Although the Disney Cruise Line has postponed its upcoming test cruises and extended its cancelation policies, the very first U.S. cruise out of Florida in over  a year recently departed.

As additional bookings open up for the next year, more cruises have continued to set sail once again with new health and safety measures in place. And, another cruise line has officially began departures from the U.S.

CNBC has shared that the Carnival Cruise Line will be launching its first U.S. cruise since the recent closures. Today, July 3rd, the Carnival Vista will depart from the Galveston, Texas port, heading to destinations like Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. Tomorrow, the Carnival Horizon will depart from Miami as well, followed by the Carnival Breeze that will set sail from Galveston on July 15th!

Guests who board the ships must show proof of vaccination or have pre-approval for an exemption by Carnival. Similarly, Royal Caribbean — which was the first cruise line to set sail in the U.S. again since the closures — has updated its vaccination policy for all cruises, except any departures from Florida. Royal Caribbean wants guests who are unvaccinated to have travel insurance if they are setting sail from Florida, after two unvaccinated guests who were underage tested positive for COVID-19.

However, Carnival has also had to cancel a few cruises as a health and safety precaution. As Australia now experiences lockdowns and increased cases, the Princess Cruise departures from Carnival in Australia have been suspended through December 19th. Despite cruises sailing once again, analysts believe that it will be a long time before cruise lines are able to recover fully.

Morgan Stanley analysts Jamie Rollo stated, “We think the cruise industry will be one of the slowest sub-sectors to recover from Covid-19. Cruising needs not just international travel to return, but ports to reopen, authorities to permit cruising, and the return of customer confidence. Risks are rising that further travel restrictions are imposed as the delta variant spreads and we approach the winter flu season.”

Although Carnival Cruise Line’s stock increased more than 20%, it has recently dropped this week from $31.52 to $26.06. This is 17% lower than its 52-week high that was recently reached on June 8th. Regardless, Carnival has already booked around 25% of its 2022 cruises, most likely from the guests who have rebooked previous sailings with credits.

Rollo also noted,”There is therefore a fair amount of 2022 left to sell, and it could be misleading to extrapolate from the small amount of cash bookings made to date. Additionally, initial cruise deployment is mostly domestic and short duration, which are lower yielding itineraries than the more exotic/international cruises which will take longer to recover.”

Rollo believes that Carnival could be “burning cash until the third-quarter of 2022,” as the cruise line may only operate at 18% capacity in its third-quarter and 45% capacity in its fourth-quarter in 2021. John Staszak, on the other hand, has detailed that the pace of bookings are ahead of 2019, prior to the closures. Staszak went on to say, “Consistent with its plans to resume cruises, Carnival expects to have all of its ships deployed by the spring of 2022. With the number of COVID cases continuing to drop, we are optimistic that management’s targets are achievable.”

Of course, we’ll keep you updated on all the other cruise line industry news you need to know moving forward. In the meantime, stay tuned with All Ears for the latest Disney entertainment and news coming soon!

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