Major Cruise Company Suggests Skipping Florida’s Ports Because of Vaccine Passport Ban

The Epoch Times ^ | May 8, 2021 | Alan Zhong

[Twotone]

Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line said it may avoid Florida ports because of the Sunshine State’s vaccine passport ban.

“But 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 ships that otherwise would have gone to Florida,” Norwegian President and Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Del Rio told reporters on Thursday during an earnings call for the first quarter of 2021.

He said all cruise companies want to operate in Florida because the market is “lucrative” and hoped the disputes over the vaccine passport ban can be solved.

“We hope that this hasn’t become a legal football or a political football,” he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis codified the prohibition of COVID-19 vaccine passports by signing Florida Senate Bill 2006 into law on May 3. He initiated the ban through an executive order in August.

The new law will be effective on July 1, 2021.

The Epoch Times reached out to DeSantis’s office for comments.

[Twotone]

I just canceled a 2022 cruise with Norwegian because of their vaccine mandate. They deserve to lose this 'lucrative market.'

[RBW in PA]

Thats Ok with me, I’m skipping them because of their vaccine requirements. Was booked on a 12 day cruise with Royal, out of six people nobody wanted to get the vaccine. Canceled the booking and told them why.

[Twotone]

When I canceled my cruise I asked the young man I was talking to if they were reporting the reason to the mucky-mucks. He said no, but the more it happens maybe they’ll reconsider. If not, I’ve got other things to do with my time & money.

[AC86UT89]

I am (or was before the lockdowns) a frequent cruiser. I will not get on a cruise ship unless passengers and crew and vaccinated.

And I understand cruise companies are businesses and if they have to have vaccine mandates to comply with local/national laws and re-build trust. DeSantis needs to exempt cruise lines from the vaccine passport ban, and I think he will.

[Jim Noble]

The antivax side is not going to win the passport fight.

[blueunicorn6]

“Norwegian President.....Frank J. Del Rio”

Must come from southern Norway.

[Jane Long]

The antivax side is not going to win the passport fight.

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Is that what your BigPharma lords told you?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Fine with me. They can booger off!

[Jane Long]

That gave me a chuckle!

[Twotone]

I refuse to get the vaccine. I think the more time goes by, the more people will regret taking this EXPERIMENTAL vaccine.

[rktman]

For more commentary:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3957624/posts

🚢 Just say no.

[Sicon]

Hey Norwegian, don’t let the door hit your woke ass on the way out.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I’m not anti-vax. I’m fully vaccinated. But I AM against Red Chinese-like Social Credit Vaccine Passport systems.

[rktman]

Your choice. Others choice.

[Bratch]

Your Papers Please!

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The graphic is not too far from the reality in Hong Kong, which is suffering draconian social control in the guise of preventing widespread Wuhan flu infection.

And in this country, primarily in the blue states we have armies of Karen's ruthlessly enforcing offensive "emergency" regulations designed to control our behavior for the same amorphous goal...controlling a viral disease that is probably ubiquitous and empirically with about the same mortality and morbidity as a bad seasonal flu. And more disturbing, much less dangerous than other diseases that are allowed to run rampant in our country. Think back to the 1980s, when AIDS was uncontrollable, but the powers-that-be, in particular Anthony Fauci, refused to use proven public health methods to isolate carriers of the disease, and in fact allowed them to infect the nation's blood supply, which condemned to death thousands of hemophiliacs.

So spare me the tired and easily refuted claim that our current situation is simply a scientific response to a dangerous disease. Similar responses to dangerous situations would never be accepted, and would trigger immediate and appropriate legal responses. Just imagine if Fredo The Elder (Andrew Cuomo) announced that until the murder rate in the worst precincts in NYC dropped to the background level of the rest of the country, all people above a certain age were subject to search for weapons. Or that policemen would be posted in every supermarket to search all morbidly overweight people for prohibited foods.

Those are ridiculous and unacceptable examples of government overreach, yet we are currently tolerating similar insults to our rights, and looming on the horizon are even more insidious measures. Vaccine passports, segregation of the vaccinated from the unvaccinated, and many more degradations of our rights as free people are coming, and soon.

How different is a vaccine passport compared to the yellow star of Nazi Germany, or a letter from the Red Guards allowing travel to the cities, or an ID card allowing one entrance into a communist party food store in Moscow?

The advent of incredibly fast computers, completely interconnected, and vast databases that can be accessed from literally anywhere with a cellular connection makes the Nazis and the Soviets and the Chinese communists mere dilettantes compared to the current surveillance state.

Papers could be forged...badges could be manufactured...the authorities could be evaded (at least for a time). But how many of us have the technical knowledge and skills to evade a vaccine passport requirement? Or avoid being tracked with our cell phones and internet log-ons and electronic toll systems and credit cards and facial recognition systems and license plate readers and on and on and on.

We are in the midst of a profound shift to authoritarian rule, but this time the tools available to those in power are orders of magnitude more powerful than even the infamous East German Ministry For State Security had!

The dystopian novels of the past predicted exactly this, but they were warnings...and we ignored them.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM

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[CIB-173RDABN]

The cruise industry does not really need Florida. They can move to one of the Caribbean Islands and have fewer restrictions then what the US put on them (like being forced to dock at a foreign port before returning to the US).

It will be interesting on how all this finally shakes out.

[BobL]

“And I understand cruise companies are businesses and if they have to have vaccine mandates to comply with local/national laws and re-build trust. DeSantis needs to exempt cruise lines from the vaccine passport ban, and I think he will.”

Agree, although a stupid Democrat judge may do it for him, declaring that the federal government has jurisdiction over this type of transport.

[Galatians328]

This is silly wokeism interfering with the proper capitalist response.

Better to stock cruises with ivermectin and chloroquine that they can sell to anyone who gets sick. It would be a lucrative new revenue stream to offset their pandemic losses. Just make sure there is good med evac airlifts and let people make their own decisions on what they are willing to live with.

If someone is weak enough to die from an imaginary virus, there are much greater dangers to consider when cruising.

[DoodleDawg]

“We hope that this hasn’t become a legal football or a political football,” he said.

Yeah that ship sailed a long time ago, no pun intended.

[metmom]

The passport has NOTHING to do with vaccines or health other than the “vaccines” are a convenient excuse to implement the passports to control, regulate, and most importantly, to track the movements and activities of every American citizen they can.