Just a couple of months ago, starting summer cruises from Caribbean home ports seemed like an ingenious stopgap as the timeline for sailing from the United States seemed to stretch on endlessly due to uncertainty and political wrangling.
Suddenly, the course for sailing from more convenient US ports is clear and those initially advertised summer cruises from Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica are being scratched.
The biggest factor has been cruise lines requiring that all adult guests have full vaccination. When the itineraries were first announced, American and Canadian vaccination rates were growing but still low, and may have contributed to a hesitation to book and US ports were effectively closed to cruising. In the past month, rules changed and health rules eased as vaccination rates soared.
The latest to steer a new course is Norwegian Cruise Line, which blamed challenges around crewing its ships for pulling out of a planned Caribbean summer season for Norwegian Gem sailing out of La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Read it in The Cruisington Times