Machel Mele cruise postponed to 2022

The much anticipated Machel Montano Mele: Carnival at Sea cruise has been postponed to 2022. At this year’s Machel Monday, he announced that the annual Carnival concert would be his last and that the Carnival cruise would be his next venture.

By March some of the cabins for the cruise had already sold out. However, the covid19 pandemic resulted in the postponement or cancellation of events locally, regionally and internationally with Mele now being added among them.

A Mele organising member said to Newsday on Thursday that it had been in contact with its cruisers and the choice to postpone was theirs.

The member said the organisers sent off a survey to the cruisers asking them when they wanted to cruise and the response was clear that they wanted to do so in 2022.

She said there were a few people who said they still wanted to sail in May 2021 but the majority felt it was safer to do so in May 2022.

She added that the organisers answered the cruiser’s call and postponed it to that date.

She said Mele did not post anything to social media or anything like that because it understood what was happening right now and so was not trying to push or promote the cruise nor its new sail date at this time.

She said the email was sent to the cruisers and was only for them but it ended up being shared.

She said the initial intent was to talk to the cruisers first before saying anything to the public.

Mpntano’s video message was part of the email sent to the cruisers.

The email sent to the cruisers, “We know so many of you have been eagerly awaiting more details on our inaugural sailing, but as the world has stood still, we’ve had to respectfully stand with it. The time has now come. You’ll remember we asked you to tell us when you want to sail. Well, the results are in. And it’s resounding - We sail in May 2022.”

Montano said in his video message that everyone had been through a lot facing the global pandemic and been affected by it in many different ways.

“Through it all, though, my vision of us sailing away on the sea gets stronger by the day and I am hopeful better days are near and when it comes we will be ready to Mele.

“But on the real though, the entire Mele cruise team was in the midst of planning an amazing experience for you May 2021. We were working closely with the cruise line and everything was coming along just right, then the pandemic hit us.

“In response we reached out and asked you when you wanted to sail and the choice was clear; May 2022. So it is taking us some time, but we are working with the cruise line to get the details right: the exact ship, destinations and everything else that will make this new sail date an incredible experience while making everyone’s health and safety a top priority.”

Mpntano’s video message added if people were unable to cruise for whatever reason a refund will be provided no questions asked.

The email offered those who made the decision to stay onboard a complimentary $50 onboard credit.

It added that further payments were suspended until March 2021. People interested in attending were required to make pre-booking payments.

The cruise is being done in collaboration with Tribe.