Today Norwegian Cruise Line announced the long-awaited return to service with three ships set to sail in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. NCL’s highly anticipated return to cruising will start with the Norwegian Jade sailing from Athens (Piraeus), Greece beginning July 25, 2021, sailing 7-day cruises to the Greek Isles.

As Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings prepares for a restart of cruise operations, the company announced important information regarding crew vaccinations and approved vaccine brands in a letter sent to its crew members via email. Following a recent crew survey, which NCLH conducted regarding the availability and intend to return to work on board, the company received a large number of inquiries related to vaccinations against Covid-19.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which represents 95% of global ocean-going cruise ship capacity, today called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lift the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order. According to the trade association, the CDC needs to allow the start for the planning of a phased resumption of cruise operations from U.S. ports by the beginning of July.

One week after Norwegian Cruise Line announced suspension of cruise voyages across the fleet through June 30, 2021, the company decided to cancel additional voyages on three ships through October and November 2021

Today the Facebook page Ncl Cruise Blog shared a letter from the Norwegian Cruise Line with important information about the latest cruise cancellations.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced today another round of cancelations, extending the suspension of its global cruise operations by another month. The latest cancelations will affect all cruises on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas through June 30. NCLH said it continues to work through its safe return-to-service plan to meet the CDC requirements of the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order.

The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines announced that 879 Filipino crew members from the cruise ship Norwegian Joy arrived in Manila. According to DFA press release the first batch of 586 Filipino seafarers arrived from Aruba on 06 March, at the NAIA Terminal 1. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings arranged two chartered flights for the first repatriation group - Wamos and a TUI flight from Aruba. The second batch arrived on Monday, 08 March said DFA Undersecretary Sarah Lou Y.

The long journey back home for the NCLH crew who were scheduled to be repatriated on Norwegian Joy is canceled. Instead, the company decided to repatriate the non-essential crew using charter flights. The latest update was announced via the ship's PA system informing the crew that the company arranged flights from Aruba which are scheduled for 4th and 6th of March. There are 1053 crew members onboard Norwegian Joy who will be sent via charter flights to the Philippines and Indonesia.

The cruise ship Norwegian Joy is slowly getting ready to return non-essential crew back home after NCLH announced further cancelations of cruises through April 30, 2021.

With the release of the vaccine for COVID for essential workers such as medical professionals and positive thus far response from people who have taken both doses of the vaccine, the cruise industry is starting to review options related to how they can implement policies related to vaccination in order to be able to return the crew to work and the guests to enjoy cruises. However, the views of each cruise line appear to be different, at least for now.

Norwegian Cruise Line will return all crew members that joined recently and isn't part of the skeleton crew back home. The difficult decision was announced in a meeting yesterday and the crew on board received a letter with all the details regarding the latest repatriation process.