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May 7th 2021, 8:17
Viking will restart operations in the Mediterranean with new ocean voyages from Malta for vaccinated guests this summer.
The new cruises are part of Viking’s Welcome Back collection and will see Viking Venus and Viking Sea (pictured) sailing from the Maltese capital of Valletta between July and early October.
They will offer two different 11-day roundtrip itineraries in the Mediterranean.
Elsewhere, Viking is adding more dates this summer for its Welcome Back voyages around Iceland, including sailings available to UK guests, and Bermuda.
Guests on the new Malta & Adriatic Jewels itinerary will sail to Montenegro and Croatia, calling at Kotor, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar and Šibenik, before returning to the Maltese archipelago, with a stop in Gozo and finally back to Valletta.
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For centuries, the engine’s deep rumble, followed by shuddering of the decks, have indicated that a ship is about to leave dock. It’s a moment that creates joy in any seafarer’s heart – and the time is finally approaching when the hard-hit cruise sector can again anticipate the roar of ship propellers.
Make no mistake: the industry is stirring.
OK, the global commercial cruise fleet of some 315 ships isn’t about to hit the seas any time soon. But all hands are hauling on the ropes to get there eventually.
Over the past 10 months or so – since the 2020 northern hemisphere summer – a number of cruise bubbles have been operating in Europe – around Scandinavia, Great Britain and the Mediterranean – as well as in Singapore, Taiwan, and Israel.
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From airlines to travel agents, cruise lines to hoteliers and tour operators to car hire firms, the travel sector has been pulverised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mumbrella s Steve Jones takes an in-depth look at those at the forefront of the industry and how they are fairing 12 months after the storm hit.
May 4, 2021 10:12
In February 2020, our last full month of unrestrained liberty, when we boarded aircraft with carefree abandon, and went cheek by jowl to grab bags from overhead lockers, more than 1.5 million people arrived in Australia by air.
In a letter to cruise industry leaders Wednesday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention signaled that U.S. sailing operations may resume as soon as mid-July.
Local cruise lines with port destinations in the states, including Princess Cruises headquartered in Santa Clarita and Viking Cruises, headquartered in Woodland Hills, have been non-operational since the pandemic struck last year. Industry leaders have argued the CDC has placed unfair restrictions on their operations with the Conditional Sail Order, or CSO, initially implemented in October.
“We acknowledge that cruising will never be a zero-risk activity and that the goal of the CSO’s phased approach is to resume passenger operations in a way that mitigates the risk of Covid-19 transmission onboard cruise ships and across port communities,” CDC representative Aimee Treffiletti, head of the Covid-19 global migration task force maritime unit, wrote in the letter to industry leaders.