Carnival Cruise Line has officially confirmed cruises onboard Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze. Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze will sail from Galveston, Texas, on July 3 and July 15, respectively.
While it’s good news from Galveston, the situation in Florida causes sailings from the state to be under review. Carnival cruise line says it will not provide any updates before the end of the week. The issue here is the ban on vaccine mandates from the state of Florida.
Challenging to Deliver the Experience Guests Expect
Cruises from Galveston onboard Carnival Vista and Carnival Breeze will only be available for guests that have been fully vaccinated 14 days before the beginning of the voyage. This is in line with the 98% crew and 95% guests guidelines from the CDC regarding vaccinated cruises.
Christine Duffy said in a statement released by the cruise line the requirements from the CDC regarding sailings with unvaccinated guests make it impossible to provide guests the experience they expect.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line: “We appreciate the progress and support for our U.S. restart from the CDC and other key federal agencies; however, the current CDC requirements for cruising with a guest base that is unvaccinated will make it very difficult to deliver the experience our guests expect, especially given the large number of families with younger children who sail with us. As a result, our alternative is to operate our ships from the U.S. during the month of July with vaccinated guests.”
Carnival Vista will sail from Galveston on July 3, Carnival Breeze is scheduled to sail on July 15. The new health protocols for these sailings will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday according to John Heald.
Different Guidelines for Carnival Horizon?
Carnival Horizon is currently scheduled to sail from Miami, however, Carnival Cruise Line is still working with both the State of Florida and the CDC to create onboard measures for this cruise. Carnival Cruise Line plans to update guests booked on this voyage by the end of the week.
The issue here is the ban on vaccine mandates that Governor DeSantis has signed which will go into effect on July 1. This is directly opposed to the guidelines the CDC has mandated for cruise ships to sail with guests that have not yet been vaccinated.
Also Read: Where Do the Major Three Cruise Lines Stand on Vaccine Requirements?
As Christine Duffy mentioned, the guidelines for the test voyages will not enable Carnival to provide guests an enjoyable cruise. If this means Carnival will sail on test voyages with Carnival Horizon and offer a different experience than guests are used to we will know by Friday, according to John Heald on one of his Facebook live videos on Monday.
Carnival also said it would be advising guests and travel advisors about its plans for August sailings over the coming days.
