Genting Cruise Line is to raise the capacity on its ship sailing out of Singapore, after the city state said it would ease Covid-19 restrictions.
Dream Cruises’ 150,600-gt World Dream (built 2017) will resume operating at the permitted 50% passenger capacity effective from Monday.
“The operating capacity of attractions, including the two cruise pilots, that have received ... prior approval will be increased from the current capacity of 25% to 50%,” Singapore's Ministry of Health said.
Dine-in service at onboard restaurants will resume on 21 June. This experience had been suspended, leaving passengers only with take-away and room-service options.
“Since the restart of cruise operations in November 2020, [the] World Dream has enjoyed over seven months of Covid-19 incident-free sailings in Singapore,” Genting Cruise Line said.
Dream Cruises president Michael Goh said that despite the heightened health measures of the previous month, the World Dream had enjoyed “robust sales in June” and the company was seeing “limited availability of cruises in July”.
Royal Caribbean, which has been operating the 169,000-dwt Quantum of the Seas (built 2014) out of Singapore, had yet to issue a statement as this article went to press.
On Thursday, Singapore announced it would be starting a phased easing of its Covid-19 restrictions from Monday after a fall in the number of new infections.
Singapore had reimposed curbs on gatherings and public activities in May amid a rise in locally acquired infections and new clusters forming.
As of Wednesday, around 2.5m people — 44% of Singapore's population — had received at least the first dose of a vaccine. About 1.9m people had received two doses to be fully vaccinated. Singapore authorities expect 50% of its population will be vaccinated by August.
