I realize the news of the CDC lifting the no sail order on cruise ships was mainly overlooked in the news cycle. This week I wanted to touch on what that means a little bit more in depth.
You may remember, back in early March, the CDC issued a no sail order for cruise ships in US waters. That’s why those three NCL ships were docked in Portsmouth at the marine terminal for so long this summer. The good news is that order has been lifted, the more complicated news is that lifting the no sail order came with roughly 40 pages of regulations officially named the Framework for Conditional Sailing that is set to remain in place until November 1, 2021 (but can of course be extended or revoked).
Before ships can actually sail with passengers in US waters the biggest hurdles they need to overcome involve testing, mock cruises and itinerary restrictions.
Each ship will be required to create a testing lab onboard. This was obviously not a shock to the cruise lines, in fact, Viking Cruises announced this week that they have already created a lab on their Ocean ship, the Viking Star.
Secondly, the cruise lines must test all guests and employees at the beginning and end of each voyage.
Another caveat is that no cruise over 7 days will be permitted at this time.
In order for the cruise lines to meet these new requirements, along with the full list laid out in the 40 page memo, they have all cancelled sailings through the end of 2020. We are hearing from most of our cruise line executive contacts that more than likely it will be closer to the end of the first quarter of 2021 before sailings resume.
Should you have questions about the new requirements please don’t hesitate to reach out, we would love to fill you in on what we know so far. Of course, all of these new guidelines are subject to change at anytime.
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