Cruise Lines Cancel Sailings Amid Omicron

Wednesday, in view of the new global COVID-19 wave powered by the Omicron variant, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line were both obliged to cancel some of their upcoming sailings.

Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas was forced to return to port in Hong Kong Wednesday after nine passengers who’d sailed aboard its January 2 voyage were identified as “close contacts” of a local person who tested preliminarily COVID-positive, CNN reported. The departure was canceled, and the ship’s 3,000-plus passengers and crew members were detained for testing before being allowed to disembark, though the nine people whose presence had prompted the scare returned negative PCR results.

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Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) called off cruises scheduled aboard eight of its ships as far out as April, and modified a few others, citing “ongoing travel restrictions” as the cause. “Our first priority is the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit," the cruise line said in a media statement.

NCL announced its cancellation of:

— Norwegian Getaway’s sailing on January 5.

— Norwegian Pearl’s sailings through January 14.

— Norwegian Sky’s sailing on February 25.

— Pride of America’s sailings through February 26.

— Norwegian Jade’s sailings through March 3.

— Norwegian Star sailings through March 19.

— Norwegian Sun sailings through April 19.

— Norwegian Spirit sailings through April 23.

The cancellations followed NCL’s announcement that the Norwegian Pearl’s January 3 sailing would be cut short, due to “COVID related circumstances”. Guests whose voyages have been impacted by the cancellations will automatically be issued a full refund to their original form of payment, as well as a bonus “Future Cruise Certificate” redeemable for a future cruise.

While the pre-Omicron cruise industry had begun to rebound, fears surrounding cruising have been re-inflamed, due to a sudden rise in recent reports of passengers testing positive. These are likely Omicron-related breakthrough infections, since cruises (excepting some from Florida) already require all eligible passengers and all crew members to be fully vaccinated, and to test at regular intervals.

Last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an advisory to the American public, recommending that cruise ship travel be avoided amid Omicron. A statement from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) expressed a degree of shock and disappointment in reaction to the CDC’s move.

“The decision by the CDC to raise the travel level for cruise is particularly perplexing considering that cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard—far fewer than on land—and the majority of those cases are asymptomatic or mild in nature, posing little to no burden on medical resources onboard or onshore,” the industry organization said.