For Now, COVID-19 Vaccination Required To Board Cruise Ships

That hasn’t stopped the cruise ship industry, which has racked up billions of dollars of losses. Operators are moving their vessels to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Greece and other Mediterranean ports for the summer season.

The ships aren’t subject to the CDC’s rules as long as they don’t depart or stop at a US port.

Cruise operators have adopted a strict “no vaccination, no trip” policy. Some say they will continue the vaccination rules even when they are allowed to resume regular US operations.

“Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings shares the CDC’s view that vaccinations are the primary vehicle for Americans to get back to their everyday lives,” Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of the company, said in statement. “We believe that through a combination of 100 percent mandatory vaccinations for guests and crew and science-based public health measures we can create a safe, bubble-like environment for guests and crew.”

Norwegian has asked the CDC to allow it to resume service from the United States in July. Silversea Cruises also has told the CDC it wants to return to American ports with a vaccine requirement.

Following home rules

Americans who go to the new foreign ports to board would still have to meet the local country’s health guidelines, which means being vaccinated in some cases.

The 27 countries of the European Union are expected to allow American tourists again this summer, but only if they are fully vaccinated. To get on board a cruise ship in Greece would require proof of vaccination.

Caribbean destinations, Bermuda and the Bahamas don’t require travelers to be vaccinated — but they’ll have to be to board their cruise ships.

“Safe travel is our priority and placing vaccinations and other key public health travel protocols at the core of our cruise industry restart will not only restore traveler confidence, but also offer comfort to visitors and Barbadians alike,” Lisa Cummins, the Barbados minister of tourism and international transport, said in a statement.

Carnival Corp’s Seabourn Odyssey will depart from Barbados starting in July, eliminating Miami, one of its ports.

Seabourn launch operations from Barbados in November, but stopped after a passenger on the first cruise tested positive for COVID-19.

Luxury line Crystal Cruises will require a negative COVID-19 test in addition to proof of vaccination when it starts weekly cruises from Nassau, Bahamas, on July 4 and from Bimini in the Bahamas on July 3.

Interim CEO and President Jack Anderson said in a statement that a recent survey showed that 80 percent of people who have been on cruises would return if a vaccine were required.

But in an interview, Vanessa Rodriguez, Crystal Cruises’ public relations manager, wouldn’t say whether the company would still require passengers to be vaccinated when its cruise ships can start docking again in the US. She said the plan going forward “is fluid”.

Royal Caribbean will redeploy its Galveston-based cruise ship, Adventure of the Seas, to Nassau for weekly cruises beginning June 12. Its Vision of the Seas vessel is moving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Bermuda for weekly trips starting July 10.

It is unclear when U.S. cruise lines will be able to once again depart from domestic ports. The CDC hasn’t finalized regulations for a resumption.

Not all cruise lines say they will require passengers to be vaccinated when they resume U.S. departures — unless the CDC orders it.

Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley said in a recent interview with Miami radio station WLRN that the company didn’t intend to require vaccinations when its ships restart U.S. departures. About 80 percent of Royal Caribbean potential passengers are vaccinated or plan to be vaccinated, he said.

But allowing cruise lines to depart from the U.S. without vaccinations mandates would be a mistake, said Tara Kirk Sell, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

“There are a lot of opportunities on cruises for super-spreading outbreaks, and not just for COVID,” she said.

Kirk Sell said cruise ships often have seen disease outbreaks, such as norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarhea, and gastrointestinal infections.

Against ‘vaccine passports’

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis issued an executive order in April prohibiting businesses, including cruise ships, from requiring proof of vaccination.

DeSantis is anxious to get the cruise industry restarted. He announced on April 8 that Florida is suing the Biden administration in federal court to reopen the cruise industry “immediately.”

“We must allow our cruise liners and their employees to get back to work and safely set sail again,” he said at a Port of Miami press conference. “To be clear, no federal law authorizes the CDC to indefinitely impose a nationwide shutdown of an entire industry.”

Florida is home to the three largest cruise ports in the world: Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades, which is in Fort Lauderdale.

“It’s an issue because the governor’s order runs contrary to the vaccinations the cruise lines are currently requiring of passengers,” said Stewart Chiron, a cruise industry analyst who runs the website, The Cruise Guy.

Texas has one cruise port, Galveston, which is the fourth-busiest in North America as measured by departing passengers, just behind the Florida ports.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed an order banning government-sponsored “vaccine passports,” but it does not apply to private industry, including cruise ships.

The CDC did not respond to requests for comment.

The cruise industry got a black eye in the early days of the pandemic. Daily news reports focused on the plight of two ships, many of their passengers infected with the coronavirus.

The Diamond Princess saw the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside China in mid-February 2020.

Following a cruise, 13 passengers died and 20 percent of the people onboard got sick with the coronavirus during its anchorage off Yokohama, Japan.

Passengers on a second ship, the Grand Princess, were quarantined off the coast of California for three weeks. Eight passengers died from the COVID-19 outbreak and more than 100 passengers were infected.

The CDC still gives cruise ship travel its highest warning — Level 4. It recommends not boarding a cruise ship because the risk of catching COVID-19 is too high.

Loyal passengers remain, however, anxious to cruise again, said Peter Herff, owner of Herff Travel in San Antonio.

Herff said many cruisers are vaccinated and ready to board again in large numbers once the ships return to the US. He said he has seen several dozen bookings for the overseas cruises.

Herff said he is not anti-vaccine, but that it’s unfair to require cruise passengers to be vaccinated if they want to get onboard again. After all, he said, passengers won’t be subject to the same requirement before they board planes.

“I will guarantee you that if I’m talking to one of my clients and if they have a fear of traveling due to the virus, they don’t fear it on a cruise line — they fear it on the airplane,” he said.

randy.diamond@express-news.net