Sea Cloud Cruises Cancels Caribbean Season Due to Covid-19 Concerns

(12:30 p.m. EST) -- German cruise line Sea Cloud Cruises cancelled its Caribbean season citing health and safety concerns due to the ongoing pandemic. Sea Cloud was to have two of its three sailing ships in the Caribbean beginning in December and through April 2022. That’s not happening.

"The rising incidence figures and increasing vaccination breakthroughs worldwide are a serious risk to the Caribbean countries,"the cruise line said in a statement. "This has increasingly led to a more restrictive approach to cruise guests."

Sea Cloud officials also expressed concern about access to medical care on the islands, should any of its guests test positive for Covid-19 while traveling, saying: "Access to reliable, necessary health care cannot be guaranteed for guests and crew in case of suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases on board our vessels in the Caribbean, so sadly we need to cancel the season."

Sea Cloud had been scheduled to sail its historic four-masted, 65-passenger Sea Cloud, originally built in 1931 by American cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, as well as its three-masted, 95-passenger Sea Cloud II, which debuted in 2001, from Barbados and St. Maarten. Port calls were to include St. Barts, Nevis, Antigua, Dominica, Guadalupe, Virgin Gorda, St. Lucia and Grenada.

Sea Cloud's third tall ship, the new three-masted, 136-passenger Sea Cloud Spirit, introduced in September, is spending its inaugural season in the Canary Islands.