This is a developing story being updated as new information is available
Cruise lines are scrambling to re-route around the Red Sea due to ongoing attacks on commercial ships. It’s costing them a bundle and leaving thousands of guests in the lurch, but in some cases, entire cruises are being cancelled with ships sailing empty.
And the detours are already affecting plans for world cruises in 2025.
The crisis is affecting ships that were planning to use the Suez Canal to get back from Middle East to the Mediterranean. An increasing number of cruises do a winter season in the United Arab Emirates before returning to the Mediterranean in time for Europe’s summer cruise season. And world cruises generally opt to sail from Asia through the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
But to reach the Canal, ships must sail through the Bab Al Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen. The ongoing conflict in the region includes Houthi rebels firing cruise missiles at vessels. A tanker that was hit in early February sank after floating for weeks with no crew.
Fortunately, U.S. Navy counterattacks and warnings by allies that further incidents would be met with “consequences” has meant things havae been quiet in recent weeks and freight is still being moved through the Suez. But cruise lines are wisely acting to avoid any potential risk.
Carnival Corp. announced plans to chart new courses for a dozen ships scheduled to transit the Suez Canal. And that’s in the wake of earlier cancellations of port calls in Israel after the Oct. 2023 attacks by Hamas.
“Given recent developments and in close consultation with global security experts and government authorities, the company has made the decision to reroute itineraries for 12 ships across seven brands, which were scheduled to transit the Red Sea through May, 2024,” Carnival Corp. said in a release.
Holland America Line has already released a refreshed itinerary for its 2025 Grand World Voyage of Zuiderdam that replaces the Red Sea with a route around Africa to Europe as well as a call at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2, two months into a World Voyage, has decided to steer to Cape Town in April and sail up the west coast of Africa to return to her home port in Southampton.
Seabourn and Princess Cruises, both also part of the Carnival family, have also charted new courses via Cape Town.
Three ships in Carnival’s Costa Cruises fleet opted to sail through the Suez without passengers on board.
Royal Caribbean has taken the unprecedented step of asking guests its first-ever world cruise on Serenade of the Seas to vote on alternatives. The choice was an Immersive Africa segment calling at 11 African countries. The other offered fewer Africa stops and more sea days to the Canary Islands and them Turkey and the Greek Islands. Guests who vote to bail out and fly home can get a full refund for the missed segment.
Royal Caribbean had already canceled an entire Middle East season aboard Rhapsody of the Seas, which is now being used for humanitarian aid in the region since it was previously operating sailings out of Haifa. Jewel of the Seas which was scheduled to call on Israel in in August, 2024 is also likely to be affected.
Royal Caribbean Group’s luxury line Silversea Cruises has scrapped Silver Moon‘s 17-night voyage from Mumbai that was scheduled to transit the Suez and it’s sailing around Africa. Sister ship Silver Spirit that was due to sail from Dubai to Athens on March 13 is also sailing around Africa instead.
Crystal Cruises has re-routed Crystal Serenity around Africa on its world cruise and has sailied Crystal Symphony through the Red Sea without passengers. It meant cancelling the March 27 cruise on Symphony that was to have been the Chairmen’s cruise from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Greece from April 2 to 8. The world cruise of Crystal Serenity will still end as scheduled on June 8 in Miami.
Meanwhile, MSC Cruises has completely cancelled three repositioning Grand Voyage sailings in April, from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates to Europe. MSC Splendida, MSC Opera and MSC Virtuosa will now sail back empty. All passengers booked on the three cruises are being, contacted directly or through their travel agent and can transfer their booking to a future Grand Voyage of a similar duration for free. Alternatively, affected passengers can rebook to any other cruise in the company’s global network, with either a partial refund or additional payment for the difference in price of the original booking or receive a full refund with no cancellation fee.
And Virgin Voyages is re-routing Resilient Lady’s repositioning voyage from Sydney to Athens around Africa with stops in Durban, Cape Town and Namibia on the way to the Canary Islands and Barcelona.
Windstar Cruises, which had cancelled calls in Israel and was ready to deploy its Star Legend on a series of Middle East voyages is reporting enthusiastic bookings for alternative winter cruises in the Mediterranean and plans to do a full season in the winter of 2024/25.
The advantage of cruise ships is that they can sail out of the way of trouble.
Story by Wallace Immen, The Cruisington Times
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