As you know, at Carnival UK our highest responsibilities and our top priorities are to operate safely, to protect the environment, and to be in compliance everywhere we operate in the world.
Our current focus isn’t when we can resume operations, but further enhancing our already stringent health and safety measures. We’re therefore continuing to work with Government and industry bodies at the highest possible level, such as Public Health England and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), to review every aspect of a holiday with us. Before we can consider sailing again, we must establish a framework of policies and procedures that ensure everyone on board, crew and Guests, remain safe and well. Our aspiration is to be adopting best practice in managing Covid-19 within the travel industry.
So unfortunately, following our decision to continue the pause in operations last month, we have made a further difficult decision to extend P&O Cruises pause in operations for all sailings up to and including October 15, 2020.
We expect to be able to share details of what’s happening with future Cunard cruises next week.
Next steps
Supporting our colleagues on board and our Guests at this time is our absolute priority and we’ve been in touch with updates on what’s happening and what this means for them. We’re also in the process of reaching out to our partners across all areas of the business, our travel agents, suppliers and port agents, to let them know about this extension.
We need to endure this pause and have committed to use the time to ensure that when we do sail again, we do so safely. This includes our continued work with Meyer Werft to determine Iona’s new delivery date.
Taking care of our colleagues
Despite having to navigate the restrictions and constant changes imposed on us by various countries and authorities around the world, we’re continuing to work hard on a number of plans to ensure colleagues, who are due to return home, can do so as quickly as possible. And for the rest of our crew still on board, their safety and wellbeing remains our priority.
P&O Cruises President, Paul Ludlow, has recorded a new video update for all fleet colleagues which you can watch below:
Stay safe and well
For all of us at home the focus is still on keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe and well as the Government relaxes the guidelines around lockdown and we cautiously venture back out to a very different world.
Thank you for your continued commitment, courage and tenacity as we continue to work through these uncertain times together and do the right thing for the safety of our people and Guests. We’re continuing to commit all our resources, energy and time to sustain and protect our business for the future.
We understand that you may have questions and have updated our Frequently Asked Questions on The Insider with more information about this so please continue to use the Covid-19 pages to stay up-to-date.