CDC gives Carnival OK for test cruises from Port Canaveral, Miami, Galveston

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened the door for cruises to begin again for Carnival Cruise Line out of Port Canaveral, Miami and Galveston.

The cruise line announced the decision Friday that will allow it to sail ships from the three ports on test sailings with volunteer passengers to prove out COVID-19 safety protocols.

“These agreements move us one step closer to sailing with our loyal guests,” said Lars Ljoen, executive vice president and chief maritime officer for Carnival Cruise Line in a press release. “We appreciate the support from not just these three homeport partners, but all of our homeports, that are eager to have us back as soon as possible.”

While the cruise line had previously announced its intentions to sail two ships, Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze, from Galveston and one ship, Carnival Horizon, from PortMiami, it has yet to announce which of its ships it intends to first use from the Space Coast port.

“This is the exciting news that we have been waiting for,” stated Port Canaveral CEO Capt. John Murray. “A tremendous amount of cooperative effort went into these agreements as we worked closely with our partner Carnival Cruise Line. This is a monumental step to getting the cruise industry up and running once again.”

One ship that could be in the mix is its newest one, Mardi Gras, which will be arriving to Port Canaveral next Friday. The line has brought in other ships to the port to get their crews vaccinated, including Carnival Liberty earlier this month.

All ships attempting to sail from the U.S. need to get the OK from the CDC. If a cruise line commits to sailing with 98% of its crew vaccinated and 95% of passengers, the CDC is allowing them to skip the test cruise phase that Carnival is attempting to complete.

Lines like Carnival and Disney Cruise Line, which have a large number of families that cruise with them, would be unlikely to meet those vaccination thresholds since no vaccine has been approved for use in anyone 11 or younger.

Other lines, including Celebrity Cruises, have been given the OK to sail from the U.S. using the vaccination alternative, although Celebrity’s plans to sail Celebrity Edge on a revenue sailing in June from Port Everglades faces opposition from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has an executive order in place, and signed a law that goes into effect July 1, that prohibits so-called vaccine passports.

Other lines including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess and Holland America are focusing their cruise restart efforts in Alaska, planning on sailings from Seattle in July and August with the vaccine requirement. Washington and Alaska do not have an issue with the practice.

For Carnival, though, it will have to complete a test voyage with at least 10% passenger capacity on each ship meeting the sundry safety requirements from the CDC in order to get its Conditional Sailing Certificate, which would then allow the cruise line to sail with paying customers. Those certificates are handed out on a ship-by-ship basis.

Guidance on how sailing would be able to return has only come in the last month.

Cruise ships have been under CDC orders that have halted sailing from U.S. ports since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, including several outbreaks on cruise ships.

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