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20% of Carnival Corp. cruise capacity to sail this summer, maybe more

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With recent announcements, Carnival Corp. & plc tallies 16 ships from seven brands scheduled to sail this summer, with the added hope Carnival Cruise Line could make that eight brands and 19 ships.

The 16 ships represent nearly 20% of the company's global fleet. The initial cruises will take place with reduced capacity. 

AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn and P&O Cruises are set for Europe and Caribbean operations.

Additionally, the Carnival brand hopes to begin operating in July on three ships from Miami and Galveston. And several brands are also hopeful that cruises will be allowed in Alaska for part of the summer.

UK cruises start this month

P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises will each offer a series of UK cruises this summer, including the inaugural voyage of P&O Cruises' newly named flagship, Iona.

Greece and Barbados

Cruises are also to resume this summer around the Greek Islands with AIDA, Costa, Holland America and Seabourn. Additionally, Seabourn plans to restart in the Caribbean with a series of new summer sailings from Barbados.

Canary Islands, Italy, Germany

The voyages build on recent restarts by AIDA, which resumed in late March in the Canary Islands, and Costa, which restarted in May sailing to Italian ports including, most recently, from Trieste. AIDA will resume sailing from Germany later this month. 

High guest satisfaction

Carnival Corp. said that in addition to dozens of successful sailings by both brands in 2020, the most recent 2021 cruises by AIDA and Costa have demonstrated the effectiveness of enhanced health protocols and generated high guest satisfaction scores, measured by net promotor surveys.

'We are excited to have the majority of our leading cruise line brands resume sailings this summer, as we are seeing strong pent-up demand from our past guests and consumers in general to get away on a cruise, one of the world's most popular vacations,' said Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corp.

Apart from cruises, Holland America and Princess are offering land-based vacations this summer through Gray Line Alaska. Travelers may visit Alaska on a combination of escorted, explorer and rail tours with lodging and sightseeing between Kenai, Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks.