Celebrity Cruises will only work with ports which are the “most advanced” in controlling the spread of Covid-19 when the line returns to service.
President and chief executive Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said Celebrity would be “methodical” about which ports it would call at, particularly in Europe and the Caribbean.
Noting that Celebrity Cruises has 14 ships, and its sister line Royal Caribbean International has more than 30, she said the return would be “gradual”.
Joining a Travel Weekly webcast from her home in Florida, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said: “One of the things that is well-documented is that, when we open up, it will be slow.
“We will pace it. We will take a subset of the places we visit and will work very closely with those places. And, just like we’re doing with our shipboard protocols, we will look at different protocols in the ports. We will work with the ports that are most advanced in how they’re thinking – the ones that are most advanced in terms of how they are controlling and have been able to control this pandemic.”
She pointed out that it would be some time before Celebrity returns to Europe but said this would give the line plenty of time to establish which ports it can include in itineraries.
“We have quite a good amount of time between now and when we would be back to Europe, for example,” said Lutoff-Perlo. “So we can really be methodical and work with all of these different ports in this, as it relates to opening up.
“Even in the Caribbean – because a lot of our brands focus on the Caribbean – we’re working very, very closely with the FCCA [Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association] and all of the Caribbean islands, and all of the heads of the Caribbean islands; their Prime Ministers or whoever their top officials are.
“We’re collaborating with them just like we’re collaborating with the CDC [US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention] in terms of how we are going to enable coming back safely. They want to know how we’re going to keep their community safe too, just as we want to know how their communities are going to make sure that our guests are safe.”
Lutoff-Perlo added: “So we have a whole team dedicated to destination and we will be very careful and we will be very thoughtful about which destinations we visit and how we visit them.
“For Celebrity, we have to open up 14 ships. It’s impossible to do that all at once. And Royals got over 30, so you can’t just open them all back up at once, it will be gradual.”