“Someday is here.” With that one-line tweet, Celebrity Cruises CEO and President Lisa Lutoff-Perlo announced the news that on Saturday, June 26, the Celebrity Edge will be the first cruise ship to sail from U.S. waters in more than a year.
The seven-night trip will launch from Fort Lauderdale and be led by Cpt. Kate McCue, who was the first American female captain, the company announced.
The Celebrity Edge will have a fully vaccinated crew and require U.S. guests aged 16 and older to be fully vaccinated. In August, the ship will extend that requirement to U.S. guests aged 12 and older.
Celebrity Edge will depart Port Everglades after having met all new standards for providing a healthy cruise experience for its guests and crew.
“For the past 15 months our conversations with friends and loved ones about seeing the world have been accompanied by the phrase ‘someday.’ I’m beyond proud and excited to say that day has arrived,” said Lutoff-Perlo.
“We’ve been preparing for this day for months and, on behalf of all of us at Celebrity Cruises, we’re ready and we can’t wait to welcome our guests aboard once again!”
“Today’s exciting news is the result of a collaboration with the CDC, our elected officials at the local, state and national levels and our industry partners at CLIA,” said Richard Fain, Chairman of Royal Caribbean Group, parent company of Celebrity Cruises.
With this announcement, eight of the 15 ships within the Celebrity Cruises’ fleet now have plans to return to sailing in 2021 and are ready to take guests to destinations in the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska and the Galapagos. The Celebrity Millennium will be the first in the fleet to sail with guests again, as well as the first ship in the industry to sail the Caribbean when she makes her return to service in St Maarten on June 5. The seven-night cruise will visit Aruba, Curacao & Barbados. Just last week, Celebrity Cruises also announced it would begin Alaska cruises on July 23.
Celebrity sailings will also take place in the Greek and British isles.
Royal Caribbean Cruises, meanwhile, on Friday announced it had received CDC approval for a test cruise. Its Freedom of the Seas will sail from PortMiami on June 20-22.
