Carnival Cruise Line is responding to a request for proposal from the U.S government by chartering its Carnival Fascination to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for four months. The ship will be berthed in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands to house and feed Caribbean relief workers.
Carnival finalized the agreement on October 11, 2017, and the ship will service FEMA from October 15, 2017, to February 3, 2018. In order to facilitate the charter, the line had to cancel its regularly scheduled cruises from San Juan, Puerto Rico during this time. All affected guests will get a full refund as well as a future cruise discount as compensation for the change.
The Caribbean has long been a mainstay destination of Carnival with its ships having been historically deployed there for over 45 years. As such, the company is proud to partner with FEMA in order to help the hurricane-ravaged region. The line additionally apologizes to those cruise guests displaced from the originally planned sailings and thanks them for their understanding.
Refunds will automatically apply to the initial payment method within three weeks. Carnival is also working with its airline partners to request change fee waivers and assist in regards to those that are non-refundable.
The Carnival Fascination is scheduled to resume cruise departures year-round from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean on February 18, 2018, after a dry-dock refurbishment in the Grand Bahama shipyard. There, the ship will be updated with a number of new features like Guy's Burger Joint, Blue Iguana Cantina and more.
[READMORE]READ MORE: Carnival Pledges Up to $10 Million in Irma Relief[/READMORE]
The news comes at a time when FEMA is also chartering another cruise ship-Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line's Grand Celebration-according to Cruise Industry News. It is currently housing the National Guard in St. Thomas before it returns to cruise service on December 23, 2017.
The report also points out that other Carnival ships have been used by FEMA in the past after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
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