Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had early COVID-19 outbreak, will sail in South America, Antarctica in 2021, 2022
Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess, which experienced a major coronavirus outbreak on board that forced the cruise ship into quarantine in February, will sail in South America and Antarctica in fall 2021 and spring 2022, the cruise line said in a release Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Princess Cruises announced it would cancel all sailings aboard the 2,670-passenger Diamond Princess throughout Japan and Asia, between October 2021 and April 2022 in favor of redeploying the ship to the new destinations. The ship was docked in Yokohama for the duration of the outbreak, which infected upwards of 700 people according to Johns Hopkins data.
The ship departed in May after it underwent a deep cleaning.
The decision to move the Diamond Princess sailings doesn’t have anything to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, Negin Kamali, spokesperson for Princess Cruises, told USA TODAY Tuesday.
“Given our ships are movable assets we are able change their locations,” Kamali said.
The Diamond Princess is scheduled to return to Japan in time for Golden Week in 2022, Kamali said, referring to a string of holidays in Japan that begins at the end of April and spans into May in 2022.
The new Diamond Princess itineraries include:
- Dec. 1, 2021: Andes South America
- Dec. 1, 2021: Antarctica, Andes Cape Horn Grand Adventure
- Dec. 19, 2021: Antarctica Cape Horn
- Jan. 4 and 20, 2022: Antarctica Cape Horn
- Feb. 5, 19 and March 5, 2022: Cape Horn Strait of Magellan
- March 5, 2022: Andes Cape Horn Grand Adventure
- March 19, 2022: Andes South America
While Diamond Princess’ previously scheduled Asia sailings have been canceled, the ship will sail two new Pacific Crossing itineraries to and from Asia in fall 2021 and spring 2022 between Los Angeles and either Singapore or Yokohama.
Three Sapphire Princess Baja Peninsula Sea of Cortez cruises and another three Hawaiian Islands itineraries for fall 2021 and spring 2022 will be canceled as a result.
Princess Cruises:Cancels cruises through Dec. 15, months beyond CDC’s ‘no-sail order’
Contributing: Aaron Saunders, CruiseCritic.com
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