Seabourn Cruise Line announces latest push back on ship-sailing cancellations

Seabourn Cruise Line, owned by Carnival Corp., has extended the cancellation of its five ships into October and November.

Seabourn originally canceled its cruises from March 14 to June 30 due to the novel coronavirus. On Wednesday, the company announced its five cruise lines will now resume at different times at the end of the year:

▪ Sojourn resuming Oct. 13.

▪ Encore resuming Oct. 19.

▪ Quest resuming Nov. 6.

▪ Ovation resuming Nov. 6.

▪ Odyssey resuming Nov. 20.

“We know travelers, as well as our past guests, are thinking about and looking forward to traveling based on a lot of information we are seeing lately. With many cruise ports still closed, destinations opening in phases, and airline capacity limited, a continuation of our pause gives us additional time to prepare for our eventual return to service,” Rick Meadows, president of Seabourn, said in a statement.

For guests whose reservations were automatically canceled because of this change, Seabourn will receive a “future cruise credit” that is valid for 12 months and comes in two ways:

▪ Paid in full: Those guests paid in full will receive 125% Future Cruise Credit of the base cruise fare paid to Seabourn.

▪ Under deposit: Those guests with bookings under deposit will receive a future cruise credit valued at 125% of the deposit amount paid, plus an onboard credit of $300 per suite.

Carnival Cruise Line, also owned by Carnival Corp., said Monday it plans to resume its cruises on Aug. 1. Eight of its 27 ships will begin cruising out of ports in Florida and Texas in August, while all other cruises are canceled through at least Aug. 31. Carnival had said it would cancel all cruises through June 26.

A Miami Herald investigation has found that at least 2,787 cruise passengers and crew members have been infected and at least 74 have died from the coronavirus. COVID-19 cases are linked to at least 57 cruise ships, more than one-fifth of the ocean cruise fleet.