Because of the ongoing uncertainty about travel to Europe this summer, Celestyal Cruises, the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean specialist, has scrubbed its 2020 programme and will not resume until 6 March, 2021.
Celestyal was among the first cruise lines to take the immediate decision to temporarily suspend cruise operations in mid-March .
This decisive action resulted in no COVID-19 cases on its ships and the repatriation of guests and crew before international air travel and borders globally shut down.
Leslie Peden, chief commercial officer for Celestyal Cruises, said: “As the core of our season runs from spring through the autumn, we were optimistic that we would be able to resume our cruise operations later this summer.
“However, given the prevailing uncertainty regarding travel restrictions, we made the difficult but prudent decision to postpone resuming cruise operations until the scheduled start of our normal spring season next year.
“By voluntarily pausing operations until our scheduled departures next year, Celestyal will be better positioned to offer more clarity and certainty to our valued partners and guests, as well as peace of mind.
“We will now shift our full attention to developing both 2021 and 2022 business where we are seeing encouraging signs of pent-up demand.”
For all guests impacted by this suspension, Celestyal Cruises is offering a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) valued at 120 per cent of original booking value. Guests will have until the end of December 2021 to redeem the credit against any itinerary through to the end of December, 2022.