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Someday is here: our friends at Celebrity Cruises announced today that Celebrity Edge will be the first ocean cruise ship approved to sail from a US port since the pause of cruise travel last year.

Celebrity Edge will start sailing from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale on June 26, 2021.  She will alternate Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries, 7 nights long. The Eastern Caribbean itinerary includes long-time favorite ports like Nassau in the Bahamas; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and St. Maarten. The Western Caribbean itinerary will take cruise guests to Roatan, Honduras; Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico and Nassau in the Bahamas.

Captain Kate McCue, the first and still only female American ocean cruise captain, will have the honor of leading the fleet – and the industry – back into operation.

Vaccinations Required

Celebrity Edge was given the green light by the CDC to be the first ship back in the water, having met all new standards for providing a healthy cruise experience for its guests and crew.  Celebrity Edge will sail with a vaccinated crew.  US guests 16 years and older must be fully vaccinated, with all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered at least 14 days prior to sailing.  (As of August 1, 2021, all US guests age 12 and older must be fully vaccinated.)

Updated guidelines from the CDC also allows the cruise lines to make further adjustments to onboard protocol. In addition, physical changes to ships – in terms of fresh air and ventilation systems; more space in restaurants and other areas; and many more safeguards are implemented to make each cruise comfortable and healthy.

But wait, there’s more!

Over the past few weeks, more and more cruise lines have announced their new summer 2021 itineraries. And these “new” cruises typically requiring passengers and crew to be vaccinated.  As the CDC and other government bodies continue to update and publish guidelines for (cruise) travel, some restrictions are being lifted or relaxed.  We expect that this will continue over the next few months.

Here are a few other cruise options that have been announced.  Call us for details!

• Celebrity Millennium, Windstar from St. Maarten to the Caribbean
• Celebrity Summit, Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas from Seattle to Alaska
• Celebrity Apex; Seabourn Ovation; Silversea’s Silver Moon, Azamara Quest, Norwegian Jade, Holland America ms Eurodam and others from Athens to the Greek Isles, Israel, Cyprus
• Norwegian Joy from Jamaica to the Caribbean.
• Norwegian Gem from La Romana, Dominican Republic to the Caribbean.
• Crystal Serenity, Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas from Nassau through the Bahamas
• Seabourn Odyssey from Barbados to the Caribbean
• Silversea Silver Origin, Lindblad Expeditions and Celebrity Flora, Celebrity Xploration and Celebrity Xpedition in the Galapagos
• Crystal Endeavor in Iceland.
• Crystal Symphony from Antigua and St. Maarten to the Caribbean.
• Viking Venus and Viking Sea from Malta to Greece and the Adriatic coast.

We are excited at this latest news and hope you are too!  But we realize that some of the new travel requirements can be a bit intimidating or confusing at first, so give your Cruise Travel Specialists at Q a call if you’d like to know more about cruise travel on Celebrity Edge or others in the summer of 2021.