NYCruiseInfo Blog

Beautiful Beaches of the Bahamas Closed to United States Citizens to Contain Coronavirus The Bahamas has temporarily banned all United States Citizens from vacationing at the island nation. The ban, depending on how long it is enforced, could impact cruises from New York and New Jersey. These cruises frequently called at Nassau, Freeport and private islands in the Bahamas  on 7 day winter cruises. Here is the details of the current ban. "Our current situation demands decisive action if we are to avoid being overrun and being defeated by this virus," Minnis said in his address, noting that the Bahamas has confirmed 15 new cases for a total of 153 cases. 49 of the cases had been identified since the Bahamas reopened its borders on July 1.  Sea vessels carrying commercial passengers will also not be permitted to enter. However, private international flights, charters and yachts from all countries will be allowed.  National airline Bahamasair will en...

City of Bar Harbor Denies Small Ship Cruise Calls For The Remainder of 2020. Bar Harbor has said "NO THANKS" to all cruise passengers to the Maine city in 2020. This announcement came as a complete surprise to American Cruise Line which was expecting the approval of the town council. The Cruise line's 20 page presentation covered everything from pre-cruise, post-cruise, on board and land-side precautions - all expected to be implemented to stop / restrict the spread of the coronavirus. The small ship cruise line - American Cruise Line is exempt from many of the other restrictions in place because of their ship's low capacity - carrying 200 passengers or less with most ships carrying around 100 passengers. In addition, American Cruise Lines' ships are US registered and the crew are  United States citizens which make the cruise line exempt from the Jones Act Restrictions - which requires foreign flag ships to call at a foreign port during every cruise. ...

Artists Rendering of Carnival Cruises' New Carnival Mardi Gras - Delivery Delayed until February, 2021 Carnival Cruise Line has announced that the Mardi Gras will now debut in early 2021,  with cruises sailing from Port Canaveral starting February. 6, 2021. The Carnival Mardi Gras was expected to sail a short series of cruises from New York before heading to Florida for the Fall / Winter - those cruises were cancelled earlier in the year and now the ship has been delayed further. Itineraries out of Port Canaveral for departures from Nov. 14, 2020 to Jan. 30, 2021 have been cancelled. "We continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global commerce, public health and our cruise operations. In addition to our current pause in service, there have been many other unintended consequences, including shipyard, dry dock and ship delivery delays, and related changes to our deployment plans for our fleet," said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival C...

Carnival Corporation Announces Upcoming Fleet Reductions and Delay of New Ships. Carnival Cruises announced that the company expects future capacity to be moderated by the phased re-entry of its ships, the removal of capacity from its fleet and delays in new ship deliveries.  As previously announced, the company intends to accelerate the removal of ships in fiscal 2020 which were previously expected to be sold over the upcoming years. The company sold one ship during June 2020 and has agreements for the disposal of five ships and preliminary agreements for an additional three ships, all of which are expected to leave the fleet in the next 90 days.  These agreements are in addition to the sale of four ships, which were announced prior to fiscal 2020. In total, the 13 ships expected to leave the fleet represent a nearly nine percent reduction in current capacity.  The company currently expects only five of the nine ships originally scheduled for delive...

AIDA Cruises to Resume cruises from German ports post coronavirus starting August 2020 AIDA previously announced it will resume guest cruise operations from ports in Germany beginning August 2020 with three of its ships, making it the first of the company's nine cruise brands to resume guest cruise operations. AIDA will introduce additional safety and protective measures which will include pre-boarding health questionnaires and temperature checks for both guests and crew, physical distancing guidelines, routing systems on arrival, departure and onboard, increased mitigation and sanitation efforts in all cabins and public areas, as well as closely managing capacities at onboard experiences. These enhanced measures have been developed with advice from medical experts and align with the current guidance from the World Health Organization ("WHO") and the German Robert Koch Institute ("RKI"), as well as other governmental and health authorities....

Royal Caribbean to Offer Buffets Post Operational Pause. Royal Caribbean has announced that they will continue to offer buffets on their cruise ships post pandemic. Royal Caribbean has hinted that the future of the buffet may include 1) Having a crew member dish out portions so only one person touches the utensils; 2) food dispensed in single serve portions. Pick and Go.  3) Disposable utensils - only you use the serving spoon and then dispose. It is possible to see a combination of all of the option above on the RCCL ships. Royal Caribbean has to depend on buffets to feed a portion of their passenger base since there are not enough onboard space in the restaurants to accommodate everyone. RETURN TO NYCRUISEINFO.com   ---------------------------------------   Sister Sites => NYCruiseInfo.com Website - Cruise Schedule, Ship Reviews, Ports of Call & More. => Nick's Cruise Corner Blog - News On Cruise Ships Sailing World Wide. => Follow Us on I...

Rendering of Carnival Cruises' Carnival Radiance - Refit Suspended. It is unclear if work will ever resume on the transformation  of the Carnival Victory to the Carnival Radiance at Spain's Navantia Shipyard. The Carnival Victory sailed transatlantic to Cadiz Spain and promptly entered the dry-dock. Demolition began on the Transatlantic voyage and work was planned to begin immediately. A Greek Ferry was chartered by the shipyard to house all of the workers during the 2 month,  $200 million dollar transformation into the Carnival Radiance. Before the ferry could reach the shipyard in Spain, it was diverted back to Greece because the Coronavirus hit Spain very hard and the shipyard was forced to pause operations.  All work stopped. The skeletal crew remained on board the ship and were trapped onboard in Spain. Work was to be completed by April 24, 2020 and the transformed Carnival Radiance was to sail a short series of European Cruises followed by a Transatlantic...