Major cruise lines across the world have decided to extend the pause of their cruise operations to May, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
MSC Cruises said “as Governments across the globe have since further strengthened ashore public health and safety measures to protect local populations and contain the further spread of the virus, today’s decision by MSC Cruises to further extend this extraordinary measure aims to mirror and further support the effectiveness of such efforts,”.
“MSC Cruises is working tirelessly with all guests and their travel agents to address the impact of this necessary decision to their bookings on our ships up to May 29 and it is genuinely sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause them. By announcing this now, the Company intends to provide travel agents and guests who are booked on affected sailings with as much time as possible to move their booking to a future cruise,” the company said.
Carnival Cruises also confirmed an extension until May 11th, in light of the global health and economic impact of the virus. They sent out emails regarding cancellation offers and refunds for persons pre-booked to sail within that period. Those booked after May 11th will not be affected.
P&O Cruises are also following suit. The company’s President Paul Ludlow said: “It is clear that our original date of April 11 to resume sailings, which would have been a 30 day pause in operations, is just not feasible in light of the government announcements last week. regrettably, therefore, we are now extending this pause until May 15. Given the current guidelines it is prudent and practical to extend the pause until normal operations can be resumed”.