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 September 28, 2020 and the Disney Wonder remains in a Green status allowing for commercial travel of crew. This will be the last update I will post on this topic since the Disney Wonder left for Europe last night and will drop off the CDC’s list. Unless this is still ongoing when the Disney’s ships return to the United States.
As of September 29th, the Disney Wonder remains green with with a complete and accurate No Sail Order response plan per the CDC.
CDC’s Green Ship Criteria
- No confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness for 28 days, as determined by a qualified medical professional.
- If the ship received ship-to-ship transfers within the past 28 days, crew must have come from a ship that had no confirmed 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.
Note: To maintain Green status, ships must submit a weekly EDC form to CDC. Failure to submit, changes ship status to Red. Green ship status means that CDC believes the ship is currently unaffected by COVID-19 based on information provided by the cruise ship operator.
This week, there are no new ships in a green status allowing for commercial crew travel through the CDC process. However, there are 3 Royal Caribbean ships in red: Adventure of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, and Serenade of the Seas.
Cruise Ships with Green Status
- Grand Celebration
- Disney Wonder
- MSC Armonia
- MSC Meraviglia
- MSC Preziosa
- MSC Seaside
- Norwegian Jewel
- Pride of America
- Oceania Regatta
- Celebrity Eclipse
- Celebrity Edge
- Celebrity Equinox
- Celebrity Millennium
- Celebrity Reflection
- Celebrity Silhouette
- Celebrity Summit
- Brilliance of the Seas
- Enchantment of the Seas
- Freedom of the Seas
- Grandeur of the Seas
- Harmony of the Seas
- Independence of the Seas
- Liberty of the Seas
- Navigator of the Seas
- Oasis of the Seas
- Rhapsody of the Seas
- Symphony of the Seas
- Vision of the Seas
At this time, the Disney Magic, Disney Dream, and Disney Fantasy are in Europe and, therefore, do not fall under U.S. CDC jurisdiction thus not included. The Disney Wonder departed Port Canaveral on Tuesday night heading to Europe and will drop from this list as the others have done following the move out of the CDC oversight.
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. It was reported earlier this week the CDC Director intended to extend the No Sail Order in to February 2021, but was overruled by Vice President Pence at a coronavirus task force meeting at the White House. According to the CDC, cruise lines may need to establish additional safety measures before sailing with passengers is permitted to resume. As of last week, CLIA issued a comprehensive plan which was submitted to the CDC on behalf of member cruise lines. CDC will continue to evaluate and update its recommendations as the situation evolves. The No Sail Order is set to expire at the end of today and I anticipate an update from the CDC soon. However, it may not come until Friday as it was reported during the aforementioned task force meeting there is a meeting with cruise industry at the White House to discuss the resumption of cruise operations.
Disney Cruise Line Crew Repatriation Still No Recent Update
To date, 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. The CDC last updated the crew disembarkation numbers on August 10th. The graphic below will no longer be updated unless the CDC resumes updating the data set.
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 Disney Wonder remains in the vicinity of Port Canaveral while the Magic and Fantasy are in Europe with the Dream nearing her arrival 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.
CDC COVID-19 Cruise Ship Public Comment Update
On July 21, 2020, the CDC issued a request for Information Related to Cruise Ship Planning and Resumption of Passenger Operations. The CDC is invited the public to comment on specific questions regarding interventions, methods, protocols, and procedures for protecting the public’s health as well as the health of prospective passengers, crew members, and industry-related service providers. This information may be used to inform future public health guidance and preventative measures relating to travel on cruise ships. The comment period ended on September 21, 2020, but there are still comments submitted before the deadline being approved and posted.
As you know, I’ve spent a lot of time during the comment period attempting to summarize the public comments. I am not sure I will be able to accomplish my goal as there were 12,834 total comments submitted. The CDC will review all submissions, however they may choose to redact, or withhold, certain submissions (or portions thereof).
You can see all current public comments submitted on our CDC COVID-19 Cruise Ship Public Comments page which also has the running summary of our category findings.