If you’re keeping score, it’s now State of Florida 2, CDC 1.
As Open Jaw reported a week ago, a U.S. appeals court overturned a ruling that had stripped the CDC of its right to regulate cruise ships sailing from Florida. It reinstated the CDC’s Conditional Sail Orders (CSO).
But Florida’s governor immediately declared his intention to continue to fight against the CDC having any ability to restrict cruising in Florida.
And in the latest twist in a saga that’s increasingly difficult to follow, on Friday 23JUL, Cruise Industry News reports the U.S. appeals court overturned its own week-old decision, making the CSO now simply a suggestion, not mandatory.
Advantage, Florida.
But it isn’t even over yet. Cruise Week reports that the court followed up, noting that, “the CDC's right to issue restrictions is due at the Court of Appeals on or before September 1, 2021.”
If we can’t keep up, imagine trying to run a cruise line while the obligation to operate under the CSO remains in limbo.
On the one hand, the CDC’s lengthy apply-to-sail process, as well as test sailings, aren’t enforceable in the interim, so a number of cruise lines may return to cruising more quickly - certainly ahead of any SEP ruling that puts those restrictions back in place.
On the other hand, Cruise Week says several industry sources have called the legal yo-yo’ing “crazy,” and said that making constant protocol changes is simply impossible. Those sources indicate many cruise lines will maintain the protocols that are in place that delicately balance CDC requirements and Florida restrictions.
Those protocols mainly provide guests who choose to provide proof of vaccination status with almost complete freedom on board and in most ports of call, while enforcing masking, distancing/ separation and limitations at certain ports of call, as well as expensive rounds of tests to be paid for by guests who are unvaccinated or who decline to provide proof of vaccination.
As Cruise Week says, “For its part, the CDC said they will enforce the "mask mandate" and other CDC safety requirements on those cruise ships that opt not to abide by the Conditional Sail Order.”
Open Jaw has repeatedly reported that surveys of cruise line guests reveal most want to sail in a vaccinated environment, and most cruise lines are committed to providing it.
A tweet by Carnival Corp. Chairman Micky Arison on Friday may sum up the view of most cruise executives, at least when it comes to vaccinations: "In the last couple of months 97% of hospitalizations were unvaccinated and 99% of the deaths were unvaccinated. How much clearer can it be just #GetVaccinatedASAP and let’s end the pandemic."
Hear, hear.
