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While U.S. cruise ships remain docked by the coronavirus pandemic, some European cruise lines are getting ready to return to the seas.
Costa Cruises, an Italian line owned by Carnival Corp., plans to have its flagship Costa Smeralda resume operations next month with an itinerary of three-, four- and seven-day cruises to Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari. The ship is scheduled to set sail on March 27.
In May, the Smeralda will then switch to week-long cruises in the western Mediterranean, with stops in Italy, France and Spain, according to the cruise line. And another ship, the Costa Luminosa, will also return to service for week-long cruises in Greece and Croatia.
Costa Cruises plans to have its flagship Costa Smeralda resume operations next month. (Costa Cruises)
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Costa said it has added new measures to help protect guests and crew since the start of the pandemic, such as limiting capacity and adding temperature checks for everyone disembarking and re-embarking the ship.
"Costa is working with national and local authorities of the countries included in the itineraries of its ships outside Italy to define the details of the restart of cruise operations, with enhanced health and safety measures through the implementation of the Costa Safety Protocol," the company said in its announcement.
The Costa Luminosa will also return to service for week-long cruises in Greece and Croatia in May. (iStock)
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Costa isn’t the only Carnival-owned brand set to return to service in March. Its German cruise line, AIDA, will have a ship sailing around the Canary Islands beginning on March 20, it said earlier this week.
Both cruise lines had resumed service in the fall, but had to again cancel their voyages as the worsening spread of COVID-19 necessitated another round of lockdowns.
AIDA Cruises will have a ship sailing around the Canary Islands beginning on March 20. (AIDA Cruises)
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Passengers aboard the ships should expect those enhanced safety measures to be taken seriously. In October, when it had resumed sailing, AIDA refused to allow one passenger to return to a ship after he broke virus protocols by leaving his travel group during a shore excursion.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear when passengers may be able to return to cruises in the U.S. Norwegian Cruise Line said this week that it was extending its suspension until June, and a Royal Caribbean executive recently told travel advisors that the company was waiting for the CDC to say when it could hold trial sailings to test its coronavirus safety protocols.
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