Carnival Cruise finally sails from SC this week. Is it safe as COVID’s omicron spreads?
Perhaps the last vestige of COVID-19 shutdowns finally returns to South Carolina this week: The Carnival Sunshine cruise ship sets sail from Charleston on Thursday, after more than a dozen delays over the last two years.
The ship’s long-awaited return comes under the cloud of COVID’s new omicron variant, which is rapidly spreading through the U.S. and causing some to rethink travel plans. Major tourism destinations, such as New York City and Los Angeles, have returned to lockdown-like environments, reinstituting mask mandates and other COVID-prevention rules.
Concern about omicron’s spread isn’t just present in major cities. Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Americans refrain from taking cruises of any kind for the time being.
“The chance of getting COVID-19 on cruise ships is high because the virus spreads easily between people in close quarters aboard ships,” the CDC said in its recommendation. “People should avoid traveling on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status. It is especially important that travelers who are at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status.”
The cruise industry balked at that recommendation, however, noting the extensive COVID safety protocols they have instituted, such as requiring masks indoors, creating onboard COVID-19 clinics, making virus testing easily accessible and making sure that upwards of 95% of passengers and crew are vaccinated.
“The decision by the CDC to raise the travel level for cruise is particularly perplexing considering that cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard — far fewer than on land — and the majority of those cases are asymptomatic or mild in nature, posing little to no burden on medical resources onboard or onshore,” the Cruise Lines International Association said in a statement. “No setting can be immune from this virus — however, it is also the case that cruise provides one of the highest levels of demonstrated mitigation against the virus.”
Nevertheless, the CDC still believes that getting on a cruise right now presents an exceptional risk to travelers and issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice, indicating a “very high risk of COVID-19.” The CDC also recommends getting tested one to three days before the trip and three to five days after, regardless of vaccinations or symptoms.
As of Monday, the CDC was monitoring all 92 active U.S. cruise ships because every one of them had a COVID-19 case on board, according to the CDC’s cruise ship tracker. All of those ships met the “yellow” threshold for CDC investigation, meaning at least 0.1% of passengers have tested positive. The “yellow” stage for COVID monitoring is the final threshold before “red,” which means there is sustained COVID-19 transmission onboard and there is a potential for cases to overwhelm onboard medical resources. No ships in U.S. ships have reached the “red” stage, according to the CDC.
The CDC’s recommendation, however, isn’t keeping the cruise industry from moving ahead.
“While we are disappointed and disagree with the decision to single out the cruise industry — an industry that continues to go above and beyond compared to other sectors — (Cruise Lines International Association) and our ocean-going cruise line members remain committed to working collaboratively with the CDC in the interest of public health and safety,” the industry group said in its statement.
In October, Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald struck a hopeful note on the future of sea travel.
“People know, in the end, we’re all coming back,” Donald said. “Now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We know the distance to that light is shorter. We still don’t know exactly how long that tunnel is.”
In particular, Donald applauded the company’s and its crew members’ ability to adapt to frequent changes to health and safety standards among COVID-19’s spread.
A slightly different ride
Getting COVID-19 on a cruise ship isn’t the only thing that could affect the travel experience for seafarers. A growing number of island countries are instituting stricter COVID-19 rules, such as barring unvaccinated people from going ashore. In some circumstances, cruise lines including Carnival had been able to offer “bubble tours” for unvaccinated guests, but those have gone away for some upcoming trips.
Unvaccinated people are allowed on Carnival cruises. But the company requires unvaccinated guests leaving on trips from Florida, Texas and South Carolina to purchase travel insurance.
Even onboard, Carnival trips look a little bit different right now.
- All guests ages two and older are required to wear masks indoors, except within their personal rooms or when actively eating or drinking.
- All guests must wear masks during the entire embarkation and debarkation process (at the home port and ports of call, including the onboard pre-debarkation process), during any Carnival-approved shore excursions and while on any transportation vehicles, including water shuttles.
- Youth programs, including Camp Ocean and the Sky Zone, are limited to vaccinated children only.
- The casinos do not allow smoking anywhere, including at bars.
- Vaccinated guests are not required to social distance, but unvaccinated guests are encouraged to do so.
As of late December, omicron has had little effect on interest in Carnival’s bookings, the company’s CEO said during its fourth quarter earnings call.
Carnival would not indicate whether it had any plans to cancel the upcoming trip, or any others, out of Charleston. But that doesn’t mean no cruise line has. Last week, Royal Caribbean canceled cruises on four ships.
Carnival did not respond to questions on multiple occasions asking about how many passengers were booked on Thursday’s trip out of Charleston, or whether the ship’s capacity was set lower to account for COVID-19 and social distancing. The company also did not answer what sort of threshold for COVID-19 would have to be met for the trip either being canceled or called back to shore.
“Carnival takes our responsibility to public health very seriously and has implemented protocols that exceed CDC guidelines since the restart began in July. This is consistent with our commitment to the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit,” Carnival spokeswoman AnneMarie Mathews said in an email.
South Carolina is one of the last states for Carnival — the only major cruise operator in the state — to restart oceanic trips. The Carnival Sunshine’s return was delayed more than a dozen times by the seafaring tourism company, and officials were at times silent on plans for the ship.
“We are very excited to be returning to Charleston with Carnival Sunshine and look forward to welcoming our guests on board,” Mathews said in an email. “Our crew is ready to ensure that our guests have a fun and memorable vacation.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 12:41 PM.
