Carnival Cruise Line Repatriates 3,000 Crew Members

Carnival Cruise Line has announced the successful repatriation of nearly 3,000 crew members through the Port of Dubrovnik in Croatia last week.

The cruise industry has been working for months to return tens of thousands of employees home amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has prompted travel restrictions, flight suspensions, border closings and other obstacles.

Carnival thanked officials in Dubrovnik and shared a photo of excited team members disembarking Carnival Breeze and Carnival Magic in a release on Wednesday. The cruise line said it’s currently working to repatriate as many as 26,000 team members.

“Luckily, Carnival has great port partners all over the world who are working with the company. And today, we’d like to recognize our friends in the Republic of Croatia and the Port of Dubrovnik. Over the past week, Carnival Breeze and Carnival Magic made calls on the magical city of Dubrovnik and safely and successfully repatriated nearly 3,000 Carnival team members,” said the cruise line’s president, Christine Duffy, in a statement accompanying Wednesday’s news.

“Not just our Croatian citizens and those of neighboring countries like Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia that we connected home by bus, but we were also able to book commercial flights for hundreds of others trying to get home to dozens of European nations, as well as Indonesia and the Philippines,” Duffy added. “Carnival wants to acknowledge the many government agencies, private operators and local maritime partners that played such an important role in this mission.”

“When Dubrovnik is ready, we can’t wait to get back to cruise operations to bring our ships, crew and wonderful guests to this beautiful city.”

Carnival’s diverse onboard team comprises a remarkable 110 different nationalities.