The cruise ship Nautica operated by Oceania Cruises is under quarantine after several contractors and crew members onboard tested positive for Covid-19, reports one crew member currently on board. Nautica is at the wet dock in Genoa, Italy for refurbishment when the first cases were reported and lock dock was announced by the Port on December 3. The crew member said that the virus originates from contractors who boarded after the ship entered the port.

Despite the strict measures and immunization policies against the COVID-19, NCL’s cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway, returned to New Orleans with 17 positive cases, including one “probable case” of the Omicron variant in a South African crew member. The ship departed from New Orleans on the 28th of November visiting Belize, Honduras and Mexico, with 3,200 passengers onboard.

Being on a 21-month operational pause, the Royal Caribbean's vessel is finally sailing again. This news is followed by launching a new program that presents Barbados as a new homeport. Bridgeport, Connecticut is where the Vision-class vessel sailed from, to offer itineraries ranging from seven to fourteen nights, fulfilled with exploring of the islands around the Southern Caribbean and Latin America, including some new ports of call as well.

The new variant of COVID, Omicron is new to us but has a swift impact worldwide. Caused several restrictions for many countries and hit many companies, especially the travel companies. This is one more obstacle for the cruise industry traveling to ports around the world. The questions that need to be answered are: whether the new variant is more transmissible and will the vaccines be less effective? 

MSC Cruises and Chantiers de l’Atlantique made an announcement about MSC’s next-generation ships, the World Europa will have two 75 kW solid oxide fuel cells onboard running on natural gas. The ship’s power will be produced from a liquid natural gas that will run the main engines.

By releasing the third ship powered by liquefied natural gas, Costa Cruises further proves the obligation to sustainable innovation.

This month Royal Caribbean International marks one year since the successful restart of cruise operations, an important milestone worth celebrating. The company and its crew made extraordinary efforts to start cruising again with Quantum of the Seas, the first ship to make a comeback since the industry shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the great experience and the “amazing response” to this summer’s inaugural season around the British Isles, MSC Cruises announced the return of MSC Virtuosa to Southampton for the next summer, 2022 offering 20 voyages across Europe.    

The second Carnival Cruise Line ship to visit Jamaica, since the restart of the cruise industry is Carnival Glory, stopping for the first time in the beautiful Montego Bay in Jamaica. The comeback of the Conquest-class vessel was on1st of December,  following other Carnival ships scheduled to bring back the fun on the Caribbean ports.

The UK Government tightened travel restrictions on cruise ships as fears grew about the Omicron impact on the country's ongoing Covid surge. The new regulation which was passed on November 30, states that cruise passengers will not be allowed to go out in UK ports for organized shore excursions or independent shore excursions. Passengers on all cruise ships touring the UK can only embark and disembark at the end of the voyage.