Carnival Cruise Line has announced that three more ships will resume guest operations in September, and another four in October – bringing the total number of ships to 15 – and outlined a target of having the entire fleet back in action by the end of the year.

The line said it will continue to operate all its ships as vaccinated cruises through to at least October.

The three ships for September are Carnival Glory from New Orleans, starting 5 September, Carnival Pride from Baltimore, starting 12 September, and Carnival Dream from Galveston, starting 19 September.

In October, Carnival Conquest will restart from Miami from 8 October, while Carnival Freedom will from cruise from Miami, effective 9 October. In addition, Carnival Elation will depart Port Canaveral on 11 October, and Carnival Sensation from Mobile, effective 21 October.

However, the line has extended its pause in operations until 5 September for Carnival Pride from Baltimore, 11 September  for Carnival Dream from Galveston, 4 October for Carnival Conquest from Miami, and 16 October for Carnival Sensation from Mobile.

Cruises on Carnival Sunshine from Charleston, Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville and Carnival Liberty from Port Canaveral are cancelled until 31 October.

A three-day cruise on Carnival Miracle from Long Beach in California on 24 September has also been cancelled – Carnival said the with the ship will resume operations on 27 September.

Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said: “We are very excited about our restart and greatly appreciate the support of our guests, travel agents and port and destination partners.

“By the end of July, we will have five ships in our restart plan, including the introduction of service on Mardi Gras, and we are seeing a great combination of strong demand and strong guest satisfaction scores tied to the positive guest experience on board.”

Carnival will continue to welcome unvaccinated guests on board, but all unvaccinated guests, including children under the age of 12, will be subject to pre-cruise and pre-embarkation testing, and testing again prior to debarkation (on cruises longer than four days) along with a $150pp charge to cover the costs of testing, reporting and health and safety screenings

Unvaccinated guests departing from Florida (effective 31 July) and Texas (effective 2 August) will also need to show proof of travel insurance, based on the itineraries being sailed and the requirements of ports and destinations visited.

Carnival said these additional measures will be in place through to at least October, “but may be extended based on guidance from public health and medical advisors and the requirements of destination partners”.

Duffy added: “The decision to sail with vaccinated voyages was a difficult one to make, and we recognise this is disappointing to some of our guests especially the many families with children under the age of 12 who we love to sail, and who love to sail with us.

“It’s important to remember that this is a temporary measure given the current circumstances. In consultation with our medical experts and advisors, we’ve determined this plan is in the best interests of the health and safety of our guests, crew and the destinations that we bring our ships to. It’s very important that we continue to maintain the confidence of our destination partners, so that we can provide our guests with the optimal cruise experience and sail our itineraries.

“Our plan envisions successfully bringing back our entire fleet by the end of the year, returning to full service – most especially for the millions of families who sail with us –  and building back our business for the benefit of our guests, employees and the tens of thousands of jobs and local businesses that depend on our company.

“We will continue to offer exemptions to our unvaccinated guests on a limited, capacity-managed basis within 14 days of sailing as we finalise the vaccinated guest count.  The more bookings we initially secure for our cruises with fully vaccinated guests, the more exemptions we can ultimately offer for those unvaccinated guests already booked and those wishing to sail.”