To Cruise in 2021 or Not To Cruise, That Is Our Question

By Robert McGarvey

That is the question.

You might think every cruise line has the same Covid protocols.  The plague is a national, indeed planetary, issue we all face, and therefore a uniform response might seem the most straightforward path to thwarting the disease and its crippling paralysis of the cruise business for well over a year.  You would be wrong.

The four big lines – Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL, and MSC – have four different responses.

And some lines have different responses for different ships and different countries and even different US states.

Worse, at least three ships in the early cruise fleets already have Covid cases. More on that below, but this reality underlines that Covid is a persistent threat that needs dealing with in our world.

Here is my advice about 2021 cruising.

First off, don’t even think about sailing from Florida or Texas.

Our ban on all Texas and Florida cruises is because the governors of those states and their legislatures have made it illegal for a business to demand proof of vaccination of its customers and, whoosh, there goes the basic cruise line tactic for preventing a recurrence of the devastating and deadly Covid-19 epidemics on multiple cruise ships last year.

Understand, to bypass a lot of CDC hoops involved in restarting cruising, a line can fast track its sailings by requiring that 95% of passengers and 95% of crew be vaccinated.  Texas and Florida are saying no can do. 

The Texas governor has no leverage – only Galveston ranks as a top 10 embarkation port.  It is easy to tell the Lone Star State’s governor to pound sand and New Orleans  – the 11th busiest cruise port – is ready to step in and pick up the slack.  Me, I’d much prefer a Corpse Reviver in Nola anyway.

But Florida is a more complex matter.   Three of the top three cruise embarkation ports are in Florida and four of the top 10.  Eliminating this state from cruise sailing is thorny- and potentially devastating to tens of thousands of Floridians whose livelihoods are dependent on cruising.  Word of advice to Floridians: tell your governor he is demanding an unscientific and dangerous approach to cruising that will unnecessarily endanger passengers and crew.

Until he changes his policy our advice stands: just do not cruise out of Florida.  Lots of Caribbean islands are scrambling to fill in for Florida. There are and will be cruises in the region.  

Aren’t some cruise lines saying their ships embarking from Florida will require vaccinations? Yes they are. But I see no reason to believe they will have the backbone to stick with that position in defiance of the Florida governor.  Maybe they will.  But I would not risk my health on that bet.

The ante is upped, starkly and scarily,  by the fact that three recent cruises have been scarred by Covid-19 cases.  An MSC Mediterranean cruise announced that two passengers – traveling separately – tested positive for Covid-19 in routine tests administered by the line.  The ship was denied docking in a Malta port – shades of early 2020 cruising! – but went to Sicily where the passengers who tested positive disembarked.  

MSC passengers on this cruise were not required to be vaccinated but were required to take two tests, one a few days before the cruise and one midway in the cruise.

“If anything, this is another demonstration that the protocol works,” a line spokesman told the Washington Post.

If he says so….

I will not even think of sailing a ship that does not require vaccinations for the vast majority of passengers and crew.

But that may not be assurance enough. Breaking news is that Royal Caribbean has cancelled a number of sailings of a new ship because of an outbreak of Covid-19 among crew. No passengers were yet on board. But…

Meantime, two passengers aboard a Celebrity ship that set sail from St. Maarten – with all passengers vaccinated — tested positive in a required end of cruise testing, according to the Washington Post.  

The passengers had been sharing a cabin.

Passengers were required to show proof vaccination and also to show a negative test result taken within 72 hours of embarkation to sail on the Celebrity ship.

Presumably the passengers who subsequently tested positive met those requirements. One hopes they weren’t using the counterfeit vaccination cards that apparently are popular in the anti-vax and Trumpie circles.

“This situation demonstrates that our rigorous health and safety protocols work to protect our crew, guests and the communities we visit,” a statement from the line said.

I have a question – probably you do too.  What vaccine did the passengers have?  Both Pfizer and Moderna boast effectiveness rates around 95%.  The J & J jab is around 76% effective.  And if you had a choice – I know if I had a choice – we’d sail only with those vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer shots.

But right now we don’t have those choices.

We do have a choice of lines we’d sail on and, right now, the policies do differ dramatically. MSC has no vaccination requirement, NCL has a 100% requirement. Carnival, the biggest cruise line, says 95% of passengers will be vaccinated.  Royal Caribbean seems to have different policies for different lines. Celebrity seems to be sticking with a 100% vaccination rule.  Royal Caribbean itself says it will not have a vaccination requirement on voyages embarking from Florida and Texas but it adds that unvaccinated passengers will have to meet special, unspecified requirements.  

So, should you cruise?  That’s your call.  Personally, I am in no rush to climb aboard a ship leaving any port.  I am far busier plotting a possible European vacay in the fall.

I want to cruise again, I am sure I will, but I cannot say with any certainty when that will happen. We are still in a pandemic, people.  The disease keeps morphing, nobody knows how the vaccines will hold up, and I frankly like my odds a lot better on land than in a sealed container at sea.  

But monitor the many cruises that now are embarking. Are they suffering Covid cases? How are they handling them?  Your answers will tell if you are ready and eager to cruise.  Or not.