The cruise ship Mein Schiff 2 departed from her summer homeport Palma de Mallorca today, restarting the popular cruises to the western Mediterranean. Around 900 guests and 750 crew members are on board the first 7-day roundtrip voyage tith Captain Thomas Roth at the helm. The ship will sail two different itineraries with stops in Barcelona and Valencia, the Andalusian ports of Malaga and Cádiz, Alicante on the Costa Blanca and Cartagena in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. 

Princess Cruises announced the restart of cruise operations out of several U.S. ports starting from September 2021. The cruise line plans to start voyages from the ports of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ft. Lauderdale with eight ships. 

Odyssey of the Seas crew will go in a 14-day quarantine again, after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Six team members who tested positive are asymptomatic and two with mild symptoms. They are quarantined on board and are being closely monitored by the ship’s medical team.

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

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.