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 6, 2020.
As of Tuesday, July 7th, 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 fourth week, 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 July 7th, there have been over 1,340 Disney Cruise Line crew members repatriated through CDC approved disembarkations. Over the last week, there were 5 crew members 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 Dream, Fantasy, and Wonder have been sailing around the Caribbean most recently visiting Curaçao while the Magic remains in Dover. Thankfully, other countries continue to help crew members return home, especially considering they have been quarantined on the ships for over 4 months.