RCG submits first Port Agreement (5/22)

[Jeremiah1212]

 

Interesting that he specifically mentioned simulated cruises coming first. But it does sound like by next week the future of summer cruises will become quite a bit more clear. 

[ipeeinthepool]

I'm still available for any simulated voyages

[jalves]

I wonder which port this covers

[cangelmd]

It's interesting that he says "large number of vaccinated guests" in conjunction with the simulated voyages.

It's occurred to me several times that "simulated voyages" might take place before paying passengers no matter what the exact wording of the CDC mandates is. Drilling the crew and medical staff in how to do proper contact tracing and quarantine, how to treat Covid, how to manage messaging. How to set up the dining room, even. For all we know, the only difference in training and drilling procedures and "simulated" voyages is the presence of physical pretend passengers. I'm not sure that was actually required by CDC, just no paying passengers. Some hybrid may well have been worked out.

CDC knows well that requiring vaccinations won't 100% prevent an outbreak and that not everyone will be completely immune, whether it is through fraud or vaccine failure or maybe immunity has waned.

 

It's also possible that in actually working with the CDC, they've realized they can't semantics their way around DeSantis's edict and they will do some sort of simulated cruise, then check IDs later.

 

And this could all be about Alaska, where they actually want cruises to come back and did some thinking before acting.

[Ken the cruiser]

The below, along with the referenced letter, was posted on the FB RC Blog on 5/21. What I found interesting is that it mentioned RCG had signed a port agreement with Port Everglades on May 10th. Would I be correct in assuming this signed port agreement would apply to ALL RCG affiliated cruise lines to include Celebrity that will be using Port Everglades while the CSO is still active? 

 

If so, is it also a fair assumption the signed port agreement would be designed for worst case scenario where RCCL and/or Celebrity cruise ships sailing out of Port Everglades could opt to perform simulated cruises to avoid having to deal with the Florida "vaccine passport" law?

 

So, yes, hopefully this coming week Celebrity will finally put an end to all this speculation and provide an update to their planned Edge and Equinox cruises out of Port Everglades.

 

The Florida Health Department informed Royal Caribbean this week it can directly appeal to the CDC to begin cruises. 

 

One of the mandates included in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plan for cruise ships to be able to restart sailings from the United States is for each line to  secure agreements with port and health authorities in the U.S. cities they plan to visit.

Royal Caribbean Group announced it had signed a port agreement with Port Canaveral to operate cruise ships, and Port Everglades informed RoyalCaribbeanBlog it had also signed a similar port agreement with Royal Caribbean Group on May 10.

 

The agreement explains what the cruise terminal would do in the case of Covid-19 cases on a cruise ship, as well as how it intends to keep the cruise terminal and gangways sanitized. The CDC's instructions for cruise lines under the Framework for Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) are to submit the port agreements to the state Department of Health, but Florida has responded by saying they do not need to give cruise lines permission to operate, and directed cruise lines to go right to the CDC for test cruise permission.

 

The letter was sent on Thursday by State Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, MD, to Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises CEOs Michael Bayley and Lisa Lutoff-Perlo.

 

In the letter (dated May 20), Dr. Rivkees said Florida has "limited statutory authority with respect to cruise lines, and the Department's permission is not required for your company to resume operations."

[Ken the cruiser]

Based on what I posted above along with the fact the Edge is only offering verandas and up on their July and August cruises out of Ft Lauderdale while all cabins are bookable on similar sailings on the Equinox, what are the odds the Edge will choose the 95%/98% vaccinated option and go directly to Phase 4 restricted cruises while the Equinox will opt for Phase 2B simulated cruises and not require proof of vaccination? Afterall, RCCL sure seems to be heading for simulated cruises rather than opting for the 95%/98% vaccinated option.

[ipeeinthepool]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Based on what I posted above along with the fact the Edge is only offering verandas and up on their July and August cruises out of Ft Lauderdale while all cabins are bookable on similar sailings on the Equinox, what are the odds the Edge will choose the 95%/98% vaccinated option and go directly to Phase 4 restricted cruises while the Equinox will opt for Phase 2B simulated cruises and not require proof of vaccination? Afterall, RCCL sure seems to be heading for simulated cruises rather than opting for the 95%/98% vaccinated option.

 

According to the Celebrity Marketing VP on a TA webinar on Tuesday that Celebrity would likely require everyone to be vaccinated when cruising resumes.  I suspect that will apply to all cruises

[Ken the cruiser]

4 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

According to the Celebrity Marketing VP on a TA webinar on Tuesday that Celebrity would likely require everyone to be vaccinated when cruising resumes.  I suspect that will apply to all cruises

Hopefully, one way or another we'll find out this week.

[deliver42]

I'm Emerald on Royal with only 60 points from Diamond, but I will not be sailing with them for the forseeable future if they go without vaccine requirements. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Some very positive news from RCG CEO Richard Fain! 

 

https://fb.watch/5HLT2a8iJd/

 

[wrk2cruise]

Unfortunately he didn't touch on FL specifically or the FL vaccine proof law.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, wrk2cruise said:

Unfortunately he didn't touch on FL specifically or the FL vaccine proof law.

 

Hopefully, we'll get updates on both of those later this week. 🤞🤞

[Jeremiah1212]

11 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Unfortunately he didn't touch on FL specifically or the FL vaccine proof law.

 

 

Celebrity and CLIA both seem unbothered by that and confident they will require vaccinations.

 

The big take away for RCL specifically - if you qualify you a vaccine you are required to have it. They are taking the test cruise approach in case they can't achieve the 95% mark to accommodate unvaccinated minors on board. With Celebrity and Silverseas they aren't worried about it since there are far less kids.