Celestyal suspends cruises until March 2021

Celestyal Cruises, the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean specialist, has announced the further suspension of its sailings until the already announced 2021 season, which begins on March 6.

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 through the balance of our operating season from our largest international source markets coupled with the continuing discussions at European Union level regarding the enhanced health protocols that will apply to EU cruise operations, we made the difficult but prudent decision to postpone resuming cruise operations until the scheduled start of our normal spring season next year.

“We felt that as a company, we have already put our travel partners and guests through enough date changes on when cruising could return safely. 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 and be well prepared to implement all enhanced health protocols that will ultimately be established by the EU and the countries where we operate. Whilst we appreciate and share in the disappointment our guests will feel about this decision, their wellbeing, as well as that of our loyal crew and the local communities we visit, is always top of mind.”

For all named and paid individual 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 their Future Cruise Credit against any of Celestyal Cruises’ itineraries through end of December 2022. To provide additional peace of mind, should guests choose not to redeem their FCC by end of December 2021, they will automatically receive a full refund equal to the original amount paid to Celestyal upon the voucher’s expiration.

Celestyal Cruises will automatically send the Future Cruise Credit voucher directly to guests or their travel agents, so there will be no need to call the Contact Centre other than to rebook, it said.

Celestyal Cruises recently launched its 2021 and 2022 digital brochure supported by the early booking promotional campaign Escape To The Future, and a Peace of Mind policy that allows newly booked guests to change any cruise that sets sail until December 31, 2021.