Norwegian Cruise Line has cancelled on Jamaica, which was preparing to play host as homeport for one of its cruise lines, the Norwegian Joy.

Information has come that the company has cancelled its planned Jamaica homeport sailings, releasing on Friday last a revamped deployment schedule, as the cruise line continues to plan for its US homeport restart. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working closely with the cruise lines with almost daily announcements and updates, as to a US restart of cruise shipping as early as July.

The cancellation of the Jamaican home-porting from Montego Bay is just one of those many updates. In another of those updates, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that it is now transferring crew there that were previously assigned to Norwegian Joy, cancelling the sailings that were to begin from Montego Bay.

Those Jamaica homeport sailings, which were set to begin in August, had been arranged back in April when a US summer restart was looking iffy. The Norwegian Joy Jamaican home-porting itineraries included seven-day packages sailing out of Montego Bay, operating at 50 per cent capacity, in keeping with current COVID-19 protocols in place for the cruise shipping industry.

Caribbean islands chosen as temporary homeports experiencing their worst fear

The Norwegian Joy has occupancy of approximately 3,800. In the meantime, Jamaica and other Caribbean islands such as Bermuda that were named as temporary homeports are experiencing their worst fear of the CDC lifting their cruise shipping restrictions out of US homeports earlier than expected.

Two weeks ago, Royal Caribbean International announced the cancellation of its upcoming Vision of the Seas home-porting season from Bermuda, citing growing evidence of a cruise restart out of America this summer. A number of Caribbean islands such as Bermuda and Jamaica were identified as homeport for cruise vacations by Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines, given the restrictions in cruise shipping from American home ports.

In announcing the withdrawal from Bermuda, Royal Caribbean said in a press statement that, “the likelihood of cruises setting sail from the US this summer is greater each day, and with that, US travellers are increasingly showing a preference for more direct access to ports of departure”.

The cruise line explained that the cancellation does not affect any other open deployments. In late March, Royal Caribbean reported that the Vision would launch seven-day cruises from Bermuda, which was to be its second ship to resume service for North Americans from just outside US borders this summer.