Dec. 16 update: Carnival back to Grand Turk, Tauck toasts 850 trips restart milestone, Crystal stays flexible

Carnival back to Grand Turk

Carnival Freedom called at Grand Turk Wednesday, marking Carnival Cruise Line's first time back to the port since resuming service.

The six-day eastern Caribbean cruise departed PortMiami Dec. 12, and the itinerary includes Half Moon Cay and Amber Cove.

Carnival President Christine Duffy thanked the Turks and Caicos Islands government and all the line's partners on the ground in Grand Turk for working to make the return happen.

By year’s end, Carnival will have 19 ships in operation. All 22 of Carnival’s US.-based fleet are to be carrying passengers by March 2022, leaving only its Australia ships still waiting.

Passengers on Tauck’s Antarctica cruise this week toast the 850th trip milestone

Tauck toasts 850th trip since restart

Passengers on Tauck’s Antarctica cruise this week were treated to a surprise Champagne toast in celebration of a milestone: their group represents the company's 850th trip since resuming operations last January.

The toast took place at Tauck’s pre-cruise hotel in Buenos Aires, and the 13-day journey concludes next week in Ushuaia, Argentina.

'We’re celebrating not only our 850th departure, but also the fact that we’ve successfully operated 96 different journeys in 36 countries on five continents around the world,' Tauck CEO Dan Mahar said. 'It’s easy to forget that less than a year ago, 100% of our tours and cruises were still paused due to COVID, and that it wasn’t until January and February of this year that we resumed operations with our first departures of a single itinerary, our "Wonderland: Yellowstone in Winter" trip.'

The restart spanned much of the company’s global portfolio, including land programs across North America, South America, Europe and Africa, river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, Seine, Rhone, Douro and Nile, and small ship ocean cruises in Greece, Iceland, the Mediterranean, the Dalmatian Coast, the Galápagos Islands and Antarctica.

Mahar noted that 2021 guest satisfaction scores have been on par with the company's 2019 results.

'And in many areas — including our European land tours and river cruises, our small ship ocean cruises, and our journeys to exotic destinations — our 2021 scores actually exceeded 2019,' he said.

After 2021's strong foundation, Tauck sees the potential for reaching 2019 business levels in 2022. The company has been hiring for its reservation sales center, bringing staffing up close to its 2019 level.

Crystal extends flexible booking policiies through 2022

Crystal extended its flexible payment and booking policies through December 2022 across its fleet, including Crystal Cruises, Crystal River Cruises and Crystal Expedition Cruises, to give travelers peace of mind when planning future vacations.

The updated Crystal Confidence policies for 2022 relax the final payment deadline to 60 days prior to the first date of service, while customers who pay in full 90 days prior to the first date of service will continue to save an additional 2.5%. Travelers sailing in 2022 may also cancel their booking without penalty up to 60 days prior to their first date of service.

Crystal is also extending reduced deposits of 15% and waiving administrative fees for all new 2022-24 bookings.