Beginning in September, Holland America cruises will once again be a familiar presence in San Diego Bay, as the company will resume its voyages to Mexico, Hawaii and the California coast after an 18-month absence caused by the pandemic.
The cruise line announced Monday that it is scheduling 43 stopovers – all with fully vaccinated passengers – in San Diego during the seven-month period from September this year to April 2022. That’s a 20 percent increase over the last full sailing season in the city in 2018-19.
Although the ships will initially sail with less capacity – about 50 percent – Holland America continues to expect a 30 percent increase in passengers by the end of the cruise season. This is in part because it is adding a much larger ship – the 2,650-passenger Koningsdam – to its San Diego fleet.
The return of Holland America, along with other cruise lines this fall, marks a major turning point for San Diego’s previously robust cruise industry, which was decimated by the abrupt shutdown in March 2020, as the coronavirus spread. spread rapidly throughout the world.
While leisure travel has already resumed, cruise lines have just announced the resumption of departures from US ports after having to pass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exam. Holland America, like other lines, continues to vaccinate all members of its crew against COVID-19 and requires that passengers also be fully vaccinated.
San Diego will be the second US port for Holland America to resume, after Alaska cruises from Seattle begin July 24. Typically, the line begins its cruises in San Diego later in October, but this year it launches a month earlier, in part because its ships are already close, Holland America president Gus Antorcha said. They have been docked off the coast of Baja California and periodically head to San Diego and Los Angeles to stock up and vaccinate crew members.
“San Diego is a very important port for us and has been for a long time,” Antorcha said in an interview. “In fact, we have increased capacity and we have an extremely good working relationship with the Port of San Diego. And the other thing is that we can pull from Southern California and the neighboring states, so we have increased our capacity (for next season). ”
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That increase, however, will not continue into the 2022-23 season, when Holland American plans to return to its normal schedule and volume of cruise calls, Antorcha said. Considering the time the line has invested in preparing for the relaunch of the cruises, including updating protocols, vaccinations and crew training, Antorcha said he is confident that there will be smooth sailing on upcoming cruises. .
The cruise program is dominated by trips to Mexico and the California coast, with stops in Santa Barbara, Catalina and San Francisco. There are also some exits to Hawaii and the Panama Canal.
Although the first cruises from San Diego will have a smaller capacity, Antorcha said he expects to increase the occupancy of the ships fairly quickly in the season.
“We really want to make sure we can deliver the experience we want, so we want to have time to do that before we hit higher occupancy levels,” said Antorcha. “But the CDC did not put a limit on the occupation.”
The CDC also does not require that fully vaccinated passengers wear their faces covered, Antorcha said. In its current conditional sailing order, the CDC states that cruise companies can avoid pilot tests before resuming paid trips as long as 95 percent of their passengers are fully vaccinated. Torch said Holland America is trying to reach a higher threshold.
“If the threshold of 95 percent of fully vaccinated passengers is exceeded, passengers do not have to wear masks and do not have to distance themselves,” he said. “Initially, we will have certain procedures on the crew side where they will have masks because we want to be more conservative.
“It will take a while for everyone to get back to normal. I’m vaccinated and still wear masks sometimes, it just becomes second nature, but by the second day on a cruise, people are going to relax and remember how much fun they have on board. I hope some people wear masks and that’s okay. “
Holland America is applying a number of additional health and safety precautions, such as improving environmental sanitation and air filtration with improved HVAC systems and ultraviolet technology. HEPA filters will be used in key areas and medical centers will be equipped with COVID-19 analysis and treatment capabilities.
Holland America’s program announcement came the same day the Koningsdam returned to the B Street pier so that crew members on board could get vaccinated against COVID-19 for the second time. The ship had docked here a month earlier for the first round of Pfizer vaccinations.
Although Holland America will offer more sailings this cruise season, the Port of San Diego continues to anticipate fewer calls and cruise passengers overall compared to the 2018-19 period. It is estimated that there will be between 50 and 87 cruise calls in 2021-22, which will mean up to 260 thousand passengers. In addition to Holland America, Celebrity, Princess and Disney will have ships departing from San Diego.
In 2018-19, there were 95 stopovers with 320,000 passengers, the port said.
Still, port officials are pleased by the proximity of the cruise ship resumption, which is a major contributor to the local economy. With the cancellation of 167 cruises since March 2020, San Diego has taken an economic hit estimated at $ 282 million, port officials say.
“Demand for cruise ships is as high as ever, if not higher, and San Diego is a highly rated home port and cruise destination thanks to all the attractions and amenities in and around San Diego Bay,” said Michael Zucchet. , who chairs the board of the Port of San Diego. “We are delighted that Holland America, one of our most veteran cruise customers, is set to meet demand by representing approximately half of all the cruises we expect next season.”
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