The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued long-awaited technical guidance for cruise lines on Friday, bringing them one step closer to sailing again in United States . The new guidelines allow cruise ships operating in U.S. waters to choose to participate in the CDC's COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships, which requires participating cruise lines to report the . Carnivals 50th anniversary sailabration kicks off in Long Beach. There are also excursion rules and limited capacity. However, with cruises providing notoriously great value for money, there's little worry from the cruise lines. Children under 12 will not have to present negative Covid-19 tests, regardless of vaccination status. The cruise line will drop the vaccine requirement on select sailings from the U.S. and Europe. But when the sailing was announced as "fully vaccinated" in May, Gov. 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NBC 6's Ryan Nelson reports on Norwegian Cruise Line dropping its COVID-19 testing requirement. Copyright 2023. By the end of March, many mask mandates will go away, as is already happening in moststates and a growing number of schools. The big question is, what cruise lines allow unvaccinated guests to sail? Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Disney Magic will be the last ship to make changes on November 7, sailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Starting on October 14, guests boarding Disney Wish for the 3-night Bahamas cruise from Port Canaveral will be the first group to take advantage of the new protocols. Action Alerts PLUS is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc. Is a Hiring Slowdown a Bad Corporate Omen? When it comes to cruises that are six nights or more, all guests aged 2 and over must present a negative test result taken within three days before departure. Since the CDC Voluntary Program for U.S. Based Cruise Ships ended in July, Carnival Cruise Line joined the list of cruise lines that have removed some testing requirements. Disney Cruise Line expanded its Covid-19 vaccination requirement Wednesday to include children ages five to 11 for cruises starting in January, one of the first major cases of vaccine . We know you like itthats why youre here. "The U.S. consumer is sitting on $2 trillion of savings," Liberty said. Each sailing is unvaxxed capacity-controlled based on the total number of vaccinated guests projected to be on board. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian all require anyone 12 and older sailing on their ships to be fully vaccinated. That means three pillars of the government's made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy have failed or could soon fail. Part of this may also depend on whether the vaccines get reformulated to become highly effective against any transmission, which is very valuable for congregate settings like cruising. Cruises 6 days or more: All guests are required to take an official COVID-19 test before boarding. The protocol changes come right on time for unvaccinated guests to experience the ever-popular Halloween on the High Seas cruises onboard the Disney ships in October. Share. Number 8860726. CDC drops risk advisory for cruise ship travel, 2 years into the COVID pandemic : Coronavirus Updates While the agency has lifted its travel health notice two years after putting it in place . The unvaccinated cruise is now back. These include a number of sailings of 16 nights or longerand other specific voyages. That could change. We make sure cruisers are fully prepared for their cruise vacation with tips on ships and ports. On July 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the elimination of its COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships sailing in U.S. waters, a first-of-its-kind move that would allow each individual cruise line to manage its own COVID-19 mitigation programs. Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Princess Cruises will soon lift vaccination mandates for many cruises and ease testing, while Cunard is easing testing. An update is coming August 14. In late July the CDC relaxed Covid requirements for the cruise industry. Sign Up for Our Monthly Cruise Newsletter. Unvaccinated passengers will face onboard restrictions, COVID-19 tests, and extra costs. Many cruise fans and potential passengers may expect that this CDC decision means that vaccine requirements and precruise testing may soon go away. It will also . This can be a PCR or antigen test supervised in person or by telehealth professional. Guests without vaccination will be provided a test by Disney Cruise Line. His expectation is that more companies will soon remove pre-cruise COVID-19 testing, as local regulations allow. Subscribe to the Long Beach Post's daily eALERT and get the best local news in the city delivered to your inbox. Gottlieb,a former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member, who also co-chaired the Healthy Sail Panel, spoke in an NCLH briefing for travel partners and media. And of course, some Americans either can't get vaccinated or have chosen not to. If this is the case, you still need a negative test or be vaccinated. Fortunately, the CDC has also indicated that it is evaluating the situation, which may lead to welcome changes for cruise travelers. They say it has made it all but impossible to find enough willing workers, and the resulting staff shortages have forced . This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. We continue to work with our destination partners to evolve our protocols and align with the broader travel industry, as we transition to the point that everyone can vacation with us.. Getty Images. There will be no pre-cruise testing for vaccinated travelers on cruisesup to 15 nights, with the exception of full Panama Canal transits, trans-ocean and other special itineraries. Unvaccinated guests are welcome on most voyages. Below are the current requirements, as August 9, 2022 by cruise line. Advertiser Disclosure: Some links to credit cards and other products on this website will earn an affiliate commission. CRUISE HIVE LTD 2008-2023. I'm looking forward to cruising again,' he said. Commercially available tests will be accepted, including self tests. This positivity rate is still a small fraction of what it is in society at large, and nearly all cases on board were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.". Registered in England and Wales. At the end of May, Celebrity Cruises' sibling brand Royal Caribbean announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all guests. Millions of travelers rely on Cruise Hive in the United