Your Answer Is In The Mail

Seems Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NCLH) is still waiting to hear from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about its plan to resume its cruise operations from U.S. ports in July.

And it sent the CDC a reminder letter last week to see when it could expect a response.

In that reminder it pointed out that its SailSAFE program extends well beyond the protocols of the travel, leisure and hospitality sectors, all of which have already reopened including hotels and resorts, casinos, restaurants, sporting venues, theme parks and airlines.

And NCLH made it clear that it strongly believes that by requiring mandatory vaccinations for guests and crew on initial voyages, in addition to comprehensive protocols including universal COVID-19 testing, the plan shares in the spirit and exceeds the intent of the CDC’s Conditional Sailing Order (“CSO”) to advance mutual public health goals and protect guests, crew and the communities visited.

It said that it continues to be optimistic the CDC will agree that this plan eliminates the need for the CSO and therefore, strongly requests the lifting of the order for Norwegian’s vessels, allowing them to cruise from U.S. ports starting July 4.

Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., said: “We strongly believe our proposal submitted to the CDC 10 days ago, which includes mandatory vaccinations for all guests and crew, offers a safe and immediate solution to resume cruising and eliminates the need for the obsolete CSO, which in its current form is impossible to operationalize and more importantly ignores the advancement of vaccines.”

Del Rio continued: “Our proposal goes well above and beyond the intent of the CSO and would greatly accelerate the path to resume cruising while freeing up the CDC’s valuable time and resources, allowing it to focus on its many other competing public health priorities. I continue to await further discussion with the CDC and I am respectfully requesting a prompt response to my written proposal to recommence cruising in July allowing us to join America’s national reopening.”