Disney Cruise Line: Simulated Test Sailings With Volunteers Beginning June 29

[mevelandry]

Well most of them aren’t allowing children.

I know Royal and Carnival are but the number is limited.

 

[lovedisneycruise]

It is hard to predict. But, with the way the court provided short deadlines in its order, I think that is likely. Assuming the motion will be denied, it will want to signal to the CDC that it must submit its alternative plan still and it isn't getting a pass just because it appealed. On the other hand, the court surprised me last time, so I really have no idea. It may end up granting the motion since I now think it won't.

Edit: Actually - the date for the CDC to submit a motion for a narrower injunction passed (July 2), and the CDC never submitted that motion. That means the entire Conditional Sail Order will be gone July 18 if the court denies the stay.

Are you allowed/able to explain the practical implications to the cruiselines if this occurs? (Mods- not trying to violate any guidelines or be political. I am genuinely interested in this but don't have time to read every post and thread if it's somewhere.) Does this mean they would then be responsible for coming up with their own plans for identification, containment, reporting etc or would those still be in place and it would just be immediate "set sail" without proof of appropriate mitigation steps in place?

 

[brentm77]

Are you allowed/able to explain the practical implications to the cruiselines if this occurs? (Mods- not trying to violate any guidelines or be political. I am genuinely interested in this but don't have time to read every post and thread if it's somewhere.) Does this mean they would then be responsible for coming up with their own plans for identification, containment, reporting etc or would those still be in place and it would just be immediate "set sail" without proof of appropriate mitigation steps in place?

It will be as if the conditional sailing order does not exist - no mandatory test cruise requirements, no port agreement requirements, no mandatory minimum vaccination requirements, none of the other safety measures required in the conditional sailing order and related technical guidance. To be honest, I don't know maritime and cruise industry law enough to know what other U.S. health requirements could apply to a foreign ship leaving a U.S. port. But, based on my limited understanding, ships will mostly be self-regulating in the area of COVID after July 18, absent a stay. They will have strong external pressure to avoid both lawsuits and bad publicity if they aren't careful, so I expect the lines will follow similar safety precautions as they have already announced.

 

[Cruiser1969]

Edit: Actually - the date for the CDC to submit a motion for a narrower injunction passed (July 2), and the CDC never submitted that motion. That means the entire Conditional Sail Order will be gone July 18 if the court denies the stay.

I thought I had read the date was extended to July 22.

 

[Sykes]

I thought I had read the date was extended to July 22.

The CDC was granted an extension to July 22nd to file a revised set of guidelines. I could be wrong, but as far as I know that didn't automatically come with a stay that extends the July 18th date. As I said in another thread, IMO the CSO (or its successor) will continue to govern how ships operate from the US even if it is no longer regulatory. I can't imagine cruise lines are super interested in diverging from CDC guidance now that there is a reasonable path towards reopening--it really wouldn't look good if someone gets sick and it turns out the ship is being run in ways that are contrary to CDC guidance. At most I think they'd just skip some test sailings.

 

[brentm77]

I thought I had read the date was extended to July 22.

The CDC was granted an extension to July 22nd to file a revised set of guidelines. I could be wrong, but as far as I know that didn't automatically come with a stay that extends the July 18th date. As I said in another thread, IMO the CSO (or its successor) will continue to govern how ships operate from the US even if it is no longer regulatory. I can't imagine cruise lines are super interested in diverging from CDC guidance now that there is a reasonable path towards reopening--it really wouldn't look good if someone gets sick and it turns out the ship is being run in ways that are contrary to CDC guidance. At most I think they'd just skip some test sailings.

Where are you seeing that in Pacer? I see an order granting the CDC until July 22 to file its answer to the complaint. I don't see anything extending the July 2 deadline to file the motion for a more limited preliminary injunction.

