Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are keeping all options open to restart the cruise industry in Florida, and are discussing legal strategies, said the Governor, speaking at Port Canaveral during a roundtable discussion on Friday.
“The Attorney General and I have been discussing what potential options we have on the legal side,” he said.
“Let’s appeal to the CDC and let’s try to get the guidance without having to go down that road,” he said. “Obviously at some point, we need a way forward.”
DeSantis noted a strong effort in 2020 to lift the CDC’s No Sail Order, and admitted he thought they had a plan in place to have it lifted by the end of the year.
“The previous administration was supportive of doing it, but the CDC was not. I think what we’ve seen is a continuation of that,” said DeSantis.
“If you keep this No Sail Order in place, Americans are still going to be taking cruises, they are just going to be taking them from the Bahamas or Bermuda,” he added.
Clia has urged the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lift its framework for conditional sailing order (CSO) and allow the sector to plan for a phased resumption of cruise operations from US ports by the start of July.
“These voyages were successfully completed with industry-leading protocols that effectively mitigated the spread of Covid-19,” said Craighead, who noted plans for further sailings in the Mediterranean and Caribbean during spring and into summer. Craighead said the CDC order no longer reflected operational realities thanks to a combination of an accelerated vaccination programme and better Covid mitigations and protocols. “The cruise industry has adopted a high bar for resumption around the world with a multi-layered set of policies intended to be revised as conditions change,” said Craighead. “Our members continue to follow this multi-layered approach to enhancing health and safety that has proven effective, making cruising one of the best and most adaptable choices.”
The association said this would dovetail with President Biden’s forecast for when living in the US would be “closer to normal”; president and chief executive Kelly Craighead said the “highly-controlled” resumption of cruising in Europe, Asia and the South Pacific had proved it was possible.
The CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, Richard Fain, has highlighted the changing times since the CDC’s conditional sail order in October and hopes for a more topical approach to the resumption of cruising.
“The CDC issued the conditional sale order last October in an effort to provide a path for cruising to reopen in the United States … When the conditional sale order was written, there were no vaccines. The disease was on an upward trajectory and heading towards a terrible peak. Testing was less available and more costly, and therapeutics were limited. In general, the situation looked very bleak back then,” Fain said in a video post on social media.
“Last October, preparing for resumption service based on extensive protocols made good sense. But today, a vaccine approach makes much more sense than this old protocol-based approach. The vaccines are bringing down the incidence of COVID-19 in society; the testing enables us to catch cases early. And the preparation we’re doing allows us to handle individual cases safely and simply,’ he added.
Fain said that he expects that the CDC will take these changes into consideration.
“We look forward to a constructive dialogue with health officials in the United States and elsewhere, for the path forward under these new circumstances,” he said.
According to Fain, 100,000 cruisers have sailed aboard Royal Caribbean Group’s ships since the pandemic started, with 10 having tested positive for the coronavirus.
“And all of them have been handled smoothly and without undue disruption of other guests’ cruises. And without undue burden on the communities and the governments involved,’ he said. “Our experience with these 100,000 guests is a very powerful proof of concept. In essence, we’ve just had 100,000 test cruisers and demonstrated that the process works.”
The cruise industry overall has carried more than 350,000 passengers since the pandemic with “minimal disruption,” he added.
“This is precisely what we thought would be the case. And now it is the most powerful and reliable evidence in multiple real-world settings,” he said. “No longer are we talking about when will cruising restart cruising has already restarted.”
Fain also said that Royal Caribbean’s post-pandemic cruises have received higher ratings from guests than pre-pandemic.
Fain also stated that the coronavirus vaccines are a “gamechanger,” but he can’t say yet if all Royal Caribbean sailings will require them from guests.
“We have announced three cruises that will require inoculations for all adults, and there are likely to be more. But each circumstance is different. And I would note that the cruises we are currently operating are operating without requiring vaccines,” he said.
Fain finally called on people not to become complacent, as letting “our guard down” and stopping to take simple precautions would cause another spike.
“I, therefore, encourage all of you to get your vaccine, follow the CDC advice, and we can be sailing in time to meet President Biden’s goal of reopening society in time for the Fourth of July,” he concluded
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