Ships Docking in Florida Ports Give False Hope to Cruise Lovers
If you are currently vacationing, or live in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, you might have seen cruise ships pull into local ports. Several ships such as the Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Vista and MSC Meraviglia, have docked at the Port of Miami and Port Everglades.
But don’t get too excited just yet. They are not coming to Florida to pick up passengers. The cruise ships are docking to retrieve supplies instead, Sun-Sentinel reports.
Cruise ships were hot spots for Covid-19 outbreaks early in the pandemic. U.S.-based cruise operations have been in lockdown since last March. They are still under strict suspension as they await approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin testing new health and safety protocols.
Sun-Sentinel notes that for now, cruise lines must keep their respective ships operating at peak efficiency. That means that they have to keep some crew onboard to run the operations, and make sure that everything is in optimal shape. So cruise ships have to occasionally dock for food and supplies.
Some cruise lines have been allowing consumers to book trips a few months into the future. And demand has actually been better than expected. But cruises that are set to sail in the next few months most likely will be canceled. The best prediction for now is that cruises will resume sailing “later this year”.
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It’s not just that. Some of the cruise lines have made deals to use shore power at some ports recently in an attempt to reduce costs. I’m surprised they didn’t do that earlier. I would also suspect some positioning of some supplies and staff for future cruises but that is minor.