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Posted on 05/29/2021 12:48:29 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
With Florida's ban on vaccine passports, cruise line restart plans are becoming complicated. The first cruise ship aims to resume in June.
Celebrity Cruises announced it would start sailing at the end of June with the Celebrity Edge from Fort Lauderdale on June 26. Carnival Cruise Line received permission to start sailing from three US ports (including two in Florida), and Royal Caribbean is underway to start operations from Florida. This week has been full of great news for the cruise industry. But there might be a catch.
Governor DeSantis of Florida has made it clear again he is not amused with the CDC’s mandate for cruises with vaccinated guests only. Florida’s Governor recently signed a new bill that would ban businesses from requiring customers to present a vaccine passport.
A Fine for Asking Passengers to Show Vaccine Passport A statement issued by the Governor’s office made it clear where he stands regarding Celebrity Cruises’ first cruise in more than 15 months from the United States.
Although the Governor presented himself as a fervent supporter of the cruise industry, he has also been opposed to the vaccine requirements and there could be a fine of $5,000 each time a cruise line asks a passenger to show a vaccine passport. The statement said the following:
“Celebrity Cruises’ vaccine requirements violate the spirit of the Governor’s Emergency Order 21-81, which prohibits vaccine passports and protects the fundamental rights of Floridians – including the right to medical privacy. The policy would also be a violation of Florida’s recently enacted law banning vaccine passports, SB 2006, effective July 1. Companies doing business in Florida, including Celebrity Cruises, should immediately cease to impose such discriminatory policies upon individuals. Companies that violate this law would be subject to a fine of $5,000 each time they require a customer to present a “vaccine passport” for service.”
While the cruise lines have maintained that they do not see any issues with the new bill, Governor DeSantis sees this differently. The question is now whether or not the Governor’s bill has any legal standing regarding the cruise lines.
Catering to His Base
Some say that DeSantis is merely catering to a section of his supporters. Whether or not that is the case remains to be seen. Nonetheless, Jim Walker, a maritime lawyer, said this to USA Today:
“It is conceivable that Gov. DeSantis could blink, so to speak, and the Florida statute could be withdrawn, but he seems committed to making a direct political move catering to his base.”
Christina Pushaw, who acts as the press secretary for Governor DeSantis, disagrees. In a statement, she believes that requiring cruise ship passengers to be vaccinated “not only violates civil liberties but also discriminates against families with children who enjoy vacations.” The CDC has “no legal authority” to set requirements for cruise lines. If the CDC and the Department of Health have no authority to set requirements for cruise lines, it stands to reason that this also counts for Governor DeSantis’ bill.
Dr. Jay Wolfson, a public health and law professor at the University of South Florida, told WTSP 10 Tampa Bay:
“They’re not a Florida company. I don’t think any of them really are. Cruise ships are requiring vaccinations to protect not just themselves and the other passengers, It really protects the economic viability of the cruise ship industry.”
With most cruise lines having offices in the State of Florida, in most cases, the companies are ‘officially’ based elsewhere. The CDC’s authority overrules DeSantis concerning health requirements on cruise ships, but a cruise line would likely have to take the Governor to court to clarify this. There is a solution that could put DeSantis’ bill in the bin; a federal statute requiring proof of vaccination would override state law.
Cruise Vaccine What are the Cruise Lines Saying?
Celebrity Cruises, in the meantime, seems unaffected by the threats from the Governor’s office. The cruise line says it will go ahead with the first cruise from US soil since March last year, with vaccinated guests:
“Our commitment to sail with fully vaccinated crew members and guests still stands, as it is a meaningful layer to ensure we make every effort to help keep safe our guests, crew, and the communities we visit,”
Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio made it clear earlier this month he believes a compromise is possible, however, if not, he has no issues to pull his ships out of Florida:
“At the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and God forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from, and we can operate from the Caribbean for a ship that otherwise would have gone to Florida,”
The bill would also put the simulated voyages in danger that are scheduled for June as well. Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises plan to make these test cruises. The issue here is that the CDC still requires the cruise lines to check the vaccination status of the guests onboard. Something the DeSantis bill will prohibit.
The entire situation is placing a black cloud over what would otherwise have been a month of celebrations as one of the last industries to be on hold is resuming business once again. If it turns out there is a legal basis for the bill, we could see even more cancelations once again.
The cruise companies are free to depart from Georgia. Or Cuba
No infrastructure or deep water ports??
Kinda like that “build your own social network thingy”.
“At the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and God forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from, and we can operate from the Caribbean for a ship that otherwise would have gone to Florida,”
You'll be able to operate in Florida, but you won't be able to violate people's privacy. Your choice Del Rio. It's really quite simple. People have the personal responsibility to protect themselves. Not you. Not the government. If that was the approach that was originally taken, cruise lines and many other businesses would have been operating a whole lot earlier and it would have save hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Deep State’s war on DeSantis and Florida continues.
Geez, I don’t even have a Social security card. I threw away my covid vac card yesterday. geez, what’s the problem? cannot we live, just live, without the Gestapo tactics? Maybe I’m getting old and stuff, but this is nonsense.
Life is not simple.
I don’t care if some company requires vaccinations for some event.
I wish to hell everywhere including planes would drop all mask requirements, at least for the vaccinated.
There is some good news here in Massachusetts, today I went to my local bagel and coffee shop and didn't have to wear a mask to get in. The mask signs are gone.
Inside the 4 women workers wore no masks, and the waiting customers, about 7 , only one woman was wearing a mask.
Certainly a step in the right direction. -Tom
They are doing it to coax the hysterical Karens back aboard - seemingly not understanding that nothing will convince them to return and they would be better off marketing their product to rational people.
No it doesn’t.
All the cruise companies have to do is say: “Country X were we are stopping requires vaccinations for these diseases. If you don’t have it, they won’t let us port there. So, it ain’t us asking, it’s them!”
I don’t get it. It seems like Governor DeSantis’ order makes it easier for the cruise lines to operate, not harder.
It’s hypocritical of the ‘fully vaccinated and proud’ ijits who want to exclude their fellow American citizen ‘unwashed and unvaccinated hordes’ from cruising...
And theyve been screaming in terror for weeks on cruising website boards but if theyre so ‘fully vaccinated’ arent they safe now from the unvaxed ???
Bet these same people insist everybody be inclusive when it comes to illegal aliens, trannies, homosexuals, moslems, etc...
But they wont be satisfied until our government demands that the unvaxed wear a yellow star at all times and yell “unclean” to warn them to keep clear..
People who have had Covid are arguably better protected than those vaccinated. That this is not honestly discussed is yet another strike against our public health authorities.
I am far more comfortable around people that have NOT taken the fake vaccine than those that haven’t taken it.
Hes going to run out of vaccinated passengers real quick... most of the adults in this country are either too old and in nursing homes, dont cruise, or are unvaxed ...
The few that are cruising vaxxers arent necessarily interested in the N where they cant take their children etc...
Hes shooting holes in his sinking ships...
If Deep State is lying about vaccination uptake figs, I’m betting they’re way overcounting, and the cruise industry is relying on bogus numbers from Deep State...
I have one word for the cruise industry: Suckers!!!
Plus theres the undocumented cruisers with their fakey downloaded vax passports...
Who is going to sort out the real from the pretend...
Fun fun fun
Just say you ‘identify as a vaccinated person’ and see if that works...
It should...
:)
I saw that I think both parties will back that...
Too many D voting blacks arent vaccinated...
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