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 July 27, 2020 and not much has changed.
As of Tuesday, July 28th, the Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, and Disney Wonder remain in a provisionally green with the CDC.
Provisionally Green: Ship meets the surveillance criteria for “Green” status, but the following have not been completed:
– Review and revision of the cruise line’s No Sail Order response plan, or
– Cruise line’s signed acknowledgement of a complete and accurate plan, or
– Ship’s submission of a signed attestation to CDC for crew to travel commercially.
For the first time, there are new ships in a Green status allowing for commercial crew travel through the CDC process. Those include:
- Grand Celebration
- Celebrity Eclipse
- Celebrity Edge
- Celebrity Millennium
- Celebrity Reflection
- Celebrity Silhouette
- Celebrity Summit
- Freedom of the Seas
- Liberty of the Seas
- Mariner of the Seas
- Oasis of the Seas
- Rhapsody of the Seas
- Symphony of the Seas
At this time, the Disney Magic remains alone Europe for the time being, docked in Dover. So, she does not fall under U.S. CDC jurisdiction thus not included. The Disney Fantasy, while listed is on her way to Europe which may end up resulting in her dropping from the weekly CDC report.
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 July 27th, there have been 1,346 Disney Cruise Line crew members repatriated through CDC approved disembarkations – this does NOT include those repatriated via stops through the Caribbean. Over the last week, there was 2 crew members from the Disney Fantasy repatriated through the CDC’s oversight process.
Due to the CDC’s constraints limiting commercial travel, the ships had been sailing to various ports in the Caribbean and the Magic to Europe to drop off crew members. The Dream and Wonder remain in the vicinity of Port Canaveral while the Magic remains alone in Europe for the time being until the Disney Fantasy arrives in France. Thankfully, other countries continue to help crew members return home, especially considering they have been quarantined on the ships for over 4 months.