Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said that while the line still has no plans to restart outside of U.S. borders, as both Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line plan to do this summer, it may have no choice.
"While we have not made plans to move Carnival Cruise Line ships outside of our U.S. homeports, we may have no choice but to do so in order to resume our operations, which have been on pause for over a year," Duffy said in a statement. "We appreciate the continued patience and support from our loyal guests, travel advisors and business partners as we work on a return-to-service solution."
Christine Duffy
Carnival today extended its operations pause from U.S. ports through June 30.
Seabourn, Carnival's luxury sister line in the Carnival Corp. family, said today it will launch cruises from Greece out of Athens beginning July 3, open to fully vaccinated guests.
Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Viking and Crystal have all said they would resume service outside of the U.S. this spring and summer.
Duffy late last month said that Carnival had no plans to "move our ships away from their U.S. homeports. I've always said Carnival Cruise Line is America's cruise line," she said.