GEM Cruise in February

[bombarc]

I am looking to book  the 2/8/21 Caribbean Cruise out of NY on the GEM.  Does anyone have any information on what happened with the cruise that just returned.  I understand not being able to get into ports because of Covid but there is no information on what the restrictions are. Also, there is no information forthcoming as to why the cruise itinerary was cancelled yet the ship did not return to NY until today.  I will be watching the outcome of the cruise that is leaving today to see how it goes.   Thank you.

[luvcrusing]

There isn't a lot of information coming out of the Jan. 9th cruise. As best I could piece together there was a letter circulated on the 1st day at sea from the captain informing passengers that the Turks and St. Thomas post calls had been cancelled due to covid-19 issues (but did not specify what those issues were). I then read somewhere that Tortola was cancelled. That left D.R. and St. Maarten. In the end, it looks like the Gem spent 2 days in port at St. Maarten and cancelled D. R. as well. While the ship was supposed to head home early, the winter storm that came up the east cost Sunday into Monday had them rethink their plans and so the followed behind the storm, arriving when they were scheduled to return.

Using various websites, the best I can determine is that the current cruise which left on Jan. 19th. made port in D.R. on January 22nd instead of Turks as it was supposed to and is in port at St. Maarten's today. Given Turks has been closed to cruise ships since 2020 I would not expect that any of these trips will stop there.