Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava – along with members of the Board of County Commission, the PortMiami team, and industry partners – has lauded the successful inauguration of the Scarlet Lady, Virgin Voyages’ first new cruise ship to her homeport, PortMiami.
The Scarlet Lady was delivered on Valentine’s Day 2020 and was due to make her maiden voyage from PortMiami on Apr. 1, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the line had to postpone her maiden season. Scarlet Lady started passenger operations from Miami on the evening of Oct. 6.
The 2,800-passenger Scarlet Lady features innovative technologies that reduce fuel demand. The brand prides on its commitment to creating an “Epic Sea Change For All,” supporting the commercial advancement of clean energy, alternative fuel sources, and other climate-positive initiatives. The line also took actions a step further by utilizing carbon offsets to balance impacts on climate change.
Additionally, Virgin Voyages’ new Cruise Terminal V, soon to open at PortMiami, will be “Shore Power Ready” by 2023. The terminal is part of Miami-Dade County’s Shore Power Phase 1 Project that will generate county-wide benefits by reducing emissions from vessels burning bunker fuel while at berth.
“We’re extremely grateful for support from the mayor’s office in bringing Shore Power to PortMiami,” said the Founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson. “Our team at Virgin Voyages is committed to contributing efforts that push our industry towards a more sustainable future and remain stewards to the environment.”
“Miami-Dade County is grateful to Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin team for their incredible partnership and commitment to creating a more resilient industry, indeed an Epic Sea Change For All,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “I am truly proud that together with Virgin Voyages and other partners, we are positioning PortMiami as a leader in sustainability and creating a more resilient cruise industry for generations to come.”
In the ongoing saga that is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) versus Florida, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. was recently granted a preliminary injunction to sail fully vaccinated cruises from its coast.
And earlier this week, after a 17-month cruise suspension, it did exactly that.
On Aug. 15, Norwegian Gem set sail from the company’s homeport in Miami, the third of the company’s 17 ships to set sail since the return of cruising (and marking the first voyage from Florida).
“It has been an exhilarating few weeks as we relaunch our fleet, reunite with our shipboard families and welcome our guests back for their long-awaited cruise vacations,” said Harry Sommer, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, in an Aug. 15 statement. “I’ve been impressed and proud of how our global team and partners have come together to safely bring back cruising, an over $55 billion-dollar industry that positively impacts communities around the world.”
Several developments led to Norwegian Gem’s embarkation in Florida: In the past few weeks, a federal court upheld the state’s lawsuit that the CDC’s Conditional Sail Order (CSO) should not be a requirement. As a result, it stands only as a regional recommendation, though many cruise lines plan to abide by the CDC guidelines, regardless. Additionally, the government agency has noted that sailings with 95% or more vaccinated guests and crew are free to make their own decisions regarding COVID-19 testing parameters and any mask mandates (at least for those passengers that are fully inoculated).
Several cruise lines that were initially not requiring pre-cruise testing and facial coverings, such as Carnival Cruise Line, are starting to mandate both as cases of the Delta variant spike in the U.S.
Norwegian was an early adopter of strict COVID-19 protocols. Its Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands have always required pre-voyage testing and 100% vaccination of its guests and crew. Because of this, passengers are able to enjoy all venues onboard without the use of masks.
“The health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit is our No. 1 priority, today, tomorrow and forever. It’s not a slogan or a tagline, we fiercely mean it and our commitment to these principles is demonstrated by the lengths our company has gone through to provide the safest possible cruise experience from Florida.”
Additionally, in Florida, businesses operating locally were formerly forbidden from mandating vaccinations of its patrons, but that has now changed. A judge ruled in Norwegian’s favour to permit the company to ask for documentation of vaccine status, which led to Norwegian’s Gem’s planned launch.
“The health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit is our No. 1 priority, today, tomorrow and forever,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian. “It’s not a slogan or a tagline, we fiercely mean it and our commitment to these principles is demonstrated by the lengths our company has gone through to provide the safest possible cruise experience from Florida. We want nothing more than to sail from Miami, the cruise capital of the world, and from the other fabulous Florida ports and we welcome [the] ruling that allows us to sail with 100% fully vaccinated guests and crew, which we believe is the safest and most prudent way to resume cruise operations amid this global pandemic.”
In fact, when I sailed last week on the Norwegian Encore in Alaska, Harry Sommer, president and CEO of NCL, and members of the corporation’s SailSAFE health and safety program reiterated the same during a press conference, with Sommer stating that he believes that permitting 5% unvaccinated passengers — which could amount to hundreds of passengers — is significant, and he won’t expose that many to the virus, even if it means not sailing with young children for a period.
Program participant Dr. Stephen Ostroff further considered full vaccination to be the “linchpin” for healthy cruising at this time.
“[It] 100% ought to be the standard for cruise ships quite frankly, pure and simple,” Ostroff said.
Norwegian Gem will traverse a series of weeklong voyages to the Caribbean and four-day cruises to the Bahamas through Oct. 17, 2021, before repositioning to New York for five to 11-night voyages to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Bermuda.
Cruise & Maritime Voyages went into administration in July 2020 due to the pandemic and has now been dissolved, with creditors owed almost £96.4 million.
In its final report to Companies House, administrator Kroll Advisory said there were insufficient funds to pay secured, preferential or non-preferential creditors.
An unnamed secured creditor which refinanced CMV in February 2020 has a claim for £78.3 million, but administrators say there will not be sufficient funds to cover this. Unsecured creditors are owed around £18 million but will also not receive payouts.
Preferential creditors are mainly 131 employees which lost out on holiday pay totalling £84,000. The report said all had otherwise been paid “the majority” of their salary arrears.
The administrators also revealed details of the sale of assets to Christian Verhounig, CMV’s former chief executive and chairman, who set up a new company, CVI Group, only a month after the collapse.
He paid just £180,000 for computer systems, vehicles and office equipment, including a nominal £1 each for databases and CMV’s intellectual property.
CVI Group planned to launch a similar product to CMV, with ex-UK departures, but Verhounig now runs Ambassador Cruise Line, having given up control of CVI to Njord Partners, Ambassador’s owners, according to documents filed at Companies House.
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