Because cruise lines sail nearly all of their ships from United States ports under foreign flags, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had much more control over the cruise industry than any other travel or entertainment business. The CDC used that power to stop all cruises from U.S. ports from March 2020 through July 2021.
And, even when that ban was lifted, the cruise lines had to operate under a strict set of rules that no other industry had to follow. Eventually, those rules were loosened and the CDC's program became voluntary, and now, the federal agency has abruptly stopped any covid-related regulation or tracking of the cruise industry.
That's a surprising move but it's one that outgoing Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Arnold Donald thinks rights a wrong.
"The fact is we were being held, and we felt unfairly, to a different standard: a zero-risk standard relative to the rest of the travel and leisure sector and the rest of society. We finally got to a place that brings us much closer to where the rest of society is in terms of freedom to operate responsibly," the CEO said, according to a Travel Weekly article.
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Will Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Drop Covid Testing, Vax Rules?
Just because the CDC has stopped paying attention does not mean Carnival, Royal Caribbean International (RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH), and other cruise lines that sail from the U.S. will drop pre-cruise covid testing and vaccine requirements. Currently, all three major U.S. cruise lines require all passengers to provide proof of a negative covid test taken no more than two days before their cruise and all passengers ages 12 and over must also be vaccinated.
Now, the cruise lines could drop those rules -- the CDC has essentially left them to their own devices -- but the U.S. government is not the sole authority here.
You'll start to see us move into what society is doing at large. We will always have to be in compliance with the destinations. Keep in mind the world is one world but not one place. And every destination has its own thing. So if we're going to someplace we're going to honor whatever that destination's rules are.
And there may be places around the world that still require certain things, certain testing, certain vaccinations, so if we choose to go to those places, then we're going to respect that, and guests will be informed ahead of time and know what they have to do. But that's what travel in general is, and people are used to that.
The Bahamas, for example recently changed its covid testing rules opening up the possibility that many Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian cruises that stop there could change the rules for those sailings.
"In addition to eliminating the mandatory Bahamas Travel Health Visa, the Government of The Bahamas announced today that fully vaccinated travelers will no longer be required to submit to pre-travel COVID-19 testing to enter the country," the Bahamas Ministry of tourism shared in a press release. "All unvaccinated travelers ages 2 and older will be required to obtain a negative COVID-19 test — either a negative RT-PCR test or a Rapid Antigen test — taken no more than three days (72 hours) prior to travel and present the negative test results at check-in before travel to The Bahamas."
The rules will vary by port, but an awful lot of sailings would be covered simply by adopting this rule change.
As of now, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have not made any major covid rule changes on their namesake brands sailing from the U.S. That could change when the cruise lines release their August protocols.
