As Holland America Line continues to prepare and develop its plans to meet the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the company announced on Wednesday afternoon it is extending its pause of cruise operations for all departures through April 30, 2021.
This includes Alaska, Mexican Riviera, Pacific Coast, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Canada/New England departures.
The line also will cancel all Alaska cruises through mid-May, Alaska departures on three ships through early June, any Land+Sea Journeys connected with cancelled Alaska sailings, Mediterranean cruises through early June and Zaandam’s Canada/New England itineraries through August.
Cruises impacted by this pause in operation are:
All cruise departures through April 30, 2021.
Alaska: Eurodam and Oosterdam through the first week of June (roundtrip from Seattle); Koningsdam through mid-May (roundtrip from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada); Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam through mid-May (roundtrip Vancouver and between Vancouver and Whittier, Alaska); and Zuiderdam through early June (roundtrip from Vancouver).
Mediterranean: Volendam cruises through early June (between Venice and Civitavecchia [Rome], Italy); Westerdam through early June (roundtrip from Venice or between Venice and Piraeus [Athens], Greece).
Canada/New England: Zaandam cruises through August (between Boston, Massachusetts, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
Guests and their travel agents are being notified of the cancellations and options for Future Cruise Credits (FCC) and rebooking.
Despite having operated for centuries, the Port of Charleston got into the “cruise game” only a decade ago. Since then, it created an effective and efficient area for cruise calls and built a good working relationship with Carnival Cruise Line.
“We currently have homeports for Carnival Cruise Line. We’re very happy with them. We feel as if they’re very happy with us, we hope to continue that relationship,” Jerry R. Matthews, Director, Breakbulk & Roro & Cruise Operations at South Carolina Ports Authority, told Cruise Industry News. “We work well with all the lines, but for right now (they) have been here for the past six years, I believe… We’d like to have a nice, long-term, five to 20-year contract.”
Plans for the Future
As well as doing everything it can to resume operations in 2021, the port is also preparing to build a proper cruising facility in the next three to five years.
“I think we have a really solid potential to offer more sailings, more short distance sailings to these destinations for the lines. Moving forward, hopefully, again, with building a new facility, being able to hand properly maybe a slightly larger vessel… I think that’s probably the place where we can zone in more, just trying to take advantage of the great location and great weather where we are,” Matthews said.
Another thing the Port of Charleston is looking into improving is security systems at the port – such as facial recognition.
“Things like that that might be [done] with the help of CBP,” he said.
Matthews said that the port’s team has already worked hard to make the site a safe environment once cruise sailings resume and passengers come through. This includes things like more frequent disinfection and cleaning.
“We went through and identified social distancing identifications, markers, signs, stickers, postings, all that we could – we’ve opened more things to have outside as we can. We added more hand sanitizing stations. We have plenty of masks, gloves on hand,” Matthews said adding that part of the process was sitting down with all the employees and vendors to explain the new procedures.
The Port of Charleston also communicated with cruise lines to get a good understanding of their work calendar.
“We got with the cruise lines, and we asked them, ‘what are your plans internally on the vessel to make sure when passengers are embarking or debarking, we have enough space between them, are there any changes we should make?’,” Matthews explained.
“We spent a lot of time making sure that from the time they arrive at the terminal to the time they get on the vessel, it is as safe and productive as it can be for the passenger,” he added.
‘One Family’
Matthews said that he hopes that the entire industry recovers soon after the “unfortunately long pause.”
“We’re kind of like a family: we want everyone to take it back, to go on, and wish nothing but the best for everybody. There’s no competition or competitiveness there – if one of us succeeds, all of us succeed,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of starting very slow to make sure all the safety protocols and safety measures are in place to protect everyone, to be as safe as we can. But hopefully, we’ll find a way to rebound back slowly but surely, and get back to normal within a year or two.”
Significant demand was born as a result of Royal Caribbean International’s announcement for the search of volunteers to go on its first test sailings prior to returning to sea in the U.S.
So much that a form has been created to sign up, which saw more than 150,000 hopeful cruise lovers leave their details.“It’s a good feeling knowing that so many people want to get back on ships,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president for sales, trade support, and service at Royal Caribbean International, on Dec. 8 in response to the demand.
The company has also launched a website for potential volunteers to sign up.
Cruise Industry News breaks down what is known about the sailings.
What are they?
The test sailings are part of the new Conditional Framework by the CDC, which came in place of the “No Sail” order. They will include the company having a number of trial cruises using employees and volunteers as stand-in passengers to test safety and health protocols.
Trial sailings are said to be monitored by company officials, a third-party class society, as well as the CDC.
When will they take place?
Likely the first quarter of 2021, possibly even January. Here’s a quote from Freed at Virtually Yours forum organized by Cruise Planners:
“We don’t know exactly when the test sailings are going to happen – we think in Q1, and we’re hoping for January.”
Which vessels will be taking part?
Industry sources previously stated that they expect the Mariner and Navigator of the Seas, the company’s recently-refurbished “short Caribbean” ships, to be the vessels pressed into service.
On what itineraries?
Freed said in November that the first cruises will be short sailings to CocoCay, which would allow the company to operate in a bubble on its own private island.
Who gets to go?
More than 150,000 people signed up, according to Royal Caribbean International, so it will be tough to choose from them. Apart from cruise line workers and CDC staff, the cruise line is likely to choose volunteers among its most loyal customers.
“We haven’t figured out our protocols yet for the volunteers but certainly loyalty status will be a key selector,” said Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean Cruises’ president, and CEO during the International Cruise Summit that took place on Dec. 1-2. “Our top tier has the name of Pinnacle and they’ve cruised with us a gazillion times … they’ll be amongst the first to receive the invitation.”
Freed said on Dec. 8 that the company’s travel partners will be invited, too.
What about safety?
Royal Caribbean is working on ensuring they are conducted safely and in compliance with the regulations.
“While we review the requirements proposed by the CDC and consider when we can host our simulated trial sailings, we are gathering information from those who have shown interest on our Volunteers of the Seas Facebook page. Our priority is to ensure that we can exercise our comprehensive set of measures in a safe and healthy manner while making sure we provide a memorable vacation experience,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement.
Yet a lot of information is still to be released about the sailings.
“We will be announcing more as we get more information,” Freed said. “So, we look forward to it; we’re looking forward to it.”
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