Cruise
Holland America Continues To Pause Operations
With continued port closures, including Canada’s cruise ship suspension until July 1, along with other travel restrictions due to global health concerns, Holland America Line is extending its pause of global cruise operations and cancelling all sailings scheduled to depart through June 30, 2020. This includes Alaska, Canada/New England and Europe cruises. In Alaska, the cruise line is cancelling all of its Alaska sailings for summer 2020 on Maasdam, Noordam, Oosterdam, Volendam and Westerdam. In addition, all Land+Sea Journeys are cancelled. A Land+Sea Journey combines a Holland...
Princess Cancels All Voyages Through June 30
Princess Cruises is canceling all voyages through June 30, 2020 in response to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 global outbreak and the recent order from the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC). (https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/index.html) Previously, the cruise line had announced a voluntary pause for two months (60 days), impacting voyages departing March 12 to May 10, 2020. As well, Princess Cruises is confirming modifications to its Alaska season, which includes the cancellation of all Princess Alaska Gulf cruise...
COVID-19 UPDATE: Celebrity, GBTA, Crystal And More
The Celebrity Cruises team is bringing Canadian agents a great message to start the week with in this video of motivational speaker, Dr. Rick Rigsby. He knows Celebrity’s passion for its agency partners and he’ll give you goosebumps with his presentation. So top up your coffee and enjoy, Dr. Rigsby, courtesy of your friends at Celebrity Cruises. GBTA COO Has A Message For Members These are difficult days for the travel and tourism industry and business travel has certainly been hit hard. Last week, the Global Business Travel Association made it abundantly clear,...
Crystal Plan Supports Agents Now And Later
Crystal Cruises has reaffirmed its commitment to support the travel advisor community and offer luxury travellers value, guaranteed savings and choice, announcing its new Crystal Assured Savings program. The program invites travellers to make an open booking deposit of $500 per person by June 30, 2020, locking in additional savings of 2.5% -- that’s an extra savings from $50 to over $6,000 or more, depending on sailing and category -- for any seven-night or longer itinerary on the Crystal Experience of their choice including Ocean, River, Yacht or Expedition in 2020, 2021 or...
Katarina Line Introduces Fleet-Wide Savings
To help launch its 2020 season, Croatia’s small ship cruise specialist, Katarina Line, is offering fleet-wide specials of up to 40% off on some of its most popular round-trip and one-way cruises sailing the Adriatic out of Split, Opatija and Dubrovnik. Eligible cruises include departures of “Dalmatian Paradise,” a seven-night round-trip journey out of Split that visits Korčula, Mljet, Hvar, and Brač, among other ports. Specials also include 40% off on select departures of the seven-night one-way “Adriatic Explore,” sailing between Dubrovnik and Opatija. A complete list of...
Viking Launches New Experience Channel, Viking.TV
Viking (https://www.viking.com) has launched Viking.TV (https://viking.tv/), a new digital platform designed to provide enriching cultural content and livestreaming video experiences from around the world. The announcement was made by executive vice-president Karine Hagen in a video for current and past Viking guests, posted on the homepage of Viking.TV. “Right now, we are all staying at home instead of traveling together, but that does not have to mean that the only thing we can do is watch the news,” said Karine. “My father, Torstein Hagen, and I felt that if we cannot for...
COVID-19: Restaurants, Your BDMs And Lots More
Canadian BDMs have a message for agents: Sit back, relax and feel the glow because your BDMs across Canada have a message for travel agents here. BDMs from 15 supplier companies -- Transat, Uplift, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Cunard, NCL, Hurtigruten, WestJet, Carnival, Insight, Canlink, Goway, Palace Resorts and Trafalgar -- joined forces to thank agents for their support during these difficult times and make it clear that they're there for them now and when the crisis has passed. And each of the BDMs also told agents to stay well, stay safe, stay home ... and, of...
Zaandam, Rotterdam Guests Disembark in Port Everglades
Holland America Line has confirmed that Broward County and the Unified Command cleared both Zaandam and Rotterdam for arrival to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to disembark guests who are fit to travel per guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “These travellers could have been any one of us or our families, unexpectedly caught in the middle of this unprecedented closure of global borders that happened in a matter of days and without warning,” said Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line. “We are so happy to be able to...