calls of cruise ships until 2021.”

The first ship to begin sailing, Aidamar, will depart on November 1 for seven-day voyages around the Canary Islands, a destination popular with German cruisers.

Aidaperla will follow on November 7 and will take over itineraries originally planned for Aidanova (pictured).

Aidastella will start cruises in the western Mediterranean on December 12, launching from Majorca.

Aidaprima will offer cruises from Dubai from December 11 and from Abu Dhabi from December 15.

Felix Eichhorn, president of Aida Cruises, said: “Even though it is currently not possible for cruise ships to call at Norway, which is so important for our voyages to the north, we are confident that the first Aida ships from Germany will be able to travel to northern Europe again at the beginning of 2021.”

Aida Cruises is also cancelling autumn-winter cruises to destinations in the Caribbean, southern Africa, Indian Ocean and the Far East.