The cruise line industry’s effort to emerge from a year-long COVID-19 closure remained adrift this month as cruise lines attempt to navigate conflicting directives from the state of Florida and federal health agency officials.
A Florida law that was just signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibits businesses in the state from asking whether customers have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. This prohibition against so-called “vaccine passports” conflicts with Norwegian Cruise Line’s efforts to restart operations under the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s sailing directive announced last month.
“All guests sailing aboard cruises with embarkation dates through Oct. 31, 2021, will be required to be fully vaccinated and tested prior to boarding our ships,” Harry Sommer, Norwegian Cruise Line's president and CEO, said in a recent statement.
Though Norwegian Cruise Line officials have expressed uncertainty about whether they will be able to operate out of Florida ports in the future, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) expressed some optimism that the industry would be able to work in concert with Florida’s governor.
“As we make progress with the CDC toward a responsible resumption of cruise operations beginning in July, we look forward to working with Gov. DeSantis to plan for a smooth return of passenger operations from Florida, where the cruise industry supports 159,000 jobs, representing $8.1 billion in total wages and salaries, and contributes more than $9 billion in direct spending,” the association’s spokeswoman, Laziza Lambert, told the Florida Record in an email.
Though Norwegian Cruise Line did not respond to requests for comment, CLIA has been critical of the CDC’s sailing directive. The CDC said that to resume operations, cruise lines would have to set up trial cruises with volunteer passengers in order to test COVID-19 safety measures. Operators, however, could avoid that requirement if 95 percent of passengers have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
“The new requirements are unduly burdensome, largely unworkable and seem to reflect a zero-risk objective rather than the mitigation approach to COVID that is the basis for every other U.S. sector of our society,” CLIA said in a recent statement.
The DeSantis administration is also suing the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, in federal court over the CDC sailing directive. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. Middle District of Florida, contends the CDC order represents a federal overreach and is hurting the state’s economy, tourism-related businesses and employees.
This week, the district judge overseeing the case, Steven Merryday, ordered the parties to enter into mediation to resolve their differences.