will cruise lines lift vaccine mandate

Help us keep hyperlocal news alive in Long Beach. Unvaccinated guests are welcome to sail on all voyages, except for itineraries that feature destinations that continue to require vaccinations. Subscribe to RSS Fortunately, the CDC has also indicated that it is evaluating the situation, which may lead to welcome changes for cruise travelers. Carnival Cruises no longer requires that passengers get vaccinated against COVID-19 for most voyages of less than 16 days, the company announced on Friday. As of August 8, 2022 only children under 12 are welcome as unvaccinated guests on Celebrity cruise lines when leaving the United States. Share. The CDC has allowed cruise ships to operate with conditions since October 2020, requiring masks onboard and vaccinations or testing of passengers and crew, among other safety precautions. Starting March 11, 2023, proof of vaccination for sailings to or from Europe will no longer be required. Disney Cruise Line becomes one of the final major lines to remove the vaccine mandate, along with relaxing testing requirements. 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. NCL's last two Prima Plus ships will accommodate green methanol, Moving forward on multiple sustainability fronts: Insights from NAPA. Unvaccinated guests are welcome to sail on most voyages, except for itineraries that feature destinations with local regulations that may continue to require vaccination including Australia. 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. The industry is still recovering and working under a patchwork of regulations. The changes are nuanced, depending on embarkation ports and destinations and, in some cases, by cruise length, and vary by cruise line. What You Need to Know About Norwegian Cruise Lines Premium+ Drink Package, 12 Things to Know Before Sailing Royal Caribbean, Carnival Drops Pre-Cruise Testing & Vaccination Requirements, NCLH Drops COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements, Welcomes Everyone to Sail, Cruise News Recap | Week of February 5, 2023, Philippines Welcomes First International Cruise Ship in Three Years, Pre-Cruise Entertainment Reservations Now Available on Norwegian Cruise Line. Vacation cruising has nearly returned to normal. These new requirements apply to voyages from all ports except those in Canada, Bermuda, Greece and Australia, where government regulations still require vaccinations. Now, more cruise lines are dropping Covid vaccine and precruise Covid testing requirements. Please be aware that health and safety measures may change at any time. We make sure cruisers are fully prepared for their cruise vacation with tips on ships and ports. "At Princess, we want to make your vacation as easy, hassle-free and safe as possible. News Florida Disney. The short answer to the question is: I think this is kind of a springtime thing from a CDC policy standpoint. As mentioned, the first vessel where Disney implements the new procedures is Disney Wish on October 14, a 3-day Bahamas cruise to Nassau and Castaway Cay, sailing from Port Canaveral. Make sure you choose a travel insurance policy that covers you for cruising, and any activities you do on shore. Testing is still required for some cruises. 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. Norwegian Cruise shares tumble about 6% after the company's adjusted loss per share and adjusted Ebitda loss were worse than analysts expected in the fourth quarter. abruptly stopped any covid-related regulation. This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Cruise travel's CDC status has come a long way in the past few months. Some people are upset at the way iPhones charge. Now that is being further expanded as cruise lines try to return to normal. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian all require anyone 12 and older sailing on their ships to be fully vaccinated. Copyright 2023. For departures five nights or less out of Los Angeles and Galveston, unvaccinated guests aged 2 and over must show a negative test result to sail. For cruises of five or fewer nights from Los Angeles, vaccinated passengers won't need to test for COVID. So if we're going to someplace we're going to honor whatever that destination's rules are. 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. "Since we resumed operations, our goal has been to making cruising one of the safest vacations anywhere in the world while providing an exceptional guest experience,"he said. The cruise industry has been bending over backward to show the public that cruises are a safe vacation opportunity. 32. If thats the case, then everyone on the cruise will need to meet the vaccine requirements. The CDC's new opt-in cruise program reduced isolation/quarantine times for highly vaccinated ships. More travelers will soon be able to book a cruise when Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. becomes the first cruise company to drop vaccination requirements starting Sept. 3, 2022. 'One-way masking works,' Gottlieb said, provided it's a high-quality mask like an N95. The CDC's mask mandate for public transportation runs untilMarch 18, and Gottlieb thinks the agency will extend it by two or three weeks but give a definitive end date. These cruises feature spooky character encounters and enchanted pumpkin trees. