CDC: Facemasks Will Not Be Required for Cruises with Fully Vaccinated Passengers

One of the biggest hang-ups for consumers returning to cruise ships is becoming a thing of the past, if you are fully vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday changed its guidance for the return of the cruise industry and it includes a major revision—the CDC will allow guests on vaccinated sailings (those with 95% or more vaccinated) to forgo any mask-wearing onboard.

The new rules will also allow those on non-vaccinated sailings to forgo mask-wearing in outdoor areas and in areas designated for vacationed passengers only. Non-vaccinated passengers on those sailings will still have to wear masks.

Most cruise lines that have announced their restart plans are requiring cruise guests to be vaccinated in order to get on board, including Celebrity Cruises, which will kick off the U.S.’s return to sailing with Celebrity Edge next month. That requirement would provide a close-to-normal cruise experience for guests.

Other lines are still wanting to offer the opportunity for all guests to come on board, whether they are vaccinated or not, but those plans are still in the works.

Carnival Cruise Line’s Christine Duffy, for instance, told NBC earlier this month that the line’s goal was to allow all guests onboard without a vaccine mandate, mostly because Carnival’s typical guest pool is made up of families, many with children below 12-years-old.

“There’s no mandate for any other business to have that requirement. We certainly are encouraging everyone to get a vaccine…We don’t want to be treated different than any other parts of travel, tourism, entertainment, or society,” she said at the time.

Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival this week announced that they were moving ahead with test cruise plans, something that was required by the CDC in order for sailings with non-vaccinated guests to move forward.

The goal for the sailings, according to a letter from the CDC to Royal shared by Royal president Michael Bayley, is to test Royal’s plan for return to service and record “any deficiencies” in the process. The ship will be required to sail with at least 10% of its regular passenger volume and maintain a color-coded status with the CDC leading up to the test cruises. All guests will be notified of the CDC’s Travel Health Notice for COVID-19 and Cruise Ship Travel prior to embarking, too.

Royal has opted for requiring vaccination for passengers in some of its sailings, but this week’s news means that Royal is looking to see if it is able to drop that requirement with these test cruises.