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Forbes
Forbes
Lifestyle
Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes Staff

CDC Keeps Cruising On ‘Avoid Travel’ List—But 88% Of Avid Cruisers Who Sailed During Omicron Say They’ll Do It Again

Avid cruisers can't stop, won't stop cruising — with a huge majority of recent cruisers saying they'd do it again. getty

Anyone hoping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would go softer on the cruise industry was disappointed this week. The agency’s guidelines for its new voluntary Covid-19 Program for Cruise Ships Operating in U.S. Waters not only keep cruising at Level 4, the highest Covid-19 threat level, but they add even more hoops for the industry to jump through.

“The virus that causes Covid-19 spreads easily between people in close quarters on board ships, and the chance of you getting Covid-19 on cruise ships is very high, even if you are up to date with your Covid-19 vaccines,” reads a statement from the CDC.  

Though the CDC's Conditional Sail Order expired last month and the latest recommendations are technically “voluntary” for cruise line, in reality most cruise lines adopt the measures to reassure cruise passengers that they are doing all they can to keep ships safe from the spread of Covid-19.

Cruise lines have until February 18 to opt into the CDC’s updated Covid-19 program. Opting out would mean getting a “grey status,” indicating the CDC cannot confirm the ship's Covid-19 public health measures. 

As of today, 20 ships have already opted into the program and none have opted out, according to the CDC’s dashboard.

The CDC’s new guidance now takes booster shots into consideration with three tiers for the level of vaccination. “Not highly vaccinated” ships will have less than 95% of passengers and 95% of crew fully vaccinated. “Highly vaccinated” ships will have at least 95% of passengers and 95% of crew fully vaccinated, but have less than that percentage “up to date” with booster shots when applicable. The top tier, “Vaccination Standard of Excellence,” is reserved for ships have at least 95% of passengers and 95% of crew fully vaccinated and boosted when applicable.  

The CDC’s language on vaccination status has been confusing to many. On one hand, the agency has not adjusted its definition of “fully vaccinated,” which means two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. On the other hand, the CDC now says individuals should receive a booster dose at least five months after the last dose in the vaccination series to be “up to date.”

Some destinations are moving toward requiring travelers to get a booster shot. But just under three-quarters (73%) of Americans age 12 and up are fully vaccinated, according to the vaccine tracker from Brown School of Public Health. Less than half of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster shot.

The cruise industry wasted no time to blast the new guidance. Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the cruise trade group, said it is “dismayed” at the Level 4 health notice and “confounded” by the new vaccine-level tiers.

“The CDC’s guidance for multitiered cruises is counterproductive to consumers, creating market confusion between the various tiers, and potentially unworkable in practice,” the group said in a statement. “It seems unnecessarily discriminatory against cruise to maintain that the chances of getting Covid-19 on a cruise is very high even if you are up to date with your Covid-19 vaccines.”

For their part, avid cruisers do not appear bothered in the slightest by the CDC’s warning. In a late-January Cruise Critic survey of 1,563 travelers who had taken a cruise in the past 90 days — during the peak of the omicron wave — a whopping 96% of respondents said they felt safe on board and 88% said they would sail again under the same circumstances. Even if you consider that Cruise Critic’s survey sample skewed hard toward diehard cruisers — nearly a third had sailed at least 25 times — it’s nevertheless a telling indication of the enduring enthusiasm for this type of travel.

“Travelers who have recently experienced the current cruise product first-hand are overwhelmingly positive in their feedback – and that’s a true testament to the efforts the cruise lines have made over the past two years,” said Colleen McDaniel, Cruise Critic’s editor in chief. “There’s no denying that today’s cruise looks quite different from pre-pandemic times – as do most activities at this time, whether on land, in the air or at sea. But what we can confidently say from this consumer feedback is that the changes haven’t negatively affected the overall traveler experience.”

Notably, the diehard cruisers surveyed by Cruise Critic skew older and are overwhelmingly vaccinated. “We hear time and time again that people want to feel safe when they’re traveling – now, more than ever. Not only do the results of this survey show that a wide majority of travelers feel safe once they’re onboard, but they report feeling safer on their cruise than at any other point during their travel journey.” That’s taking into account hotel stays, commercial flights and public transportation.

McDaniel says cruisers often report that their own experiences don’t match the nightmare scenarios they hear about on social media. “We’ve seen headlines and read stories about when travel goes wrong,” she said, “but with 88% of those surveyed saying that they would cruise again under the same circumstances, it’s clear that those experiences are certainly not the norm for cruising.”

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