Celestyal Cruises announced the line had decided to postpone its fall & winter sailings and will resume operations in March next year, as per the scheduled program.
According to the company, the decision was made because of the current travel restrictions, and the continuing evolution of restrictions coming into play across source markets.
Celestyal Cruises’ CEO Chris Theophilides said in a statement they were confident their decision to postpone the fall and winter itineraries was the right one.
“Celestyal continues to draw a large portion of our guests from a number of global source markets that each have their specific preferred travel period, and it became apparent to us that these core markets have become less interested in being inconvenienced by the current and ongoing travel restrictions in place—particularly for shorter duration trips in the fall and winter. At the start of the pandemic in 2020, we were one of the first cruise lines to pause our operation in reaction to the operating realities, and this is what we are also doing at this juncture.”
All paid individual passengers impacted on 2021 cruises from September through December have the option to receive a full refund or apply their deposits to 2022/2023 sailings with a 20% bonus value to be applied to the future sailing.
The news of postponement came in with the announcement that Celestyal Cruises is on track to successfully complete the summer itineraries. The “Idyllic Aegean” itinerary on Celestyal Crystal and the “Legendary Archipelago” on Celestyal Olympia are expected to conclude on August 28 and August 30, respectively.