Carnival Cruise Lines, the world's largest cruise line operator, announced Friday that it would resume visits to Mexican ports later this month.
The decision came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would no longer recommend that Americans avoid nonessential travel to the country because of the swine flu outbreak.
The company, a unit of Carnival Corp., said its first cruise ship to return to Mexico would be the Carnival Holiday.
The four-day cruise departing May 28 from Mobile, Ala., will stop in Cozumel, Mexico, two days later. Carnival's regularly scheduled cruises to the Mexican Riviera will return to their original itinerary beginning that same day.
The news was welcomed by tourism boosters in Mexico as well as by ship operators.
"A majority of our passengers wanted to see us return to Mexico and so we have," said Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz.
No other major cruise line has announced plans to return to Mexico this summer.
Officials for Norwegian Cruise Line Corp. Ltd. said the company wouldn't return to Mexico until at least September, having already repositioned its summer tours for the East Coast, Alaska and Europe.
Holland America Line Inc., also owned by Carnival Corp., is not scheduled to return to Mexico until October. Princess Cruises, which has relocated most of its ships to begin cruises to Alaska, has only one ship off the coast of Mexico, the Sea Princess.
A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, another Carnival Corp. unit, said the company was considering docking the boat at a Mexican port but has yet to make that decision.
Late last month, in the wake of an outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, five of the world's largest cruise lines suspended all stops in Mexico, docking instead at Santa Catalina Island, San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.
Many frustrated passengers complained bitterly, saying the alternative stops and on-board compensation were woefully inadequate. The cruise lines tried to appease passengers by offering full or partial credit toward a future cruise.
Some passengers were also given $20 in on-board credit for every port that was missed and not replaced with an alternative stop.
But the offers didn't appease every passenger.
William and Connie Dobberpuhl, a retired couple from Long Beach, received from their son a seven-day cruise on Carnival Splendor as a 40th wedding anniversary gift.
