Carnival Cruise Line planning to set sail again

The owner of the ill-fated Ruby Princess plans to resume some US cruises in August, as it extends the cancellation of Australian sailings.

The disembarkation of passengers from the Ruby Princess has sparked an official inquiry, after many came down with COVID-19. Picture: AAP

Carnival Cruise Line says it plans to resume sailings on eight ships departing from Florida and Texas beginning August 1 and is extending the cancellations of some of its other voyages -- in North America and Australia -- to later in the year as it continues to tackle the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cruise line’s plans to start sailing again came after the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure launched an inquiry into Carnival’s health and safety practices. The committee sent letters Friday to Carnival, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Coast Guard requesting copies of all memos, emails and other communications that pertained to COVID-19 or other infectious disease outbreaks aboard cruise ships.

“Our goal is the same as the committee’s goal: to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, along with compliance and environmental protection,” Carnival Corp. Carnival Cruise Line’s parent company, said. “We are reviewing the letter and will fully co-operate with the committee.”

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that cruise-ship operators had ample evidence to believe their fleet of luxury liners were incubators for the new coronavirus, yet they continued to fill ships with passengers and helped spread the disease.

Carnival owns the “Ruby Princess” cruise ship, identified as a link to many cases of coronavirus in Australia after passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney despite signs of illness. The incident is the basis of an official inquiry.

The US Centres for Disease Control issued a no-sail order to cruise companies on March 14. It was extended and is set to expire July 24, unless the agency decides to lift it sooner.

The CDC says infectious diseases can easily spread when crew members from a ship with an outbreak transfer to other ships. It notes outbreaks of COVID-19 on cruise ships also pose a risk because passengers can spread the disease into communities across the world after disembarkation.

Carnival said it was still determining what specific measures it will take to prevent future outbreaks once it resumes sailing.

“We continue to engage with the CDC and government officials at a variety of levels about new protocols we would implement prior to a return to sailing,” the company said. “We will also be in discussions with officials in the destinations we visit.”

Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University’s College of Public Health, said she’s not sure how cruising can be done safely. Even with reduced capacity, she said, ventilation systems can still spread droplets through enclosed spaces.

“Everything would still have to be distanced,” she said. “Dancing, concerts on board, other types of entertainment? Doubtful. Pools? Probably overcrowded. Dining? No idea how they’d do it.”

Carnival said passengers will get refunds or vouchers for future travel if their cruises are cancelled.

The Ruby Princess departs Port Kembla after the investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak on board. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The cruise line said it plans to resume sailings on Carnival Dream, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Vista from Galveston, Texas; Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sensation from Miami; and Carnival Breeze and Carnival Elation from Florida’s Port Canaveral. Carnival said it chose those ports because they are accessible by car.

“There will obviously be changes once we start sailing again,” Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said in an email. “We are using this extended pause to continue to build a strong set of protocols for guest, crew and community health and safety.”

All other sailings on ships based in North America and Australia are cancelled through to August 31, while all North American cruises from June 27 to July 31 won’t sail, the cruise line said.

Carnival Spirit Alaskan cruises from Seattle, the Carnival Spirit Vancouver-Honolulu cruise on September 25 and the Honolulu-Brisbane trans-Pacific cruises on October 6 also will be cancelled, the company said. In Australia, the company said Carnival Splendor cruises from June 19 to August 31 won’t sail.

Royal Caribbean, the second largest cruise operator after Carnival, in April extended its sailing cancellations through to June 11, while Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings extended its suspension to June 30. Royal Caribbean said it hasn’t determined when it would return to service. Norwegian didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The pandemic has dried up cruise bookings -- decimating the industry -- and companies are set to miss out on the usually lucrative summer months with the extended cancellations. Carnival in March posted a loss for the fiscal first quarter and expected to turn a loss for the year. It said advanced bookings for the remainder of the year were meaningfully lower than the prior year, with prices offered at a discount as demand evaporated.

Cruise operators took an early hit in the pandemic, with Carnival’s Diamond Princess ship in Yokohama, Japan, becoming an outbreak site in February. The ship, which yielded one of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US, had more than 700 passengers and crew who tested positive for the virus by late February and six people died, according to the World Health Organisation.

Still Carnival Corp is in good financial shape. It has raised nearly $US6 billion in debt and equity since the crisis began, and its CEO recently said the company can last through 2020 with no revenue from cruises. The company wasn’t eligible for loan assistance from the U.S. government because it is incorporated in Panama.

Dow Jones, AP