Cruise Ships Can Sail Again, With Strict Rules. Here’s What to Know.

What safety measures can I expect?

The ships will be required to provide rapid laboratory testing of all passengers and crew on the day of embarkation and the day of disembarkation. Onboard testing capabilities will be developed in coordination with the C.D.C. to test all symptomatic travelers, including crew members and future passengers.

Under the new order, cruise ship operators must meet standards for hand hygiene, face coverings and social distancing for passengers and crew as well as ship sanitation. Meal services and entertainment venues will be modified to ensure that physical distancing can be implemented.

Does that mean I’ll have to wear a mask?

For the test cruises, the C.D.C. said that masks are one of the measures that “may be required by C.D.C. technical instructions or orders,” but it does not lay out where and when they might be mandated. Mask use was included among the suggestions from the industry executives to the C.D.C.

What happens if I test positive for the coronavirus?

Passengers who test positive for Covid-19 before boarding a cruise ship will not be permitted to board. Those who test positive onboard a ship will be isolated and then transferred to a dedicated facility on shore. All remaining passengers and nonessential crew will also be required to go into quarantine. In the spring, some passengers spent weeks confined to their staterooms after cases broke out on board their cruises.

Cruise operators are expected to have the proper medical equipment, expertise and training to treat severely ill passengers who contract Covid-19 while on board until they can be safety transferred to onshore medical facilities.

Will passengers be allowed to go on shore excursions?

Initially shore excursions will be closely controlled and limited to private and domestic destinations. Cruise operators are devising protocols to vet vendors for onshore excursions to ensure that they comply with health and safety protocols that are applied on board ships. The measures include physical distancing, sanitation, personal protective equipment, personnel screening and training.

On a recent sailing by the Costa Diadema, a ship belonging to the Carnival Corporation’s Italian cruise operation, cases cropped up despite testing after passengers took shore excursions on the Greek Islands. The guests were asymptomatic and tested positive upon re-entry into Italy.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/travel/cruise-ships-new-rules.html