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. In short, Gottlieb sees a transition from government-imposed rules on isolation/quarantine to the expectation that people take personal responsibility. Starting Sept. 6, vaccinated travelers on cruises under16 days will no longer have to test before embarking and only need to upload proof of vaccination while getting OceanReady. This news comes as the cruise industry starts to relax its protocols and aligns with other travel sectors, such as flights. All new vaccination and testing policies remainsubject to local destination regulations, according to the company. Three months ago, on December 30, it was moved to the agency's highest-risk Level 4 category of travel advisories as the . This was the same . 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. Royal Caribbean said, We are working with local governments in the Eastern Caribbean to align on vaccination requirements for more itineraries. No business wants to make a choice -- or in this case have choices made for them by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- that alienates potential customers. Since then, cruise lines can make their own rules and manage the monitoring of Covid-19 on cruise ships on their own. Passengers on cruises 16 nights or longer, or sailing on full Panama Canal transits, trans-ocean and other specific itineraries, need to take a supervised test within three days before embarking. I'm looking forward to cruising again,' he said. Celebrity'highly recommended' vaccination although it won't be required for these trips. Vaccinated passengers still must present a medically supervised negative covid antigen or rapid pcr test before sailing. Though . Therapeutics will play an important role, too, and Gottlieb thinks they'll become widely availableand continue to evolve and become more effective. Two major cruise lines, Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Line, have announced plans to ease onboard . The cruise line is working with the ports and says it will share information to travel agents and guests as it becomes available. By the end of March, many mask mandates will go away, as is already happening in moststates and a growing number of schools. THURSDAY, March 31, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A two-year advisory that warned Americans against going on cruises has been dropped by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If guests are sailing on back-to-back cruises, they will not be required to be tested in between cruises, as long as they are fully vaccinated. Two Summer Itineraries Modified for Disney Cruise Ship, Passenger Accused of Using Stolen Credit Cards for Royal Caribbean Cruise, Royal Caribbean Makes Major Updates for Loyal Guests, Holland America Line Gears Up For Alaska Travel Expo. Free expert cruise tips and news from Cruise Hive! The following voyages require guests, age 12 and older, to be fully vaccinated. Vaccinated travelers on cruises six nights or longer must present a negative supervised test taken within three days before embarking. But that's what travel in general is, and people are used to that. This means any company that violates this proof-of-vaccination ban could be fined $5,000 for each customer. By maximizing miles and points, cheap deals, sales, backpacking, and couchsurfing Rocky has traveled to 75 countries and still counting. Receive full access to our market insights, commentary, newsletters, breaking news alerts, and more. This site is for entertainment purposes only. And there may be places around the world that still require certain things, certain testing, certain vaccinations, so if we choose to go to those places, then we're going to respect that, and guests will be informed ahead of time and know what they have to do. "The U.S. consumer is sitting on $2 trillion of savings," Liberty said. 2023 TheStreet, Inc. All rights reserved. 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.. There's no indication that consumers are "shying away from taking cruise vacations," its CEO said. The Miami-based cruise line also announced that starting Sept. 6, vaccinated passengers sailing on voyages of less than 16 days will no longer have to test before boarding. Apr 12, 2022 10:20 AM EDT. He became the CEO at Norwegian in 2015 after it brought a cruise line Del Rio founded in 2002. 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. Sarah has been writing about the cruise industry since 2015. As of now, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have not made any major covid rule changes on their namesake brands sailing from the U.S. That could change when the cruise lines release their August protocols. The new guidelines effect NCL, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas. Some cruise lines already let children and a select few customers travel unvaccinated. On 4 April, days before a vote in the Bundestag was scheduled, the initiative for a general vaccine mandate was effectively shelved, with a group of 237 parliamentarians who had favored it switching to proposing instead a mandate for those aged 50 and over. These new guidelines apply to itineraries from all departure ports except where government regulations and protocols may vary like Canada, Greece and Australia. Whats notably missing are Eastern Caribbean cruises, such as those that sail to the Bahamas. RELATED: Carnival Drops Pre-Cruise Testing & Vaccination Requirements. However, with cruises providing notoriously great value for money, there's little worry from the cruise lines. