Carnival Cruise Line Eyes July Cruising Restart From FL, TX

MIAMI, FL — Carnival Cruise Line, headquartered in Miami, hopes to resume cruising in July with two ships operating from Texas and one from Florida, according to a news release from the company.

On Tuesday, Carnival notified guests and travel advisor partners of cancellations for most of its ships through July 30. Guests booked on any of the cancelled sailings can receive future cruise credit, onboard credit or a full refund.

The company indicated, though that cruising, which has been on hold for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, could possibly resume on select ships in July.

The cruise line hopes to begin operating sailings on three ships from Florida and Texas, including Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze from Galveston, and Carnival Horizon from Miami, Carnival said.

If Carnival comes up with a solution allowing cruises to visit Alaska, where cruising is on hold through February 2022 because of Canada’s cruise ban, Carnival Miracle will take on some of Carnival Freedom’s Seattle departures, the company said.

Because of the uncertainty about whether cruising will be permitted in the United States this summer, Carnival said guests booked on these sailings may cancel without any penalties by May 31 and receive a full refund.

At the end of April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that cruising could resume by mid-July, USA Today reported.

"We acknowledge that cruising will never be a zero-risk activity and that the goal of the CSO’s phased approach is to resume passenger operations in a way that mitigates the risk of COVID-19 transmission onboard cruise ships and across port communities," Aimee Treffiletti, head of the Maritime Unit for CDC’s COVID-19 response within its Global Mitigation Task Force, wrote in a letter to cruise lines.

The CDC has provided guidelines for cruise lines in its Framework for Conditional Sailing Order.

“We continue to have constructive discussions with the CDC but still have many questions that remain unanswered. We are working diligently to resume sailing in the U.S. and meet the CDC guidelines,” Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said. “We sincerely appreciate the continued patience and understanding of our guests and travel advisor partners and will share additional information as quickly as we can.”