CCL-Carnival Cruise Line issued a “hvala” ("thank you" in Serbian) to Dubrovnik Croatia on Wednesday, June 3, after the port city assisted the repatriation of around 3000 Carnival crew last week.
CCL boasts 110 nationalities among its onboard team, making things complicated in the current situation as the world's largest cruise company works to repatriate 26,000+ crew back to their home countries, with a backdrop of nations with closed borders, limited flight options, debarkation, and immigration policies often changing.
Christine Duffy (CCL's President) said that luckily, Carnival had great port partners all over the world who were working with the company. She added they’d like to recognize their friends in Port Dubrovnik and Croatia.
Over the past week, the CCL liners (sisterships by design) Carnival Magic and Carnival Breeze docked at Dubrovnik's Port Cruz and successfully repatriated nearly 3,000 crew. All the Carnival's Croatian employees and those from the neighboring countries (Bosna, Serbia, Montenegro) were bused. For the rest, Carnival booked commercial flights to other European countries, as well as to Asia (Indonesia and The Philippines.
CCL wanted "to acknowledge the many government agencies, private operators, and local maritime partners" that had played such an important role in the mission. Duffy added that when Dubrovnik was ready, they could not wait to get back to cruise operations to bring their "ships, crew, and wonderful guests to this beautiful city”.