POSTPONES FALL AND WINTER SAILINGS; SAILINGS WILL RESUME IN MARCH 2022
Celestyal Cruises, the award-winning, number one choice for cruise travelers to the Greek Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean is on track to successfully complete its summer itineraries. The “Legendary Archipelago” on Celestyal Olympia and the adjusted “Idyllic Aegean” itinerary on Celestyal Crystal as per their schedule conclude on August 30th and August 28th respectively. The 2021 summer season has proven to be an important first step in gradually returning to a more normalized operating environment following the pause of operations throughout 2020. The successful implementation of the more enhanced health, safety and security protocols agreed with the relevant health authorities and adopted by CLIA member lines have been instrumental in delivering a positive and memorable experience for both Celestyal’s guests and crew following a most difficult period.
The cruise line typically shifts to longer haul source markets in fall and winter, which are the primary source for Celestyal’s popular shorter, three- and four-night itineraries. With the current travel restrictions in place, and the continuing evolution of additional restrictions coming into play across most source markets that typically sail later in the season, travelers have been less willing to take the necessary steps to travel this fall and winter especially for trips of shorter duration and have indicated a clear preference to defer their cruises until 2022. For this reason, the company has decided to postpone the fall and winter sailings and will resume operation in March 2022, as per the scheduled program. All named and paid individual guests impacted on 2021 sailings from September through December will have the option to receive full refunds or apply their deposits to 2022 or 2023 sailings with a 20 percent bonus value to be applied to their future sailing.
“I am extremely proud of our employees, crew, our business partners and the communities we serve for coming together during this successful summer season to provide a highly enjoyable experience for our guests while implementing our enhanced health protocols. We are confident our decision to postpone the fall and winter itineraries is 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,” said Celestyal Cruises’ CEO, Chris Theophilides.
Celestyal recently launched both its 2022 and 2023 itineraries, which demonstrates its continued growth as the regional leader and demonstrates a commitment to year-round cruising in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“In the coming months, we look forward to announcing new experiences to be enjoyed by guests in 2022 and beyond. We will also be launching a new reservations system for our travel advisor partners this fall with enhanced self-service functionality. We are already seeing strong booking demand for next year as we set to begin our 2022 operating season in March and are very much looking forward to welcoming our guests back onboard and continue to deliver the unique Celestyal destination focused experience in what looks to be an even more normalized environment,” Theophilides added.
