As the global Coronavirus epidemic continues to chaos havoc with the international cruise industry, Azamara has been forced to end its 26-night cruise from Cape Town to Dubai early.

Azamara Quest, currently cruising from Cape Town to Dubai, will instead end the voyage in Muscat, Oman, on March 13th, four days early.

Azamara Quest will end the cruise in Muscat instead, four days earlier than planned

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The revised itinerary comes after India and the UAE both announced that they would no longer allow cruise ships sailing from foreign ports to dock.

According to passengers aboard the ship, who have been posting on Cruise Critic’s message boards, all guests have been given a 75 percent future cruise credit plus up to US $500 for airfare change penalties.

Passengers with beverage packages and full cruise Wi-Fi will be given a 4-day credit for the four days of the cruise that have been cancelled.

Azamara Quest’s subsequent cruise from Dubai, scheduled for March 17th, has been cancelled, but her March 28th cruise from Dubai remains undecided.

It’s likely that the voyage will either be cancelled, or have Dubai replaced with Muscat as the embarkation port.

Port Zayed in Dubai has implemented strict restrictions on cruise ships

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Cruise Arabia & Africa has reached out to Azamara for more information.

The UAE’s new restrictions on cruise ships, which appear to only allow cruises from Dubai that do not visit any ports outside the UAE, have forced a number of cruise lines to cancel voyages or amend itineraries.

Jewel of the Seas continues to operate her cruise program from Dubai, but without Muscat as a port of call, while Costa Diadema appears to have dropped Doha as a port of call on her current roundtrip cruise in the Arabian Gulf.

Celebrity Cruises, whose ship Celebrity Constellation had already docked in Mumbai, India, at the time of the UAE decision, has been forced to cancel all remaining cruises from Dubai for the 2019/20 season.

The decision by the UAE to close its cruise ports to cruise ships is unprecedented, but comes amid growing concern over the vulnerability of cruise ships to Coronavirus outbreaks, after the virus infected hundreds of passengers aboard Diamond Princess and several dozen aboard Grand Princess.