UK transport minister Grant Shapps has confirmed today (28 July) that international cruises will restart from England.
He issued the confirmation as part of a twitter thread that also acknowledged that fully vaccinated travellers from the EU and the US would not have to quarantine when arriving in England from 2 August.
We're also able to confirm the restart of international cruises🚢and flexible testing programmes to help key workers and drive our economic recovery.
Whether you’re a family or a business, this is progress we can all enjoy.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 28, 2021
It is not clear, however, whether international cruising will resume from English waters on the same date.
In his tweet, he said there would “flexible testing programmes to help key workers and drive our economy” and that “whether you’re a family or a business, this is progress we can all enjoy.”
This will come as very good news to the cruise industry, which has so far limited itself to cruising in UK waters and only with fully vaccinated passengers.
The change will affect cruises from England; it is not clear whether Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will yet follow suit.