States, Europe, Australia, and around the world. Free expert cruise tips and news from Cruise Hive! Now, more cruise lines are dropping Covid vaccine and precruise Covid testing requirements. The CDCs latest updated guidance for cruise ships now only recommends, and no longer mandates, pre-cruise testing in the U.S. At this point, only Margaritaville and Virgin have revised their policies accordingly, but its very likely others will soon follow. The cruise lines are already set up to self-manage with all protocols necessary to keep their guests in the safest environment possible, as they always have been. Here are some of the latest cruise lines that are pulling back on pandemic measures. Royal Caribbean (RCL) - Get Free Report, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) - Get Free Report, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) - Get Free Report find their companies in the middle of this debate. Some cruise lines already let children and a select few customers travel unvaccinated. Reason Magazine's archive of articles filed under Vaccine mandates. The policy is true on most sailings on a first-come, first-served basis without the need for exemptions or vaccine status justifications. Children under 5 (from the US) and under 12 (from Australia) are exempt from vaccination and testing requirements. This content has not been approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Rocky started blogging on his own website When Doublewides Fly to share information about flying around the world on a dime. (Note: This information is accurate as of February 7, 2023. And one month later, the state passed a law to ban vaccine passports starting July 1. The new protocols will be introduced on a rolling basis, starting with Disney Wish, and concluding with Disney Magic on November 7. Cunard testing changes, but not vaccination mandate. abruptly stopped any covid-related regulation. On a recent communication to travel agents, Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley recently said,For those clientsbookedafter August 14, 2022,please await the specific protocol details from us related to those sailings. I expect that RCI will be dropping the vaccination requirements. The options available to unvaccinated guests continue to expand. We highly recommend that all Guests become fully vaccinated before sailing and encourage unvaccinated Guests to take a COVID-19 test 2 days prior to their cruise. Seatrade Cruise News is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC. They are going to want to make a decision around this after we get through another fall and winter with Covid and see if we are truly in an endemic phase with this.. Now that is being further expanded as cruise lines try to return to normal. "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.". Check the cruise lines websites for the most up-to-date information.). Vacation cruising has nearly returned to normal. Making travel easier for all guests. "[Cruises] still trade, unfortunately, at a significant discount to land-based vacations. Find out when the conditional sailing order expires. Other fun experiences include a Mickey Mouse-querade Party, a family costume party where kids can meet their favorite Disney characters, Halloween-themed movies, and even ghostly ship announcements. The CDC will likely recommend COVID-19 vaccination for congregate settings like cruises through this fall and winter, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, advisor to Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, said Thursday. 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. ", Read the original article on Business Insider, See more stories on Insider's business page, Chicago police chief, U.S. attorney resign after Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection. With that in mind, we've put together this list of cruise lines allowing unvaccinated guests to sail, as well as what the other lines currently require regarding vaccinations. On shorter cruises that . Yet the CDC is poised to loosen the industry's Covid leash, saying cruise lines are now positioned to . There's one common reason for these reversals of vaccine mandates: the ban on vaccine passports in states like Florida and Texas, which has created a heated standoff between cruise lines and the states. Since then, cruise lines can make their own rules and manage the monitoring of Covid-19 on cruise ships on their own. Princess Cruises, which sails out of the Port of Los Angeles, also announced similar changes to their vaccination guidelines on Friday. These 3 major cruise lines are set to lift mask mandates as COVID cases drop. With the CDCs removal of the pre-embarkation testing requirement, we are hopeful and pleased that the travel and cruising industries are sailing toward a new normal, said Oneil Khosa, CEO of Margaritaville at Sea. 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. (That mandate does not include a booster shot.) With that in mind, weve put together this list of cruise lines allowing unvaccinated guests to sail, as well as what the other lines currently require regarding vaccinations. The test may be a medically observed antigen test, rapid or lab-based PCR test, or Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT). All unvaccinated guests ages 2 and older are required to receive a lab-administered PCR or antigen test up to 3 days before sailing. "The booster vaccine is causing the most challenges for my agency as far as clients not wanting to get an additional booster shot in order to sail in some parts of the world requiring this, Martindale said. Keep in mind the world is one world but not one place. Given this realization, and how vocal some potential customers and cruise lines have been about such remaining restrictions, cruise lines were already starting to lift testing requirements even before the aforementioned CDC news. The same date applies for Disney Fantasy, sailing from Port Canaveral, visiting Tortola, St Thomas, and Castaway Cay. Reason is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. 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. it was clearly supposed to reward people for getting vaccinated, but there's no mechanism to know if people are vaccinated, so everyone could go without masks without immediate consequence. Anne Kalosh | Mar 03, 2022. The cruise line has announced a further easing of its protocols by dropping the vaccine requirements on select sailings from September 5, 2022. Most Americans have a strong opinion on vaccines -- strong to the point that the topic has caused family rifts and led friends to stop speaking to each other.