Cruises have restarted (in Italy), here's what's changed
The world's first was MSC Grandiosa on August 16, followed shortly after by Costa Cruises with Diadema. The [...]
The world's first was MSC Grandiosa on August 16, followed shortly after by Costa Cruises with Diadema.
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The two Italian companies, the largest in the Mediterranean, have redesigned itineraries and devised from scratch a protocol that now allows cruises to be defined as the safest vacation formula in the world.
While ships in the rest of the planet are at anchor and crews at home without jobs, Costa and Msc have been revving up their engines and have been calling on the Mediterranean again for 2 months.
But cruises in the covid era are profoundly different from what they were before February 2020. Goodbye to buffets, at least until the end of the emergency, reduced capacity, and, as in everyday life, much social distancing.
The main innovation is that from the moment of departure, the cruise becomes a "bubble" from which it is not possible to leave under any circumstances. All passengers are tested before receiving permission to embark, and during the cruise, scanners measure the temperature of guests constantly.
The bubble does not even open during excursions; in fact, if you want to go ashore, you have to adhere to a very strict protocol: goodbye to DIY excursions and crowded groups on public and non-public transportation.
Now the offer for those who want to get off the ship is one: small groups and tight controls to prevent a passenger from "getting infected" and thus bringing the virus on board.
For travelers this all translates into a much less stressful vacation, just think of the Costa Smeralda christened just in February 2020: it can accommodate more than 6,000 passengers and will travel at just over two-thirds capacity.
As with air travel, however, travelers must remain flexible to potential last-minute changes, as was the case recently with the growing pandemic in Spain and France, which forced companies to redesign itineraries and focus on stopovers only in Italy so as to avoid incurring quarantines and restrictions imposed by other European nations on tourists.
