Posted on 05/07/2021 10:30:14 AM PDT by Capt. Tom
Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio has responded to the latest CDC requirements on resuming cruise operations out of the U.S.
More and more details are emerging about the new CDC regulations released this week. While the restrictions already seem incredibly restrictive towards cruises without a vaccination mandate, the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings revealed the company believes the restrictions apply to all cruises, which would make cruising in July a remote and unlikely prospect.
After Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings released their first-quarter earnings report on Thursday, CEO and President of the Company, Frank Del Rio, went on CNBC and called the new guidelines under phase 2B and 3 absurd. He believes the CDC is singling out the cruise industry in what can only be called a crusade against cruising.
Cruise Industry is Treated Unfairly Norwegian Cruise Line and its two sister brands, Regent Seven Seas and Oceania Cruises, have already stated they will require all guests onboard to be fully vaccinated once they resume cruising.
The current set of guidelines released by the CDC call for a set of measures that are the most restrictive of any industry in the United States and go much further than any other country has demanded of the cruise industry so far.
Not only are cruises without a vaccination mandate under threat, but the new measures also apply to cruises with a vaccination mandate, according to Del Rio:
We are mandating a hundred percent vaccinations for both crew and passengers. On top of that, we’re going to layer the 74 protocols that the healthy sail panel put together. So we believe that our vessels will be the safest place on earth. And yet, rather than ease on the demands and the requirements by the CDC, they seem to double down in the cruise industry.
I mean, can you imagine having to take on your mask and take off your mask in between bites of your meal or in between sips of a drink? It’s absurd. It doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world, anywhere else besides the United States. And so the unfair treatment that the industry has had to endure for over a year continues; it’s got to stop.
Del Rio: “July, and even August unlikely” The somewhat melancholy tone of the earnings report released on Thursday is echoed again by Del Rio, saying that under the current guidelines, he thinks it unlikely cruises will resume in the United States this summer in July, or August even:
“I seriously doubt we will be able to stand up a vessel out of a US Port in July, while August is also in jeopardy. And it’s all because of the disjointed guidelines from the CDC. See, what we received yesterday was anything but a clear path to restarting the industry.”
The President of the third-largest cruise company in the world believes the CDC’s guidelines to be contradictory to the goals set out by the Biden administration and calls them even un-American in nature.
Del Rio pointed out that people were allowed to take off their masks during meals during the height of the pandemic inside the United States. The CDC now requires guests to keep their masks on during meals, according to Del Rio:
If we’re interpreting what the CDC guidelines stated yesterday correctly, in between bites or in between sips, you got to put it back on and take it off and put it back on. It’s absurd. I mean, we wouldn’t put our customers through that.
The rules on the CDC website state the following:
While the Order permits temporarily removing a mask for brief periods while eating or drinking, removing the mask for extended meal service or beverage consumption would constitute a violation of this Order.
The interpretation of the rules is certainly something that has been contested in the last 48 hours. While some believe the new rules only apply to cruises without the vaccination mandate and not to cruises with that mandate, others believe the rules apply to all ships and all cruises. The fact is that the masks rule is under the section for simulated and restricted voyages.
Also Read: Norwegian Cruise Line Suspends Most U.S. Cruises Into the Fall
The CDC, as usual, will need to clarify what it wants the cruise industry to comply with. As it stands, the agency has been all too happy to make life a little more complicated and harder to understand after each progression it seems to make.
It is difficult to understand why the cruise lines think that playing chicken with the CDC is better than just loading the ships elsewhere and making some other ports very very rich by replacing the US ports. This is the second season they are losing this way? Eventually the bank loans will run out. Time to say, “that ship has sailed”.
Is the CDC tacitly admitting that they don't really trust the vaccine to work?
If people are vaccinated, then why are they afraid to let them mingle amongst the population without still resorting to these measures?
-PJ
I’d move all ops to the Dominican Republic, and just get people to fly down to board. Six months of that ‘damage’ to the US ports will trigger hostility toward the CDC.
“I’d move all ops to the Dominican Republic, and just get people to fly down to board. Six months of that ‘damage’ to the US ports will trigger hostility toward the CDC.”
And our lamestream press will use it to beat up on Florida
Republicans. see below for an recent example . -Tom
Just move all operations to Bahamas or the DR. The CDC will keep moving the goalposts no matter how much the cruise lines grovel.
And DeSantis was an idiot to sign that cruise passport bill without a carve out for the cruise lines. He sued the US government to allow the cruises to sail from Florida and then immediately made it impossible for them to do so.
IMHO that is part of it for sure.
The CDC stil has some curves it can play for cruisers who want too fly to Barbados, Cozumel, etc. to go on Caribbean cruises.
The CDC can declare some of the ports visited by those CDC avoiding cruise ships as virus hot spots and require the AIRLINES flying cruise passengers back into the USA to make sure the passengers have passed CDC tests and required quarantines before they can return.
Just another way the CDC can discourage cruise passengers. -Tom
Now that is one polite man...
“And DeSantis was an idiot to sign that cruise passport bill without a carve out for the cruise lines. He sued the US government to allow the cruises to sail from Florida and then immediately made it impossible for them to do so.”
Yes, the SAGA continues-see below. -Tom
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Norwegian-Cruise-Line-threatens-to-skip-Florida-16159967.php
Like I’ve said, if you read the CDC guidelines from the perspective of they know the vaccines don’t work nearly as well as they’d like, the guidelines all make sense.
See my post below. This is exactly what the cdc is admitting.
Most cruisers including myself have no problem flying to another country to board.
If the Great Reset includes ending the travel industry in the US, that is simply another nail in the coffin of America’s competitiveness with the rest of the world.
“what can only be called a crusade against cruising.”
For decades, the left has been crusading against cruising. Too much fossil fuels are used; the greenies cannot tolerate that sin in the religion of climate change.
The CDC is NOT A FEDERAL AGENCY!!!!! They should NOT have this CONTROL....they are funded by PRIVATE DONATIONS MOSTLY! THEY ARE EVIL!
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