Two Carnival Corporation cruise lines, Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, have given restart dates for more cruise ships as they bring more vessels back into service.
Princess Cruises announced that Island Princess and Diamond Princess will come back into service in early 2022. Island Princess will now return to service with a series of cruises to the Caribbean in spring 2022, prior to its 14-day Panama Canal Ocean to Ocean voyage on April 27, 2022. Diamond Princess will also return to service in spring 2022 with a season of Japan sailings.
Island Princess and Diamond Princess join eight MedallionClass ships – Majestic Princess, Grand Princess, Ruby Princess, Enchanted Princess, Sky Princess, Regal Princess, Caribbean Princess and Emerald Princess—which have returned to service or are scheduled to restart by November 28, 2021, taking guests to Alaska, the Caribbean, Panama Canal, Mexico, Hawaii, and the California Coast.
“Following our successful restart in Alaska and the UK, we look forward to welcoming our guests back on board as we continue our return to cruise operations, keeping the health and safety of our guests and teammates our top priority,” said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises president.
As a result of these changes, Princess Cruises is cancelling its 2021-2022 South America & Antarctica Program on Diamond Princess, and its 2022 World Cruise along with two December 2021 Island Princess cruises.
Holland America Line will restart the two cruise ships in May 2022 when Volendam will explore Northern Europe and Zaandam will return to the Canada/New England region. With these new start dates, the Grand World Voyage and Grand South America and Antarctica Voyage will not operate in 2022 and will resume in 2023.
“We have been diligently planning and preparing to move our ships back into service, and after an extremely successful restart in Alaska and Europe we are thrilled to have return-to-service dates for Volendam and Zaandam,” said Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line. “The team members on our ships in service have shared what a positive experience it has been welcoming guests back on board. We look forward to next spring when even more eager travelers can get back to cruising with us.”
When Volendam returns on May 1, the ship will offer longer explorations ranging from 14 to 35 days to the Baltic, Norway up to North Cape and Spitsbergen, British Isles and Iceland, all roundtrip from Rotterdam, Netherlands. The ship also sails along the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean and down to Egypt and Israel.
Zaandam restarts on May 12 in the beloved Canada/New England region, with a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Boston, Massachusetts, followed by itineraries between Boston and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The ship will offer the popular 35-day Voyage of the Vikings itinerary in July that sails roundtrip from Boston to Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Ireland.
