When are Carnival and Disney cruises coming back to New Orleans? Here’s the latest.

Carnival Cruise Lines is preparing its ships to resume sailings from New Orleans following the decision last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to green-light sailings from Miami, Galveston and Canaveral.

Over the past 16 months, the cruise line operator has implemented a rolling moratorium, whereby it has continued to take bookings but then canceled the cruises and offered passengers refunds or credits. The latest extension was in May when it canceled New Orleans sailings through to the end of July.

Carnival has fully booked the Glory, one of the two vessels it sails from the Port of New Orleans, for a number of seven-day cruises in August, starting Aug. 1-29, according to one of its booking officials, who asked not to be quoted by name. But no firm date is set for the first cruise to sail.

“We’re just getting the ships in place and the crews vaccinated and then when the ship is considered ‘green’ by the CDC, and when we sign the agreement with the Port of New Orleans, we’ll have some clarity on sailing dates,” the official said.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said the company had no comment about renewed sailings from New Orleans apart from noting that it has previously said it won’t sail from there until August at the earliest.

The cruise line moratorium has left a big gap in the New Orleans tourism industry, which saw a record 1.2 million cruise passengers come through the city in 2019. Carnival, the largest U.S. operator, accounted for 80% of that traffic.

The CDC and Carnival on Friday agreed on a so-called Phase 2A agreement that sets out a stringent set of rules, including certifying the vaccination of crew and passengers as well as maintaining distancing, masking and other prevention protocol. The operator must also have plans in place with the port and the local health authority about prevention and how to react in the event of an outbreak.

As well as the three ports in Florida and Texas, Carnival Cruise Lines said it also expects to restart its cruise sailings from Seattle at the end of July.

The August sailings from New Orleans are booked at about 70% of Glory’s normal capacity, which ordinarily can take just under 3,000 passengers, the Carnival’s booking official said. The Glory normally sails year-round, seven-day excursions that go from New Orleans to Key West, Florida, and then onto the Bahamas before returning to homeport.

Gulliksen declined to comment on the possibility of an August resumption.

The Glory currently is in dry dock in Marseille, France, where servicing includes alterations to make it compliant with the distancing protocol. Carnival is also in the process of ensuring the crew — most of whom are foreign nationals, including many from countries that have much lower vaccination rates than the U.S. — are vaccinated and certified, the Carnival official added.

The Carnival Valor, which has a similar capacity of about 3,000 passengers and 1,200 crew, is in dry dock in Italy for a refurbishment that is expected to keep it out of commission until November at the earliest.

Renee Aragon-Dolese, a spokesperson for Port Nola, said officials there are currently working with Carnival on a plan to comply with CDC guidelines, but she couldn’t say when that might be completed.

“The entire industry wants to ensure that when and as cruising does resume, appropriate timing and procedures are in place to protect the health and safety of our guests, crew and our community,” Aragon-Dolese said.

The port has been losing more than $1 million a month in fees from cruise ships while the moratorium has been in place.

The CDC loosening also raises hopes that operators other than Carnival will return.

“We anticipate announcements from Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line in the coming weeks for schedule“We anticipate announcements from Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line in the coming weeks for scheduled sailings from New Orleans,” Aragon-Dolese said.

Disney Cruise Line, which made its debut in January 2020, is scheduled to return to New Orleans in February of 2022 for its limited seasonal sailings.

Read more at Nola.com

This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 5:50 AM.