Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez has described as “disappointing” news that Crystal Cruises has cancelled its recently-announced Caribbean cruises from Antigua and St. Maarten.
The cruise line said in a statement Thursday that the cancellation was primarily because of ongoing uncertainty regarding ports of call and availability of adequate airlift.
“It was supposed to be the first one, although it wasn’t many passengers, we were looking forward to the start”, he said.
“My understanding is that there is still a great deal of uncertainty in terms of protocols coming out of Miami and at the same time, the uncertainty in regards to the different islands and protocols – There’s no harmonized type of protocols which would make it much easier”, the Minister explained.
To resolve this governments in CARICOM will have to work together to agree to a standard set of protocols.
The cancellations affect all Crystal Symphony voyages planned from both Antigua and St. Maarten departing between August and December this year.
Crystal says it will instead be redeploying Crystal Symphony close to home on new itineraries that will be announced once finalized.