Carnival Corporation, the parent company of nine cruise lines including Princess Cruises, has cancelled all of its ships to mainland China through mid-March.
That includes four ships – run by Costa Cruises, and three additional ships from Princess and Seabourn Ovation that have been rerouted to other countries, according to Roger Frizzell, Chief Communications Officer for Carnival Corp.
In email sent to passengers who were previously booked on one of the Princess ships to China, the company wrote:
"Sapphire Princess will redeploy to Australia six months earlier than previously planned with 44 new cruises from five major cities. The new year-long program for Sapphire Princess in Australia will be on sale beginning Thursday, February 27, 2020, by contacting a professional travel advisor, calling Princess Cruises, or booking online.”
The financial impact of these cancellations are $0.03 to $0.04 per share, and if routes to China continues to be impacted through the end of April, it would affect the company’s fiscal 2020 financial performance by $0.55 to $0.65 per share, which includes guest compensation. Passengers received full refunds from the cancelled routes and can receive refunds if they do not wish to embark on the adjusted routes, said Frizzell.
Carnival shares are down more than 22% this year. Shares for Royal Caribbean, another large cruise operator, are down more than 24% this year.
As of right now routes to China are scheduled to come back online in mid-March, except for Diamond Princess which is suspended through late April.