MIAMI, Florida: Norwegian Cruise Line and its sister lines Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises have announced plans to restart more than half of their combined fleets over the next nine months, as part of a gradual reopening of operations that were halted last year after the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic.

“Our great cruise comeback continues to build momentum with the return of 15 additional ships across our three brands,” Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, said in a statement.

Norwegian, which earlier announced it will resume operations on July 25 with a single ship, the Norwegian Jade, and reopen Caribbean cruises out of the Dominican Republic with the Norwegian Gem, along with Alaska cruises out of Seattle in August with the Norwegian Bliss, is planning to return to service eight more of its 17 ships.

One of the eight ships will sail out in October, three in November, one in December, two in January and one in February.

The cruise line, which plans to deploy two more vessels, Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Getaway, in September and October, said it has delayed the sailing of Norwegian Joy in the Caribbean and shifted its crew to Norwegian Bliss.

The latest deployment will leave just three ships for which Norwegian has so far not announced a restart plan – Norwegian Sky, Norwegian Star, and Norwegian Dawn.

Meanwhile, Oceania, which plans to resume sailings with the 1,250-passenger Marina on August 29, plans to bring back three of its six ships in October, December, and January.

The line said it will announce restart dates for its two remaining ships, Regatta and Nautica, at a later date.

Regent, which will resume operations on September 11 with just one ship, Seven Seas Splendor, is planning to slowly start sailing its remaining five ships over a four month period starting in October.