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Holland America Line and Seabourn extend cruise suspensions

Holland America Line and Seabourn have both extended the cancellation of cruises for much of the year.

HAL has cancelled all Alaska, Europe and Canada/New England cruises for 2020.

A 79-day Grand Africa voyage from Boston on October 3 by the ship Amsterdam has also been dropped.

Carnival Corporation luxury sister brand Seabourn has now suspended cruises by its five ships until October or November.

Seabourn had previously announced a pause in its global ship operations from March 14 to June 30.

The decision to cancel additional cruises was a “proactive response to the unpredictable circumstances continuing to evolve from the global response to the Covid-19 situation”.

Both lines are offering future cruise credits or refunds and they both warned that time was needed to process both.

HAL pledged to protect travel agent commissions on bookings for cancelled cruises that were paid in full and for the total amount of future cruise credits when clients re-book.

The extended suspensions came as Princess Cruises, another Carnival Corporation brand, abandoned cruises for the summer.

HAL president Orlando Ashford said: “As we continue to navigate through these unprecedented and challenging times, the best decision right now is to extend our pause in cruise operations into the fall.

“While this is very disappointing and we never want to let our guests down, as soon as it makes sense we will be back cruising again, giving our guests the memorable travel experiences they continue to dream about.”

His Seabourn counterpart Rick Meadows said: “We know travellers, as well as our past guests, are thinking about and looking forward to traveling based on a lot of information we are seeing lately.

“With many cruise ports still closed, destinations opening in phases, and airline capacity limited, a continuation of our pause gives us additional time to prepare for our eventual return to service.

“When we resume and social gathering is acceptable once again, we will do so with the health and safety of our guests, crew and the people in each of the destinations we visit as a priority, just as it has been throughout our history.”

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