We're part of Celebrity Cruises' Captain's Club, and received the following email from their CEO today:
I hope this note finds you and your family well. The current environment continues to be unlike anything we have ever seen and impacts all of us in different ways �" and for a longer period of time than any of us expected. As you know, we have extended our global cruising suspension through October 31, 2020. While it’s painful to continue to be out of service, we know it is the right thing to do. Today, rather than focus on what we aren’t able to do, I want to share many of the things we are doing to get back into service and to welcome our guests and our crew back on board and to prepare for a new world of sailing.
We are operating in a new way.
For the last four months, we have been implementing stringent onboard protocols for our crew in alignment with CDC guidelines. I am proud to share that this month sees 100% of non-essential Celebrity crew members being repatriated and we are the first major cruise line to have all ships designated green by the CDC. The only crew remaining on board will be working to take care of our beautiful ships. In addition, we have designated Celebrity Edge as our “Mother Ship”. With Captain Kate at the helm, Edge comes into Miami every two weeks to pick up fresh foods, relief crew members, and other essentials and delivers them to the four Celebrity ships in the Bahamas area. This pause in operations has been especially hard for our crew and we are doing all that we can to take good care of them.
We continue to support the communities we visit.
It’s very important to us to support the communities that bring so much joy to our guests each and every day. As an example, Celebrity’s history in Alaska runs deep. We were the first cruise line to call at the pier in Huna / Icy Strait Point and provided funding to start the destination over a decade ago. This development has revitalized the community and the culture and we are proud of the positive impact we have had there. Alaska is one of many destinations hit hard by this pandemic without cruise guests visiting. Earlier this year we partnered with Dell to provide laptops to students in remote Alaska school districts who had no access to a device for learning. We’ve also provided support to Alaska organizations focusing on domestic violence shelters, food banks and school education.
We are adjusting our service model to this new normal.
Recognizing the complexity of the situation, we’ve assembled an advisory panel of 11 experts�"including physicians, scientists, and public health specialists�"to advise us on the right return-to-service approach. I encourage you to visit our website where you can learn more about our Healthy Return to Service advisory panel. We also introduced a transformed mustering model, called eMuster™ that uses technology to provide safety information to you on your mobile device and interactive stateroom TV. This way, you’ll be able to review the information prior to sailing, eliminating the need for the traditional large group assemblies.
We are continuing to offer flexible booking options. Our Cruise with Confidence cancellation policy now applies to sailings booked before September 30, 2020 and we’re continuing our Lift and Shift option, which allows you to move your vacation plans to next year. Visit celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence for more details.
Lastly, we’ve launched a new program called Power Up Points to enable our loyalty members to earn points even when we’re not sailing. Click here to learn more about different activities to earn points from home.
There is so much waiting on the horizon for us when we can return to sailing. We look forward to welcoming you back onboard very soon.
Until then all my very best,
Lisa Lutoff-Perlo
President & CEO, Celebrity Cruises
