The cruise industry is making progress with its attempts to continue sailing from the U.S. ports, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) authorized more cruise ships to start sailing again.
Nevertheless, the pandemic is still challenging the cruise lines. In fact, in the latest development, Disney Cruise Line postponed its first planned simulated cruise under the CDC’s requirements to resume revenue service.
According to Disney, the trip was postponed until next month, pending approvals, because a small number of employees had inconsistent results for COVID-19.
Now, the Disney Dream’s status has been updated to red on the CDC’s Color Status system, which means that the ship cannot operate a simulated voyage at this time. The ship must return to either green or orange status, which requires negative tests for all the crew members, while it also includes restriction of movement of crew on and off the ship during this period.
As of June 28, 11 cruise ships were listed with red status, including ships operated by MSC Cruises, Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean International.
In addition, the CDC has approved 11 cruise ships to operate simulated voyages, as well as eight more for revenue voyages, with the condition that 95% of passengers and crew are vaccinated.
These developments come as cruising is waiting for a resolution in Florida’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the CDC’s authority to restrict cruise operations from U.S. ports.
Namely, the judge gave the CDC until July 2 to respond with a narrower set of restrictions. Otherwise, the restraining order goes into effect in mid-July, changing the current CDC restrictions to recommendations.
