Its port quiet for over a year, Progreso will welcome Carnival Breeze in July
Slowly returning to service, Carnival Cruise Line is running only three ships in July and one of them is headed to Progreso.
The news is exciting to a tourism sector that has lost out on cruise ship revenue since April 2020. It also brings potentially unvaccinated crowds to the Yucatán coast while the state struggles to prevent coronavirus infections.
Carnival has not committed to requiring guests to be vaccinated, although passengers will have been tested for COVID-19 prior to boarding the ship.
Galveston-based Carnival Breeze will dock in Progreso, the company said, after embarking on a five-day cruise that begins July 5, according to its online booking site.
The Breeze was built in 2012 and carries 3,690 passengers and 1,386 crew.
Carnival Vista from Galveston and Carnival Horizon from Miami are the other two ships helping the company emerge from pandemic-mandated hiatus.
The Breeze and Vista have already arrived at the Port of Galveston, where the line held an economic impact rally, according to local media.
The crew on the two ships also received Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, Carnival President Christine Duffy said.
Carnival Horizon is scheduled to sail from Miami on six-day Western Caribbean itineraries. Some bookings are already sold out, according to Cruise Critic, which follows the industry.
Carnival Vista is scheduled on seven-day itineraries to Roatan, Honduras; Belize City; and Cozumel starting July 3.
Carnival is the most frequently spotted cruise line in Progreso. After planning a busy 2020, the cruise line halted cruise ship travel when the coronavirus pandemic made tourism impossible.
At the time, the company envisioned a comeback by November 2020.
The Center for Disease Control’s advice against cruises is still in place, but travel is picking up as vaccinations efforts continue in the United States.
Lee Steele is the founding director of Roof Cat Media and has published Yucatán Magazine and other titles since 2012.
