The global health crisis has been particularly hard on the travel industry, and perhaps even more so on cruise lines.
Disney Cruise Line
At the moment, Disney Cruise Line has currently canceled sailings through August, although the company hopes to resume some operations this fall. Disney also recently announced a new staycation cruise experience in the U.K. However, for the time being, cruises leaving the U.S. are currently grounded and the CDC continues to extend no-sail orders.
According to ABC News, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently appeared in public with leaders from Carnival, Norwegian, Disney, and Royal Caribbean. There he spoke out against the cruise ban and threatened to file a lawsuit against the CDC if cruises are not allowed to resume by this summer.
Castaway Cay
Florida currently has the three busiest ports in all of the U.S., located in Miami, Port Canaveral, and Port Everglades near Fort Lauderdale. DeSantis said that the CDC ban was hurting the state, particularly because cruising has resumed elsewhere in the world.
Disney Dream
The CDC has not yet commented on DeSantis’ remarks, but it did issue specific guidelines back in October for U.S. cruises. These guidelines include laboratory testing for crews in U.S. waters, simulated voyages to test cruise ship operators’ ability to mitigate COVID-19 risk, certification for ships that meet specific requirements, and a phased return to cruising.
Disney Magic
Royal Caribbean has already made plans to resume sailing in the summer, as early as June. Those cruises will operate at reduced capacity, with vaccine requirements for crew AND guests. as well as with specific face covering requirements. Meanwhile, Disney Cruise has not announced any summer cruise plans but did recently extend its temporary cancellation and payment policies. We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and keep you updated.
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They need to get over it, those guidelines are to keep people safe! These people need to realize that a piece of paper it’s not more important than people’s lives!
I am not holding out any hope that cruising will return before January 2022.
If it does yeah. Ut I’m not expecting it.
But I will be the first one on the boat when they open back up.
I don’t think any cruise line or any form of travel should require a person to be vaccinated for covid-19. You still have to wear a mask and still social distance, so nothing has changed. There are a lot of people who don’t think the shot has had enough research. And just because the Government or CDC says it’s safe doesn’t mean it is .
Good for De Santis! CDC has stepped way over its bounds!
Ok, so if I can’t get the vaccine because I’m highly allergic to it and my doctor recommended not to (I use an epipen), then I’m not allowed to go on a cruise or fly in an airplane? Wow. I should have stayed in Cuba for this craziness.. ??♀️??♀️
Thank God for Governor DeSantis. It is time to get the cruise industry back to work.
The USA are never going to get Covid infection rates under control if people keep issuing law sits against the CDC. To me it is absolute madness to resume cruises etc when the infection and death rates are so high. Please do the right thing and help to open States safely and not hinder the effort to beat this disease.
There have been too many deaths because of this and they are only going to increase them by going against advice given by the CDC.
Together we can beat Covid and get back to some sort of our normal way of live.
All right Gov. DeSantis! Finally some push back!!!!
Thank God for De Santis !!! He’s always fighting for Florida ?
If he’s doing the right thing then the infection and death rates are never going to decrease. Sorry but for a state that we enjoy visiting this is bad news.