“Let me ask you this: Where can you go right now where everyone is fully vaccinated and tested two days before getting onboard a controlled environment? Nowhere [except a cruise],” said Effie Walthall, agency owner of Sanford, Fla.-based On Deck Travel. “It’s been a rocky start for my business in the new year after the ridiculous announcement from the CDC.”
Walthall is just one of a chorus of travel advisors furious over the double standard that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has applied to the cruise sector after the government agency raised its warning level for cruise travel last week. Since the news broke, some cruise lines — such as Norwegian Cruise Line, Cunard Line and Royal Caribbean International — decided to cancel or suspend previously scheduled voyages, citing COVID-19 concerns.
Walthall points out that the CDC permits sitting shoulder to shoulder on airplanes, and that concerts, sporting events and theme parks are allowed to operate unrestricted. (Plus, air travel is not required to submit viral stats to the CDC like the cruise industry is.)
It’s been a rocky start for my business in the new year after the ridiculous announcement from the CDC.
“I just want clients to know the truth,” Walthall said.
Part of her solution to convince her clients that cruising is still safe is to read fact sheets provided by Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA).
Adam Martindale, luxury cruise and river cruise specialist and owner of a Cruise Planners franchise in San Diego, Calif., is in the same boat.
“The CDC warning is meant to be a guide, and not a mandate,” he said. “No setting can be immune from COVID-19.”
The CDC warning is meant to be a guide, and not a mandate. No setting can be immune from COVID-19.
CLIA itself underscores this, adding that its ocean-going cruise line members are currently operating with some of the highest levels of COVID-19 mitigation of any industry.
“Those measures, which are a model for others in the travel industry and beyond, are unique in their approach to effectively monitor, detect and respond to potential cases of COVID-19,” according to a statement from CLIA.
Cruise Ships Mostly Keep Cruising Despite CDC Warning
Except for select cancellations by several brands, cruise lines continue to steam ahead, providing vacations for their guests and maintaining discussions with health authorities.
“Our enhanced health and safety protocols have proven to be effective time and time again in sailings around the world over the last year,” said Roger Frizzell, senior vice president and chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation & plc. “To date, any positive cases of the Omicron variant identified have typically been mild, often asymptomatic, not requiring hospitalization.”
Even before Omicron, Carnival brands — encompassing Holland America Line, Seabourn Cruise Line and more — had significantly enhanced their medical facilities and shipboard capabilities, including testing, Frizzell said.
"We receive regular input and guidance from our panel of top science and medical experts, along with health authorities around the globe,” he said. “The cruise industry and each of our brands continues to be in regular dialog with the CDC. We already require both full vaccinations and testing, but we will continue to adjust our protocols based on any new learnings in science and medicine.”
We already require both full vaccinations and testing, but we will continue to adjust our protocols based on any new learnings in science and medicine.
Similarly, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and its brands — including Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises — continue to work closely with the CDC.
"As a result of our comprehensive health and safety protocols, we believe that vacationing onboard any one of our 28 cruise ships is safer, and guests are better protected from contacting COVID-19 than in any other general population setting,” said a spokesperson for the company, who also stated the CDC recommendation has not prompted any modifications to the company’s health and safety protocols.
Meanwhile, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) isn’t sitting idly by. Zane Kerby, the organization’s president and CEO, issued a statement saying that cruising is no more responsible for the spread of the Omicron variant than travelers from southern Africa were at the outset of the current crisis.
"But we continue to see knee-jerk reactions singling out travel for discriminatory treatment,” Kerby wrote. “Because the travel industry is regulated more heavily than other activities, when COVID-19 caseloads rise or new variants emerge, travel takes the hit. It brings to mind the old saying, ‘if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ This pattern needs to stop.”
We continue to see knee-jerk reactions singling out travel for discriminatory treatment. Because the travel industry is regulated more heavily than other activities, when COVID-19 caseloads rise or new variants emerge, travel takes the hit.
“If the average cruise ship were a U.S. state, it would be the safest in the country — by far,” he said, referencing the data from Royal Caribbean Group that its coronavirus positivity rate has only been 0.02% since resuming sailings in June 2021. Kerby contrasted that against the lowest positivity rate (9.4% in Alaska) and the highest (38.7% in Georgia) — both as of Jan. 4, 2022.
“The Administration has shown flexibility on its anti-COVID-19 measures of late, including the recent decision to lift the Nov. 26 travel ban on eight countries in Southern Africa,” Kerby said. “We call on it to do the same here. At this stage in the pandemic, the tools exist to allow us to combat this virus without crippling an entire sector of the U.S. economy in the process. Let’s use them.”
