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Carnival will restart US cruises out of Texas in July

Andrea M. Rotondo
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Andrea M. Rotondo is director of content operations at TPG. She's trailed an orca pod from a skiff in Alaska’s Inside Passage, had an allergic reaction to a cheetah she met at a South African rehabilitation center and hiked the Borneo rainforest to glimpse orangutans in the wild — and she's written about it all.
June 07, 2021
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3 min read
Carnival Vista WaterWorks
Carnival will restart US cruises out of Texas in July
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This is the kind of good news we love sharing: Carnival Cruise Line announced today that it's restarting its U.S. cruise operations.

The line will return to the Port of Galveston on July 3. Carnival Vista will begin sailing first followed by Carnival Breeze on July 15. This signals the cruise line's come back to U.S. cruising after a 15-month shutdown due to COVID-19 concerns and limits mandated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For these itineraries, passengers must have received their final dose of a CDC-approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days before the cruise embarks. Passengers must have proof of that vaccination.

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In a statement, Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said, "We appreciate the progress and support for our U.S. restart from the CDC and other key federal agencies; however, the current CDC requirements for cruising with a guest base that is unvaccinated will make it very difficult to deliver the experience our guests expect, especially given the large number of families with younger children who sail with us. As a result, our alternative is to operate our ships from the U.S. during the month of July with vaccinated guests."

Carnival is also hoping to restart cruises from PortMiami with Carnival Horizon. The cruise line is in talks with the State of Florida and the CDC. The line indicated it would make an announcement on Friday regarding protocols for those sailings.

Those are previously booked and scheduled voyages aboard the 3,960-passenger Carnival Horizon. The line hasn't canceled them since it feels there's a good chance it can come to an agreement with Florida and the CDC and make those vacations a reality.

The cruise line understands that passengers with previously booked cruises for later this summer are anxious to find out the plan for August sailings and hinted that an announcement with more details would happen in "the coming days."

In related news, Royal Caribbean received approval from the CDC to conduct a "test cruise" with its 5,518-passenger Symphony of the Seas out of PortMiami on Aug. 1. If the sailing goes well, that will pave the way for other Royal Caribbean sailings in August with paying passengers.

Featured image by Andy Newman/Carnival Cruise Line
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.