The cruise ship MSC Splendida set sail from Trieste, Italy on June 12, becoming the fifth MSC Cruises vessel to resume operations. MSC Splendida will depart each Saturday from Trieste on a 7-night East Mediterranean itinerary along the Adriatic and arrive in Ancona on Sunday and Bari on Tuesday, calling at Corfu (Greece), Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia until 3 July when a stopover will be included in Ko

Azamara Staff Captain Kresimir Korona has been promoted to the rank of Captain. The boutique cruise line announced the exciting news yesterday welcoming Captain Kresimir, as the latest addition to the group of accomplished and amazing Azamara Captains. 

Cruise ship security officers found 69.5 Pounds (31.5 Kilos) of cocaine during a routine inspection last week while the vessel was off the coast of Florida.

India's largest manning company providing highly skilled personnel for Carnival Corporation brands - Carnival Support Services India Pvt. Ltd. (CSSI), will conduct a COVID-19 vaccination drive in Mumbai for crew administrated by the company.

Following a successful restart of cruise operations since March 2021, AIDA Cruises today announced another cruise ship will resume voyages in the Western Mediterranean. Starting July 29, 2021 the cruise ship AIDAstella will operate 10 and 11-day cruises from Palma de Mallorca with calls in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Malta. 

Royal Caribbean International continues with crewing up its ships for the upcoming cruise season. With the latest announcement of its gradual restart with more cruise ships on the way the company will bring team members from all around the world back on board.

Several crew members from India have contacted Crew Center raising concerns about their current status and rejoin dates on Celebrity Cruises. The crew said since the decision by Royal Caribbean to temporarily suspending all crew assignments in April, amid a surge of Covid-19 cases in India, they haven’t received a Letter of Employment or sign-on date by Celebrity Cruises.

Celebrity Cruises has come up with an interesting solution how to meet the CDC threshold of 95% of passengers and 98% of crew to be vaccinated on cruises sailing from U.S. ports, and at the same time comply with Florida law that prohibits companies asking guests to provide proof of vaccination.

MSC Cruises will restart voyages from U.S. ports this summer on two of its ships. The company confirmed plans to return to guest operations from U.S. ports with updated itineraries on MSC Meraviglia and MSC Divina. After receiving CDC approval for simulation cruise, MSC Meraviglia will sail out of PortMiami starting July 17, 2021. MSC Meraviglia will begin 3- and 4-night cruises also from Miami on August 2, 2021.

More positive news is coming from Celebrity Cruises as the company announced today the restart of a second cruise ship from U.S. ports. After receiving approval by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Celebrity Equinox will sail from Fort Lauderdale beginning July 25, 2021. The news comes just days after Celebrity Millennium made history as the first major cruise ship in North America and the first of Celebrity's fleet to return to sailing from Philipsburg, St. Maarten.