Off the back of a bumper summer season, Cape Town looks set to see another bump in cruise passengers and crew stopping off in the city, as global cruise lines reroute global voyages around the Cape of Good Hope.
Many cruise ships spend the southern hemisphere summer home-porting in Dubai, Africa and Australasia, before returning to the Mediterranean in time for Europe’s summer cruise season.
The quickest route ‘home’ to the Mediterranean is via the Red Sea and Suez Canal, but to reach the Canal ships must sail through the Bab Al Mandeb Strait off the coast of Yemen. With the ongoing conflict in the region – including Houthi rebels firing cruise missiles at vessels – ever-cautious cruise companies are choosing to reroute their ships the (much) longer way around the southern tip of Africa.
Cunard’s flagship Queen Mary 2 – midway through a ‘World Voyage’ – recently announced that she would be returning to Cape Town in April and sailing up the west coast of Africa to return to her home port in Southampton.
While that’s bad news for Cunard’s fuel bill, it’s very good news for travellers.
Cunard has announced unheard-of special fares for the (unplanned) repositioning cruise: Balcony cabins for the 15-night cruise from Cape Town to Southampton are currently available for just R19 990 per person sharing.
Meanwhile, other brands under the Carnival Corporation umbrella – the likes of Costa, AIDA, P&O Cruises, Seabourn and Princess Cruises – have already rerouted vessels via Cape Town, although many are choosing to sail their ships with no passengers on board, rather than fill berths.
That includes the likes of MSC Cruises, which has cancelled three repositioning ‘Grand Voyage’ sailings in April, from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates to Europe. Instead of welcoming passengers on multi-week voyages, MSC Splendida, MSC Opera and MSC Virtuosa will now sail back to Europe with thousands of empty cabins
Just this week Virgin Voyages announced a massive re-routing for Resilient Lady’s repositioning cruise from Sydney to the Mediterranean. Sailing from Australia on March 27 the ship will call at Mauritius and Durban before arriving in Cape Town. She will then make port calls in Namibia, Cape Verde, Spain and Malta before arriving in Greece.
‘Virgin Voyages is now conducting a full review of other geographically similar repositioning voyages and linked sailings,’ the cruise line said in a statement.
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