Princess Cruises will suspend all operations for 60 days in an effort to prevent further spread of the coronavirus on its ships.
The company’s president, Jan Swartz, announced Thursday the company would dock its 18 ships “and reset the environmental conditions on board.”
People who are currently on a Princess Cruise ship that is slated to dock within the next five days will do so as planned. Trips scheduled to last longer will dock at “the most convenient location for guests.”
Customers who booked a cruise before May 12, when the 60-day suspension ends, will receive full credit as well as an additional credit to use on a trip in the future through May 1, 2022.
“This is perhaps the most difficult decision in our history, because we understand the incredible impact it has on countless people,” Swartz said.
Princess Cruises has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. The Diamond Princess docked Feb. 4 in Tokyo, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases aboard exceeded 700 and seven passengers died. The Johns Hopkins University case tracker included the Diamond Princess cruise ship in the list of countries’ death tolls because it was one of the largest clusters outside of China.
Last week, another Princess cruise ship, the Grand Princess, was moored off the coast of San Francisco after U.S. health officials found that 21 passengers had tested positive for coronavirus. The ship has since docked in Oakland, where passengers are still disembarking and headed to military bases across the country for quarantine.
“We’ve been asked, and we’ve asked ourselves, why COVID-19 seems to be impacting Princess so heavily,” Swartz said. “We don’t really know.”
