On page 28 of the CDC Conditional Sail Order
issued on Friday is a footnote that will effectively extend, by 60
days, the No Sail Order that expired on Saturday: Materials submitted by
the lines to the CDC to request resumption of sailing, the footnote
says, "should be submitted at least 60 calendar days prior to the date
on which the cruise ship operator proposes to commence restricted
passenger operations."
It's likely why, on Monday, several major cruise companies pushed back their expected resumption dates into 2021.
Norwegian
Cruise Line Holdings extended its operations pause for its three
brands, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas.
The company had previously suspended all cruises through November.
MSC
Cruises followed suit for its U.S.-based ships, suspending operations
on its three Florida-based vessels, the MSC Seaside in Port Canaveral
and the MSC Meraviglia and MSC Armonia in Miami, also until Dec. 31.
Royal Caribbean Group will be extending its suspension of sailings,
excluding sailings from Singapore. Celebrity Cruises had already
suspended their full 2020/21 Winter program in Australia and Asia, and
Azamara has suspended its 2020/21 Winter sailings throughout Australia
& New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
And Carnival Corp. said its pause in operations extends from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31 and includes five brands from the world's largest cruise company: Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard North America, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn.
It
appears that the lines may operate test sailings with crew without
waiting 60 days, but taking all the order's deadline requirements into
account, industry analysts do not expect to see passengers sailing until
February at the earliest.
The CDC lifted the No Sail Order for cruise ships on Friday,
ending a more than seven-month ban on large cruise ship operations in
U.S. waters, and setting the stage for cruising to resume, but under a lengthy set of conditions
cruise lines will have to adhere to in order to certify that they can
prevent the spread of Covid-19 to crew, passengers and communities.
Arnie Weissmann contributed to this report.
This report was updated to include new information from Carnival Corp.