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Covid-19 guidance will soon become optional for many cruise ship lines. This easing applies to certain departures out of Los Angeles in California, Galveston in Texas, New Orleans in Louisiana, and cruises in Europe. This now means that regardless of vaccination status, guests can cruise on the select sailings, as long as they meet any testing requirements. Princess is now permitting up to 10% of its guests to be unvaccinated. The Bahamas, for example recently changed its covid testing rules opening up the possibility that many Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian cruises that stop there could change the rules for those sailings. We'll send you a weekly newsletter to your inbox. Unvaccinated travelers will need to show a negative supervised test taken within three days before embarking regardless of cruise length. 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. An update is coming August 14. At long last, cruise lines are finally starting to drop their vaccine mandates and allow all passengers inoculated or not to sail on their ships. (That mandate does not include a booster shot.). "[Cruises] still trade, unfortunately, at a significant discount to land-based vacations. 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.. Fully-vaccinated . Especially if you are unvaccinated. In late July the CDC relaxed Covid requirements for the cruise industry. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. Coronavirus. Topline. Registered in England and Wales. None of them want to be. 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. For the time being, cruise lines are mostly holding strong to their vaccine mandates, but another subset of travelers is hoping those will eventually go away, too. But the cruise line still "strongly recommends" that its eligible guests be vaccinated, a spokesperson told Insider in an emailed statement. 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. CRUISE HIVE LTD 2008-2023. Disney Cruise Line is one of the last cruise lines to make these changes. Yet the CDC is poised to loosen the industry's Covid leash, saying cruise lines are now positioned to . In the case of European cruises, some destinations require travelers to be 'up to date' with their vacines to go ashore, Royal Caribbean said, andpassengersmay be subject to testing onboard in order to visit certain ports. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Many cruise fans and potential passengers may expect that this CDC decision means that vaccine requirements and precruise testing may soon go away. Cruise lines . cruise lines are mostly holding strong to their vaccine mandates, When Will the Brightline to Orlando Open? Children under 12 will not have to present negative Covid-19 tests, regardless of vaccination status. Cruising still requires either a covid-19 test and vaccination in most situations. That's why Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian will likely let the CDC make the call on vaccinations even if they technically could decide to drop the vaccine requirement on their own. I think that its likely to be a requirement that is in place through this fall and winter, Gottlieb said, according to a Cruzely report. Royal Caribbean International has announced updated protocols for the United States, Puerto Rico, and Barbados-based cruises through March 31, 2022. We finally got to a place that brings us much closer to where the rest of society is in terms of freedom to operate responsibly," the CEO said, according to a Travel Weekly article. This doesnt apply to select destinations where local regulations vary, including Australia. Guests without vaccination will be provided a test by Disney Cruise Line. New Details Released. 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. Advertiser Disclosure: Some links to credit cards and other products on this website will earn an affiliate commission. If you have a question or would like to make a press inquiry, please contact: Scott Mackenzie For the time being, cruise lines are mostly holding strong to their vaccine mandates, but another subset of travelers is hoping those will eventually go away, too. This is like a transition year. Royal Caribbean released a further update to its protocols on Wednesday, which will go into effect in September 2022. 'This a transition year then they'll decide whether they want vaccinations in congregate settings like cruising, whether this becomes part of the childhood immunization schedule,' Gottlieb said. He has close to three decades of experience in journalism leading numerous investigations and long-form journalism projects for the OC Weekly and other publications. All travelers who are 12 and older must be fully vaccinated. Each sailing is unvaxxed capacity-controlled based on the total number of vaccinated guests projected to be on board. Are upset at the way iPhones charge $ 2 trillion of savings, & quot ; Liberty.! Moving forward on multiple sustainability fronts: Insights from NAPA need to test for Covid Liberty will cruise lines lift vaccine mandate: links... On vaccination requirements cruising again, ' Gottlieb said, we are working local! 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