Cunard to extend operations pause up to May 2021

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 25 August 2020 25 August 2020

Cunard, the UK based upmarket cruise line in the Carnival Corporation & plc group, will extend pause in its operations from the end of November to up to May next year, the company said in a statement.

“ In an acknowledgement of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) guidance and the complexity of operating world voyages, luxury cruise line Cunard will be extending its pause in operations from November 2020 until March 25, 2021 for its ship Queen Elizabeth; until April 18, 2021 for Queen Mary 2 and until May 16, 2021 for Queen Victoria,” the company said in a statement.

Cunard president Simon Palethorpe said: “We are so sorry to all those guests who were due to sail on any of the cancelled voyages and for the disappointment this news will cause.  After very careful consideration and reviewing the latest guidance, we simply do not feel it would be sensible to start sailing again with our current schedule so we have reviewed future itineraries.”

“Queen Elizabeth has returned to the UK and with ongoing uncertainty over the re-opening of many ports and countries, it is sadly not practical to continue her planned itineraries for 2021.”

“Therefore, in addition to the pause in operations, all of Queen Elizabeth’s sailings due to depart between March 26, 2021 and December 13, 2021, in and around Australia, Japan and Alaska, will be cancelled.”

Instead, Cunard will operate a programme of shorter duration European holidays ranging from three to 14 nights departing from Southampton.  These will start at the end of March 2021, with a series of scenic voyages around the coast of Cornwall, the west coast of Ireland and the Scottish Isles.

There will also be short breaks to Amsterdam which will include an overnight in the city, as well as voyages to northern and southern European destinations including Norway and the Iberian coast, with several of these itineraries featuring overnight city stays.

“Queen Elizabeth’s new programme will be completed with a series of seven and 14 night voyages in the Mediterranean, sailing from Barcelona.  It is an exciting new programme which I am sure will have great appeal,” Palethorpe said. All new itineraries on board Queen Elizabeth will be available to book from September 29, 2020.

Queen Mary 2, which experienced a curtailed World Voyage this year the cancellation of its World Voyage in 2021, will sail a classic World Voyage in 2022.  “This will replace her scheduled sailings departing January 3, 2022 to April 3, 2022, including the voyage to South America,” Palethorpe added.

The new 104 night cruise will depart from Southampton on January 10, 2022 and include calls to Greece, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Australia and Bali before returning to Southampton via Abu Dhabi, Oman, Italy and Portugal. The ship will sail through the Suez Canal both on the outbound journey and on return. It will be bookable, either as a full world voyage or as one of six sectors, from September 8, 2020.

“Given the current uncertainty, the complexity of our scheduled World Voyage with our international mix of guests visiting many countries and continents, each with its own evolving travel regulations was a very real factor in our decision making,”  Palethorpe stated.

MSC Cruises postpones restart of MSC Magnifica’s Eastern Med programme to 26 September

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 24 August 2020 24 August 2020

MSC Cruises, the Geneva based cruise line, said it has been forced to postpone the restart of MSC Magnifica’s cruises in the Eastern Mediterranean until 26 September.

“In connection with the recent introduction of additional testing measures for residents of Italy having travelled to Greece, we are seeing cancellations and a softening in demand since the ship’s itinerary includes as many as three ports in that country. This has led to the decision to delay the restart of the ship by four weeks,’ the company said in a statement.

However, MSC Cruises said they believe that reservations will start to pick up again in the coming weeks due to the appeal of the itinerary. MSC Magnifica’s sales are open to residents of the Schengen area, at the same time in this early phase of restart the majority of guests are expected to be Italian nationals and residents.

“As a result of this, MSC Magnifica cruise departures from 29 August to 19 September have been cancelled. The first cruise will depart from Bari, Italy with an unchanged itinerary on 26 September,” the company said.

Guests affected by the cancelled cruises will either be re-protected onto another cruise – in particular on MSC Grandiosa, which is currently sailing in the West Mediterranean - or will receive a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) where they have the opportunity to transfer the full amount paid for their cancelled cruise to a future cruise of their choice – on any ship, for any itinerary -- through to the end of 2021.

For UK & Irish guests due to the current UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice all cruises have already been cancelled and options including 125% FCC have been shared with guests.