Ahoy! Cruise line finally shares when Carnival Sunshine will set sail from Charleston
After more than a year of delays, and sometimes silence, Carnival Cruise Line announced Thursday when it would be returning to Charleston.
The Carnival Sunshine is scheduled to set sail from the Lowcountry on Jan. 13, 2022, making it one of the last destinations the company is returning to. The ship’s return was delayed more than a dozen times by the seafaring tourism company, and in recent weeks officials have has stayed mum on plans for the Sunshine.
The Carnival Sunshine is the only ship from a major cruise line that operates in South Carolina.
By the end of this year, Carnival will have returned 17 of its other ships to service. By February, more than 90% of its U.S.-based operations will have restarted.
“Our restart plan continues to excel across all metrics, and we are looking forward to completing the restart of the fleet in the new year,” Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said in a press release. “We appreciate the support and patience of our guests, travel agents and port and destination partners who have been key to this successful restart.”
COVID-19 complicated the cruise industry’s return since the start of the pandemic. While almost every other sector of tourism was able to restart by the end of 2020, cruises did not begin sailing again from the U.S. until midsummer of this year. New York City’s Broadway is possibly the only other industry that waited longer. It reopened last month.
“I could not be more proud of of our people for their dedication and commitment and super high-level execution against the constantly changing environment,” Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald said. “Every week, the rules change. We get hundreds of thousands of calls a day because the rules keep changing everywhere in the world, and people have to adapt to manage that.”
Donald, speaking recently during a panel on the future of travel moderated by The Sun News, expressed hope for the cruise industry’s return, even as it has taken on billions of dollars in debt to stay afloat. Carnival alone lost $2.8 billion in the third quarter of this year.
“People know, in the end, we’re all coming back,” Donald said. “Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know the distance to that light is shorter. We still don’t know exactly how long that tunnel is.”
Right now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires almost all passengers and crew must be vaccinated to get on a cruise ship from the U.S., with few exceptions. The few unvaccinated passengers who do get onboard face significant restrictions, including not being allowed to disembark on their own when the ship docks.
“We are optimistic that vaccines will be approved for children between the ages of 5-11 before the end of the year and we look forward to welcoming more families back on board,” she added.
There are three Carnival ships that still lack return dates: Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville, Carnival Paradise from Tampa and Carnival Sensation from Mobile.
