Liberian-registered Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines say they know about Florida's lawsuit against the Biden administration over industry restrictions but they will work with it to get back out to sea, several statements say.
"We are aware that there are many efforts underway at the state, federal and grassroots levels that can support us as we return to healthy and safe sailing from the United States," Royal Caribbean said in its statement. "Vaccinations layered on top of the rigorous health and safety measures we are implementing enable us to create a safe environment for cruising. We strongly believe that the cruise industry can be part of President Biden’s stated goal for society to reopen by July 4."
The statement was one of three from international cruise companies posted April 12 on CruiseLine.com. The industry news website also posted comments from Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.
Carnival referred to Florida's lawsuit and the shared "sense of urgency" to get people back to work.
Norwegian said in its statement that it's a matter of its company policy not to comment on third-party litigation but did refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that have kept them in dock for more than a year.
"As we’ve outlined in our proposed plan to safely resume cruising, we look forward to partnering with the CDC to engage in meaningful discussions," Norwegian said. "We believe the time has come for cruising to resume from U.S. ports. Our proposed plan, including 100 percent vaccinations of guests and crew, universal testing, and multi-layered health and safety protocols, is consistent with the CDC's updated travel guidance."
The 21-page lawsuit filed April 8 in U.S. District Court for Florida's Middle District names Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky among the defendants. The litigation aims at forcing President Joe Biden's administration to withdraw regulations blocking the cruise industry from resuming its operations.
Specifically, the Biden administration should overturn the "unlawful" Conditional Sailing Order first promulgated by the CDC in March of last year, according to a news release issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis' office.
"This unprecedented year-long lockdown of an entire industry by the federal government has directly harmed the State of Florida, its citizens, and their families, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in economic activity," said the news release issued the same day the lawsuit was filed.
The cruise industry must be allowed "to get back to work and safely set sail again,” DeSantis said in the news release. "To be clear, no federal law authorizes the CDC to indefinitely impose a nationwide shutdown of an entire industry. This lawsuit is necessary to protect Floridians from the federal government’s overreach and resulting economic harm to our state.”
In the same news release, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody pointed out how vital the cruise industry is to the state's economy.
"Every day the federal government unfairly keeps this economic giant docked, our economy suffers," Moody said.
"The ripple effect of this misguided federal lockdown has far-reaching implications for the cruise industry, international tourism, businesses that would benefit from the influx of visitors, our state’s economy and the thousands of Floridians who work in the industry. But what is even worse than the economic damage caused by this heavy-handed federal overreach is the precedent being set by an eager-to-regulate Biden administration that is unfairly singling out and keeping docked our cruise industry on the basis of outdated data."