UPDATE 9/18/20: The deadline for contributing your comments to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) request for information (RFI) regarding U.S. cruise operations in the context of COVID-19 is rapidly approaching. All comments must be received by no later than Monday, September 21st at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
If you have not already done so, you can share your comments with the CDC by CLICKING HERE.
As we know, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a ban preventing all cruise ships from sailing through the end of September of 2020. Additionally, all cruise ships are banned in Canadian waters until October 30th.
An article on Frommer’s has me pondering a bit about what might make people feel comfortable boarding a cruise ship if they’re having any hesitations about it.
Now that Disney Springs and the four major Walt Disney World theme parks have reopened (with the exception of their water parks), many folks have gotten a taste of what that looks like in our new normal. I’ve read articles from folks on both sides of the fence; some feel completely safe visiting the parks with all of the health and safety protocols that have been put into place while others are not quite there yet for one reason or another. I shared thoughts on my first visit to a reopened Magic Kingdom HERE if you want to read them.
For folks who want to share what they’d like to see happen on cruise ships before they’ll get on one again, the CDC wants to hear from you. According to Frommer’s, “the government agency filed a notice in the Federal Register requesting input from the public on what U.S.-based cruising should be like when it resumes.”
Whether it’s allowing fewer people on the ships or simply having an effective plan to deal with potential outbreaks of COVID-19 should they happen, the CDC is looking for feedback as to what would make you feel safe returning to the seas.
Questions on the survey cover practically all aspects of a cruise experience from boarding conditions, disembarkation procedures, safety and sanitation standards on ships, shore excursion protocols, the impact on ports of call, and the well-being of crew members, just to name a few.
Anyone is welcome to participate in the survey as long as their “submissions relate to one or more of the 28 questions posed by the CDC” via a web portal or by mailing a letter to the following address:
Maritime Unit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road NE, MS V18-2
Atlanta, GA 30329
If you do mail a letter, be sure to include the agency name and docket number: CDC-2020-0087.
It’s also important to know that any comments you submit will become public record and could be published.
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Shouldn’t polling consumers be the CRUISE LINE’S purview??? The CDC gets paid a lot of money to be the experts on disease control and prevention … Now they are asking the general public to do their job for them?! What a sham! They are supposed to simply help control and prevent … Not be a private industry’s marketing department or popularity pollster. How are we supposed to have any respect for their credibility anymore?