The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released their color-coded status update for individual cruise ships operating within their jurisdiction for the week of June 22, 2020.
As of Tuesday, June 23rd, the CDC upgraded the Disney Wonder from provisionally red to provisionally green. The Disney Fantasy was downgraded from provisionally green to provisionally yellow. The Disney Dream remains at provisionally red. The Grand Celebration sailing under the Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line remains the lone ship with a green light from the CDC for commercial crew travel.
At this time, the Disney Magic remains in Europe, docked in Dover so she does not fall under U.S. CDC jurisdiction thus not included.
For additional details, please see our previous article when the CDC introduced the color-coded rating for cruise ships. You can view the status, updated each Monday, for all cruise ships currently operating in U.S. waters, or seeking to operate in U.S. waters over on the CDC’s website.
It is very important to note, meeting the CDC’s criteria does not mean a cruise ship can resume passenger service. At this time, the CDC does not have enough information to say when it will be safe to resume passenger sailings. According to the CDC, cruise lines may need to establish additional safety measures before sailing with passengers is permitted to resume. CDC will continue to evaluate and update its recommendations as the situation evolves.
Disney Cruise Line Crew Repatriation Update
As of June 22nd, there have been over 1,300 Disney Cruise Line crew members repatriated through CDC approved disembarkations. Since last week, there was 1, yes just ONE crew member repatriated through the CDC’s oversight process.
Due to the CDC’s constraints limiting commercial travel, the ships have been sailing to various ports in the Caribbean as well as to Europe to drop off crew members. The Disney Wonder has been making stop around the Caribbean visiting Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Honduras and is now sailing towards Curaçao. The Disney Dream has been positioned near Barbados for the past week. Nearly 700 Disney crew members have been repatriated via Barbados since June 14th according to a report from Loop News Barbados. Thankfully, there are other countries willing to help these crew members return home, especially considering they have been quarantined on the ships for at least 100 days now.
CORRECTION:
Originally the article stated ‘The Disney Fantasy was downgraded from provisionally green to provisionally red.’ This has been corrected to reflect the current status of provisionally yellow.
Is the Fantasy red or yellow? The word description and graphic are different.
Yellow, this was a mistake on my part typing red – the graphic is correct. A correction has has been made to the article.
I would like to know how the CDC determines the color code status for each individual ship. It has been widely noted that the CDC has had very little contact CLIA and individual cruise lines. How is the determination made without an inspector of some sort actually going on the ship to determine as to what is being done on the ship in the area of sanitation and preparing the ship. I have also read that there has been no cases among remaining crew members on Disney ships for over 100 days. Am I missing something?
CDC Institutes Color-Coded Status for Cruise Ships to Allow for Commercial Transportation of Crew Members
Cruise ships requesting the use of commercial travel for disembarking crew members will need to meet the following criteria:
A response plan under the No Sail Order that is complete and accurate
This does not mean ships are allowed to resume passenger travel, but rather that they have met CDC’s requirements to provide a safe environment for crew members to work and to disembark crew safely by non-commercial travel.
Cruise company officials must sign an acknowledgment of the completeness and accuracy of their response plan.
No confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness for 28 days, as determined by a qualified medical professional.
If the ship has received ship-to-ship transfers, the crew must have come from a ship that had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness within the 28 days before the transfer occurred.
If land-based crew embarked, they were immediately quarantined for 14 days upon embarking the ship.
Submission of a signed attestation for commercial travel.
Determination for color-coding status (Green, Red, or Yellow) is made only when the CDC has finished the review of the cruise line’s plan, and the cruise line has returned an acknowledgement attesting that their No Sail Order response plan is complete and accurate. Ships of cruise lines that have not met the above two criteria will be listed as Provisionally Green* or Provisionally Red^.
Thanks for the explanation. I just did not know how it works.