A 2-night roundtrip from Hong Kong China on Friday, January 7, was canceled due to the city’s government imposing a 14-day tightening of social-distancing measures (with effect from Friday).
On Wednesday, the local authorities had said that the local COVID situation had “evolved drastically”, including fresh cases of Omicron infection that couldn't be traced source-wise.
Dream Cruises said in its Wednesday statement, that the cancellation of Genting Dream ship's voyage was “due to the government’s directive and not as a result of any Covid-19 related incidents onboard”.
The same day the company had announced that an earlier scheduled 2-night sailing (due to having left on Wednesday) had also been canceled.
The company said that affected clients could transfer to other Genting Dream cruises scheduled for up to April 27, though “blackout” dates applied to periods during Chinese New Year (February 2 & 4); and Easter (April 15 & 17).
The Hong Kong government mentioned a ban on “cruises to nowhere” as part of its COVID countermeasures.
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (Hong Kong City's Chief Executive) had already said on Tuesday that Hong Kong’s growing number of COVID Omicron cases had in likelihood set back the chances of the city having quarantine-free travel arrangements with mainland China.