This morning, the Cayman Islands welcomed back the first cruise ship since the March 2020 industry shutdown with the arrival of the Disney Magic. Disney Cruise Line’s call begins Grand Cayman’s phased resumption of cruise travel which was announced at the beginning of March.

The resumption of the Cayman Islands cruise tourism was approved to proceed in two-phases, with Phase I anticipated to continue for four weeks. During Phase I (March 21st to April 17th), a total of twenty one ships have been approved to call on Grand Cayman.

Local press, and officials were on the dock awaiting the first tender.

Disney Magic passengers were welcomed ashore just before 8:30 AM local time.

Additionally, the Disney Fantasy’s March 26, 2022 7-night Western Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral is also on the Grand Cayman cruise ship schedule for Phase 1 with a call date of March 29th.

Additional coverage by the Cayman Compass including a video and photo gallery can be found here. Addiontally, there are longer videos here and continued here.

On March 18th, the Cayman Government provided the following COVID regulations update for cruise tourism.

Highlights from the Cayman COVID Regulation Update:

• Guests aged 12 years old and over must have received their final dose of a Cayman Islands approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise.
• Consistent with current Cayman Islands Regulations, children under the age of 12 years will take the status of the travelling adults in their group.
• All crew must be fully vaccinated.
• No positive COVID passengers, crew or close contacts of positive passengers or crew are permitted to disembark the cruise ship on Grand Cayman, whether they are symptomatic or not. It should be noted that all legal obligations under international maritime law will be adhered to.
• Any prevalence of COVID-19 virus detected onboard a cruise ship is assessed by looking at evidence of sustained on-board transmission, the timeline of infections, and measures taken on board to control the spread of cases. There is legislation already in place requiring vessels arriving in territorial waters to provide certain information to the officer on duty at the port before making physical contact with the shore. That includes information relating to persons board who are suffering from any disease or who have suffered from any disease during the voyage. The vessel remains in quarantine until such time as the officer on duty has given the vessel licence to communicate with the shore.
• Inter-island travel: There are also changes in relation to travel between the Islands. Now unvaccinated person under 18 years old who are accompanied by an accompanying person who has completed an approved course of vaccine at least 14 days prior to the date of travel shall not be required to obtain a PCR test or an antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (“LFT”) from a registered health care facility prior to travel. A vaccinated child under the age of 18 years would not have to be tested prior to inter-island travel.