Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, an operator of short cruises between Florida and the Bahamas, once again has become the first U.S.-based cruise line to announce a date for the resumption of cruises. The company had set previous dates for a return to service, but with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) no sail order still in place, the company announced it is now targeting December 18, 2020 for its first cruise.
According to the CEO of the company, Oneil Khosa, the company will resume sailings to Freeport on Grand Bahama Island with two-night cruises departing from West Palm Beach, Florida. The company has been adjusting its return to service dates from June to July, September, and November based on the CDC’s extensions of the no sail order and conditions related to the pandemic.
The company also announced changes to its plans to return to service including switching to its cruise ship the Grand Classica. Khosa noted that this ship is the larger of the company’s two cruise ships but has nearly 100 fewer staterooms than the Grand Celebration that had been scheduled to be the company’s first cruise ship to return to service. He noted that the larger size would provide passengers more space on the ship and that they would further limit the ship to 60 percent of capacity.