Singapore Cruises looks to resume port calls in Malaysia

The governments looks into plans to resume destination port calls on cruise ships homeported in Singapore

Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas berthed at Penang’s Swettenham Pier PHOTO: SWETTENHAM PIER FACEBOOK

Discussions for a Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL-Sea) scheme is now underway after Singapore and Malaysia launched bilateral quarantine-free travel for air and land travel yesterday (29 November 2021), on flights between Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur, and across the causeway link between Johor and Singapore.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Ismail Sabri Yaakob had a joint press conference at the Istana during his official visit to Singapore. During which, Prime Minister Lee shared that discussions to pilot a travel lane for sea borders were in the works.

The VTL (Sea) scheme will include restarting port calls by cruise ships homeported in Singapore to Malaysia and a travel lane by ferry to Desaru. The two governments agreed to work towards aligning safe cruise standards and have started discussing these matters.

Currently, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas and Dream Cruises’ World Dream is offering 2-4 Nights high seas cruises with no port calls from Singapore. 

Perhaps with the VTL-Sea scheme, guests embarking on cruises from Singapore can soon look forward to travelling to popular cruise destinations in Malaysia such as Penang, Langkawi and Port Klang (Kuala Lumpur) soon.

This news comes after the Singapore Tourism Board lifted restrictions on international guests sailing on Singapore homeport cruises last week.

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