Posted on 04/10/2021 1:06:04 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an update to their conditional sail order last week, many thought it meant good news for the cruise industry. Upon closer look, the new protocols instituted by the CDC actually make life more difficult for cruise lines and put them further from their goal of sailing from American ports once again. Criticism came rolling in from all corners of the industry including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who previously threatened to sue the CDC if they wouldn’t let ships sail from Florida by July.
Norwegian Cruise Line President & CEO Harry Sommer joined Porthole Cruise Magazine founder and Editor-in-Chief Bill Panoff to discuss NCL’s return to cruising as well as his take on the new additions to the conditional sail order and what it means for industry.
Interview with NCL President & CEO Harry Sommer The CDC has been a major player in the cruise industry shutdown for the past year and their announcement recently that travel is safe for fully vaccinated people was initially seen as a positive for the industry. However, Sommer explained that the CDC doesn’t hold the same opinion when it comes to cruise lines.
“It was the tale of two announcements on Friday. We were so elated in the morning on Friday when the CDC basically came out and said if you’re fully vaccinated, you’re good to travel. We said that’s great because we had been planning for a while to announce this week… that we were going to require 100% vaccinations for every passenger and every crew member,” Sommer said. “And then they kind of took the cruise industry to the side and said ‘except for you’ and I’ll tell you, the part that puzzles us is when you think of every other leisure activity out there – movies, bars, restaurants, theme parks, hotels, resorts, stadiums – everything out there is open. Everything is 100% open, yet none of them have the same strict protocols that we’re proposing.”
When asked about the CDC’s refusal to let ships operate from American ports, Sommer highlighted the successful sailings all over the world since last summer as proof that cruise lines can operate safely, particularly since America’s vaccine rollout has been so robust.
“The combination of cruise lines out there have moved over 400,000 guests since this summer, less than 50 cases, no outbreaks, all traced, no hospitalizations, no fatalities and that’s without vaccines so we’re pretty comfortable that with vaccines it will be safe. It’s interesting, that even there, the CDC, when they put together requirements they put a seven page checklist on what an agreement will look like, like the CDC understands our business, they don’t,” Sommer said.
One of the most head-scratching parts of the CDC’s new conditions for cruise lines is the use of embarkation/debarkation gangways. Cruise lines must not use the same one for embarking and disembarking guests in the same 12-hour period. Many have pointed out that airports currently use the same gangway for multiple planes from all over the world in the course of an hour or two, but the CDC doesn’t have a problem with it. When asked about the rule, Sommer didn’t mince his words.
“You know Bill, if I’m being perfectly honest, which I like to be, I think it’s borderline ridiculous,” Sommer said.
Based on comments from cruisers across social media, it’s clear that the public wants to sail again. Sommer let us know that despite the pandemic, cruisers are booking the return cruises in record numbers and that’s been a bright spot in what was a tough week for the industry.
That CDC indifference was figured out by many of us Freepers last year.
The Cruise lines have spent their Billions of profits, and also spent Billions of borrowed money, and are now running on more borrowed money, and the leaders of these companies are now just figuring out after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to placate our CDC for over a year, that something is wrong.
What a strange business model cruise lines are. -Tom
If many of the reasons used by the CDC to keep the cruise line industry kept ashore were true, then the whole airline industry would have to have been shut down. But that never happened. There never was logic to it.
Actually all the way ridiculous...
perhaps, in retrospect, we’ll realize that the airline industry should have been shut down immediately.
No perhaps to it; it should not have been.
I, and millions of others, have had too much non-infectious airline travel since early 2020. The airlines are doing as good or better than many hospitals zapping pathogens in their air filtrations systems - UV filters in the systems.
The cruise lines hired many medical and lobbyist types to deal with the CDC.
You would have expected last year the Lines would have gotten the message from the many millions they spent on these people ,that the CDC was not acting in good faith.
When Pres. Trump didn't get re-elected in November all the alarm bells should have gone off for the Cruise Lines.
These are big businesses. How can the Cruise Line leadership be so gullible? Tom
One of the few governors doing what needs to be done,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-cruise-industry-de-santis-sues-federal-government/
This person lived for about 2 days. This was back around when Pelosi was still telling people to come to China town. Covid was on our radar but it hadn't yet developed into the focus of everyone's attention. They tested this person before he/she died and the test was negative but this was back when the Covid test was plagued by unreliability issues. There's no way this person was Covid negative. No way.
Anyways, TSA put this person on an airplane. He/she was flying home from vacation. They had to wheelchair his/her obtunded half dead body onto the jet full of passengers. That should not have happened. He/she never should have even been allowed into the airport let alone onto a plane.
He/she is for hipaa purposes incidentally.
Cruise Lines International Assn
Looks like they loved obama, some love for ‘pubs. loved biden in 2020
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/C00432393/summary/2020
https://www.opensecrets.org/search?q=Cruise+Lines+International+Assn&type=orgs
No special pandemic rules were or are needed when it comes to airlines taking themselves out of the responsibility of handling an obviously extremely ill person, and given that Covid-19 spread was already beginning, both the airline and the TSA had all the authority they needed to NOT take the patient on a regular commercial passenger flight. The did not need, legally, CDC rules or anything else to make a different choice in the matter.
From my years working in corporations, I would venture an opinion that most CEO types are more smooth talkers than know their business better than other employees.
On a long flight from one coast to other, people sit within inches of each other, breathing each others exhaled air.
Covid-19 virus is primarily a respiratory virus. On a large cruise ship (100,000 tins+) one can avoid easily avoid crowds and there is ample opportunity to breathe the ocean air with high oxygen levels from the zillions of plankton in ocean water. One has the option of 24 hour room service or many other opportunities to grab food from a buffet station and use an outdoor table. Even in the main theater there are usually plenty of empty seats.
So, I agree that air travel should be lot more restricted than cruise ship travel. But airlines do not impact Florida or governor DeSantis like the cruise business does. So I don’t expect CDC will do any favors to DeSantis.
Bahama & other Caribbean ports are not far from Miami. We have already done a couple of cruises sailing from Montego Bay in Jamaica. It was no sweat at all, except for the slow lines to sign in for return flight from Montego Bay to Miami.
Carnival seems to be in a bad position in the sense that if the CDC says no go for USA cruising until the fall ,Carnival is like a baseball player with a long lead off first base, because unlike the other lines they haven't made homeports outside this country for the USA fleet. Carnival is relying on our CDC to let hem cruise shortly.
The CDC may pick them off with an unfavorable decision on Cruising, which should be coming any day now. -Tom
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