When Will Cruise Ships Sail Again – and Will It Be Safe?

CLIA member cruise lines have also agreed on a series of health protocols, including mask wearing when social distancing is impossible, having cabins set aside for quarantines and permitting shore excursions only with operators that adhere to the ship’s public health protocols.  

There are likely to be fewer interactions between passengers and crew, and reservations required for group activities, to limit the number of participants, says Virginia Sheridan, spokeswoman for Seatrade Cruise Global, the international cruise industry’s largest professional conference.

Possible vaccine requirements

It’s still unclear whether cruise ships can require passengers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before boarding. “Lawyers are looking at it as we speak,” Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio told Travel Weekly. “It will certainly be a requirement for the crew.”

A big factor will be whether countries the cruise lines visit require travelers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, says Michelle Fee, CEO and founder of Cruise Planners, a travel agency network. “If they want to stop in certain ports of call, some of those countries might require it.”

Better ventilation

CLIA’s new health protocols call for “air management and ventilation strategies to increase fresh air onboard,” though the association stops short of mandating enhanced filtration and other technologies, recommending them “where feasible.”

Some are promising improved air filtration. Norwegian Cruise Line reports on its site that as part of its Sail Safe initiative, it’s installing “medical-grade air filters, H13 HEPA, that remove 99.95 percent of airborne pathogens across our entire fleet to ensure the air you breathe is clean.”

Holland America Line is adding HEPA filters to medical centers and dedicated isolation rooms.

Simplified itineraries

Complicating the attempts to relaunch is the fact that some itineraries include stops at ports in different countries with different (and evolving) health requirements. Rules in the Caribbean can be particularly complex. If a ship stops at several different islands, as was common in pre-COVID-19 days, its passengers will need to comply with a patchwork of rules.

And Europe, Canada and other parts of the world are still not allowing American visitors.

Itineraries may change as a result. “There may be fewer ports of call, cruises to nowhere or cruises that focus on one country,” Sheridan says.