The fallout from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s cruise line guidance has led to another cruise line canceling more voyages with Carnival Cruise Line taking June sailings off the board.
The line made the announcement Tuesday along with a similar announcement from Disney Cruise Line in the wake of the CDC’s updated details to its ongoing conditional sail order that remains in effect until Nov. 1, 2021. The CDC gave lines instructions on moving forward on the initial steps of a 74-point plan to return to business from U.S. ports, but held off detailing when cruise lines could perform the simulated voyages with volunteer passengers, a required step before any ship gets the OK to sail with paying customers.
The CDC also stopped short of requiring vaccinations for cruises in order to sail, but Norwegian Cruise Line on Monday announced its intentions to do just that for it and its sister brands Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, in a letter to the CDC that asked that it remove the conditional sail order for its brands by July.
Carnival Corp., which oversees Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America, Princess Cruises, Cunard and other lines, would make the call for whether or not it would require vaccines in the U.S.
“We are not taking a position on mandating vaccines at this time,” reads a statement from Carnival Corp. “We continue to closely monitor the evolving situation with vaccines globally and the issue has many complexities – including issues such as who has access to vaccines; children and vaccines; varying degrees of vaccine protection; vaccine efficacy against the emerging variants; legal and individual rights issues; and, when combined with other mitigation practices, what percent of a given population needs to be vaccinated to effect adequate protection for a group. As the situation continues to evolve, our decisions will be informed by our global medical and science experts and the requirements of the places we visit.”
Cruise lines were at the center of several deadly outbreaks in the early months of 2020 including several ships that would not allow passengers to disembark. One of the worst was on Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess, which left 14 dead. Those problems led to both the cruise industry voluntarily shutting down last March and the no-sail order from the CDC. That order evolved last fall into the conditional sail order, but without further guidance from the CDC, cruise lines have remained blocked from U.S. sailings.
Because of that, Norwegian Cruise Line also announced Tuesday that it would begin sailing from non-U.S. ports in the Caribbean to get its business started again, mirroring a move announced by Royal Caribbean last month.
Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy said the company is holding off for now on a similar move.
“We may have no choice but to do so in order to resume our operations which have been on ‘pause’ for over a year,” she said in a press release.
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The delay also means the debut for the line’s newest ship, Mardi Gras, from Port Canaveral will have to wait as well.
Mardi Gras was originally supposed to begin sailing in 2020 from Port Canaveral’s new Cruise Terminal 3. It’s the first cruise ship powered by the cleaner-burning liquefied natural gas to be based at a U.S. port. Port Canaveral has been gearing up for its arrival as well as planning infrastructure to handle future LNG-powered cruise ships including Disney Cruise Line’s new Disney Wish beginning in 2022.
The 1,130-foot-long vessel is 180,800 gross tons with a 5,282-passenger capacity based on double occupancy. It’s planned for year-round sailings of seven-night alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries. Carnival took possession of the ship from the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland in December, and it will eventually make its way to Port Canaveral to prep for the CDC guidelines to allow for safe sailing.
The first bookable sailing, which may fall even further until the CDC requirements are met, is now July 3. In a move that looks to give its customers flexibility in case there is a further delay, all of its July sailings won’t require final payments until May 31 with the ability to cancel without penalty.
“We know that this is very disappointing to our guests who continue to be eager to sail, and we remain committed to working with the administration and the CDC to find a workable solution that best serves the interest of public health,” Duffy said. “We are asking that the cruise industry be treated on par with the approach being taken with other travel and tourism sectors, as well as U.S. society at large.”
