Cruising could resume from U.S. ports in mid-July — if passengers are vaccinated

Cruising could resume from U.S. ports by mid-July aboard ships with at least 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers fully vaccinated, the nation’s top health protection agency announced.

A key official of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivered a set of revised guidelines Wednesday that could clear the way for cruising more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down.

The guidelines follow a high-profile campaign by top industry officials, and a lawsuit by Florida’s attorney general, demanding that the CDC allow the industry — crucial to Florida’s tourism economy — to resume operations from Florida’s six cruise ports this summer.

Still unknown is how Gov. Ron DeSantis will respond to the CDC’s statement that cruise lines can speed up their resumptions if nearly all crew and passengers are vaccinated.

Earlier this month, DeSantis said cruise lines would not be exempted from his executive order barring businesses from requiring “vaccine passports.” The governor’s office has not yet responded to a request for comment about the CDC letter.

The revised guidelines follow discussions with cruise industry representatives aimed at identifying “the fastest path back to sailing without compromising safety,” according to a CDC statement.

They include:

• Simulated voyages required by previous CDC guidance won’t be necessary if a ship attests that 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers are fully vaccinated.

• If a cruise line applies to conduct simulated voyages, the CDC will review and respond to the application within five days instead of 60 days.

• Vaccinated crew members and passengers will be allowed to take simplified viral tests.

• Cruise ship operators will be allowed to enter into multiport agreements instead of separate agreements with each port. These agreements are meant to ensure that medical and housing facilities near ports are available in case of a large-scale infection onboard ships. Multiport agreements may be suitable if one port has limited medical or housing capacity and a nearby port is able to supplement these capacities.

• Infected passengers could be allowed to use their own vehicles to drive to their homes and quarantine, reducing the contracted housing capacity cruise lines must demonstrate.

In her letter to the industry, Aimee Treffiletti, captain of the CDC’s Global Migration Task Force’s maritime unit, affirmed that it won’t be possible for cruise lines to guarantee that no one will get infected. The statement seemed aimed at critics who accused the CDC of refusing to allow cruising to resume unless the industry could guarantee no one on board could get the coronavirus.

“We acknowledge that cruising will never be a zero-risk activity and that the [CDC’s goal] is to resume passenger operations in a way that mitigates the risk of COVID-19 transmission on board cruise ships and across port communities,” Treffiletti wrote.

“We remain committed to the resumption of passenger operations in the United States following the requirements in [CDC guidelines] by mid-summer, which aligns with the goals announced by many major cruise lines.”

In a separate statement, the CDC said it “looks forward to continued engagement with the industry” and urges cruise lines to submit port agreements “as soon as possible to maintain the timeline of passenger voyages by mid-July.”

Florida, where 60% or U.S.-based cruises originate, has been hardest hit by the shutdown. According to a 2019 economic impact report from Cruise Lines International Association, a trade organization representing all of the major lines, the cruise industry was responsible for 159,000 jobs and $8.1 billion in economic impact in the state in 2019.

Infinity Transportation, based in Fort Lauderdale, lost most of its airport shuttle business during the quarantine last spring. Half of those trips shuttled passengers from the airport to the cruise port, company president Shawn Wilson said. “It was pretty bleak for awhile,” he said.

The company was forced to park its mini coaches and shuttle buses and find creative ways to generate revenue — like offering its limousines for pizzeria crawls to local residents eager to get out of the house for a while.

Spring Break provided a boost, but business has since slowed, leaving Wilson looking forward to getting his largest vehicles back into service hauling big families and all their suitcases to the port. “The sooner it comes back, the better,” he said.

Lenore Gilbert, owner of Gilbert’s 17th Street Grill in the Harbor Shops near the cruise port, said she and her employees look forward to the return of cruise customers who stay at hotels and eat before they embark.

“It’s a very important part of my business,” she said. “I have customers who come back every year and announce, ‘We’re back again!’” Gilbert said the return of cruising will likely require her to hire an additional server and add shifts for servers who saw their incomes dip during the shutdown.

Jonathan Daniels, Port Everglades chief executive and port director, called the development “great news,” adding that Port Everglades is ready for cruising to resume. “The next step is to work in partnership with the state’s Department of Health and the cruise lines to finalize a port agreement that will allow cruising to resume safely in Florida.”

A CLIA spokeswoman said the organization was still reviewing the CDC clarifications. But CLIA called the CDC’s statement encouraging.

“We are optimistic that these clarifications show positive progression — and importantly, a demonstrated commitment to constructive dialogue, which is key to restarting cruising as we have seen with other governments and health authorities around the world,” said Laziza Lambert, CLIA’s manager of strategic communications.

Colleen McDaniel, editor-in-chief of the consumer-focused website CruiseCritic.com, called the new guidance “the most comprehensive we’ve seen so far” from the CDC. “Perhaps the biggest update is the removal of the requirement for test sailings if cruise lines instead follow the vaccination guidelines.”

She added, “Many of the cruise lines already have much of the follow-up prepared, so we could see application approvals in the near future — far sooner than many may have guessed even earlier this week.”

Jonathan Fishman, spokesman for Royal Caribbean Group, said, “Although this is only a part of a very complex process, it encourages us that we now see a pathway to a health and achievable return to service.”

Royal Caribbean in March announced it would resume cruises to the Caribbean from Bermuda and the Bahamas beginning this summer with vaccinations required for all crew members and all adult passengers.

Norwegian Cruise Line followed in April with optimistic plans to resume sailing from U.S. ports starting July 4 with full vaccinations required for crew members and passengers.

A spokesperson for the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings on Thursday said the company is “currently engaging in further discussions” with the CDC “and is encouraged by the ongoing constructive dialogue that resulted in recent meaningful modifications to previously issued technical guidelines and the incorporation of vaccines.”

But industry leader Carnival Cruise Lines has not announced any resumptions or vaccination requirement, possibly out of concern about DeSantis’ vaccine passport ban and how politicized the issue has become in the U.S.

In an email, Carnival Corp. spokesman Roger Frizzell responded to the CDC letter by saying, “We received the information last night and we are currently in the process of reviewing it.”