Celestyal Announces Further Sailing Suspension
Celestyal Cruises, which has sailings to the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean, has announced the further suspension of its sailings until the previously announced 2021 season, starting March 6, 2021.
Celestyal was one of the first cruise lines worldwide to take an immediate decision to temporarily suspend cruise operations out of caution for its guests, crew and the local communities it serves in mid-March.
The decisive action resulted in no COVID-19 cases on Celestyal’s ships, and the company was able to repatriate its guests and crew home safely before international air travel and borders shut down globally.
Leslie Peden, chief commercial officer for Celestyal Cruises, said, “As the core of our season runs from the 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 the 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.”
Peden explained: “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 of 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.
And Peden continued: “We will now shift our full attention to developing both 2021 and 2022 business where we are already 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. While we appreciate and share in the disappointment this decision has on our guests, their wellbeing, as well as that of our loyal crew and the local communities we visit is always our top priority.”
For all named and paid individual guests impacted by this suspension, Celestyal Cruises is offering a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) valued at 120% 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 is providing added confidence to both guests and travel advisors through the welcomed assurance of their FCC’s supported by enhanced consumer rights and underlying guarantees, as the case may be.
The cruise company will automatically send the Future Cruise Credit voucher directly to guests or their travel advisors, so there will be no need to call the Contact Center other than to rebook.
Celestyal Cruises recently launched their 2021 and 2022 digital brochure supported by the generous early booking promotional campaign, ”Escape To The Future,” and a comforting “Peace of Mind” policy that allows newly booked guests to change any cruise that sets sail through Dec. 31, 2021.
This applies to new bookings made until Aug. 31, 2020. As long as the booking is changed at least 30 days before the sail date, a future cruise credit for 100% of the value received by Celestyal will be issued. The credit can be used toward any cruise that sets sail through Dec. 31, 2022.
