Due to the change in deployments and moving more ships to Florida homeports for Caribbean itineraries, Celebrity Cruises has cancelled the 2024-2025 South America sailing season for Celebrity Equinox.
Instead, the ship will be homeported from Port Canaveral, offering a range of tropical cruise vacations from the world’s busiest cruise port.
Celebrity Cancels South America Season
Celebrity Cruises has reached out to booked guests and travel agents to confirm the cancellation of the 2024-2025 South America sailing season for Celebrity Equinox, as the ship will now be based from Florida during that time period. This impacts departures from November 21, 2024 through and including March 1, 2025.
“As we position our brand for continued success, we constantly seek opportunities to elevate our already incredible offerings,” the notification read. “With this goal in mind, Celebrity Cruises is pleased to announce we will be relocating Celebrity Equinox in November 2024, from South America to the Caribbean.”
The now-cancelled South America sailings were to have called on ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, as well as outstanding options to Antarctica, Patagonia, and the Falkland Islands.
Instead, the ship will now offer both Eastern and Western Caribbean sailings, 7-night itineraries that are very sought after as amazing vacations without being too short or too long, and without extensive air travel to reach distant embarkation ports.
All guests booked on the now-cancelled sailings will be automatically refunded for all payments. If future cruise credits were used to booked the reservations, those credits will be returned to guests’ accounts.
Furthermore, Celebrity Cruises is providing impacted guests with a $200 (USD) onboard credit per stateroom – $400 for Retreat bookings – for a future cruise, as compensation for the inconvenience. This is the same compensation offered for recent cancellations for two other Celebrity ships, Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Constellation.
Since the first cancelled sailing is more than a year away, guests still have time to select a different Celebrity cruise for an amazing oceangoing getaway in 2024 or 2025.
A Completely New Homeport
The 121,878-gross ton Solstice-class Celebrity Equinox will be the first-ever Celebrity Cruises ship to homeport from Port Canaveral.
“With Celebrity Equinox homeported here, there are great opportunities for even more cruise travelers to experience the cruise line’s high-quality experience, while experiencing the comfort and ease of travel provided by our Port,” said Captain John Murray, Port Canaveral CEO.
The announcement for Celebrity Equinox to homeport from Port Canaveral is just the latest in announcements for new vessels joining the central Florida port.
In June, Royal Caribbean International announced that the upcoming Utopia of the Seas will homeport from Port Canaveral when she debuts in July 2024. The ship will be the last of the cruise line’s immensely popular Oasis-class vessels. Utopia of the Seas will sail shorter 3- and 4-night cruises for quick and easy getaways.
Similarly, Princess Cruises announced in May that Caribbean Princess would begin sailing from Port Canaveral in November 2024, the first time the cruise line has based a ship in central Florida. The ship will offer 6- and 8-night Caribbean sailings to the region’s most popular ports of call.
Also sailing from Port Canaveral are vessels from Norwegian Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, and MSC Cruises. Ships from several lines also make port of call stops at Port Canaveral, including Cunard Line, Holland America Line, and TUI Cruises.