Update: I reviewed the docket a second time, and I do think people are confusing the deadline to file the motion to limit the preliminary injunction and the deadline to file the answer to the original complaint. This article agrees with me (emphasis mine):

A US judge gave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through July 22 to respond to Florida's challenge of the cruise shutdown. This is related to the underlying lawsuit; the July 2 deadline for responding to the preliminary injunction still stands. The CDC had requested an approximately 30-day extension to address the original complaint, until Aug. 2, but Florida did not agree, proposing a two-week extension instead. So US District Judge Steven Merryday made a compromise.

Oddly, I have found other articles that claim the judge gave the CDC until July 22 to file its motion for a narrower injunction, but I sure can't find it in the docket. I think the article authors are mixing up the two issues too. If I am missing it in the docket, I would welcome the correction.

 

[lovedisneycruise]

Where are you seeing that in Pacer? I see an order granting the CDC until July 22 to file its answer. I don't see anything extending the July 2 deadline to file the motion for a more limited preliminary injunction.

Update: I reviewed the docket a second time, and I do think people are confusing the deadline to file the motion to limit the preliminary injunction and the deadline to file the answer to the original complaint. This article agrees with me (emphasis mine):

A US judge gave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through July 22 to respond to Florida's challenge of the cruise shutdown. This is related to the underlying lawsuit; the July 2 deadline for responding to the preliminary injunction still stands. The CDC had requested an approximately 30-day extension to address the original complaint, until Aug. 2, but Florida did not agree, proposing a two-week extension instead. So US District Judge Steven Merryday made a compromise.

Oddly, I have found other articles that claim the judge gave the CDC until July 22 to file its motion for a narrower injunction, but I sure can't find it in the docket. I think the article authors are mixing up the two issues too. If I am missing it in the docket, I would welcome the correction.

I greatly appreciate your explanation and clarification on these filings.

 

[brentm77]

Motion to stay the preliminary injunction was just denied. Conditional Sail Order will end July 18 as planned unless the Eleventh Circuit Appeals Court intervenes (which wouldn't be shocking considering the magnitude of the case). The court really laid into the CDC again - but I won't elaborate so that I avoid a post that may be considered political. I am sure there will be news articles that cover it.

 

[JWelch62]

Motion to stay the preliminary injunction was just denied. Conditional Sail Order will end July 18 as planned unless the Eleventh Circuit Appeals Court intervenes (which wouldn't be shocking considering the magnitude of the case). The court really laid into the CDC again - but I won't elaborate so that I avoid a post that may be considered political. I am sure there will be news articles that cover it.

Am I correct that this only applies to FL? If that is the case, I would assume CA sailings would still require a test sailing.

 

[brentm77]

Am I correct that this only applies to FL? If that is the case, I would assume CA sailings would still require a test sailing.

Good point - yes, the order specifically says it only applies to Florida. Texas and Alaska are trying to join the lawsuit, but the court has not decided whether to let them or not yet.

 

[jrapps]

This thread is getting off course. I appreciate the info on the lawsuit but at this point it's becoming political again.

Can we get back to talking about the test sailings?

Does anyone know the exact date the Dream had their false positive cases? Trying to figure out the earliest they can reschedule the Dream...

 

[kathi]

This thread is getting off course. I appreciate the info on the lawsuit but at this point it's becoming political again.

Can we get back to talking about the test sailings?

Does anyone know the exact date the Dream had their false positive cases? Trying to figure out the earliest they can reschedule the Dream...

Could we please be allowed to have a non-political thread about the facts of the legal matters. It’s very confusing to a regular person and many of us here appreciate the information provided by folks who understand the law. Just prune the folks who don’t comply so the rest of us can obtain information very relevant to upcoming cruises (which many of us have in the next few months). Lately I feel like we are being punished due to the bad behavior of a select few.

 

[brentm77]

Could we please be allowed to have a non-political thread about the facts of the legal matters. It’s very confusing to a regular person and many of us here appreciate the information provided by folks who understand the law. Just prune the folks who don’t comply so the rest of us can obtain information very relevant to upcoming cruises (which many of us have in the next few months). Lately I feel like we are being punished due to the bad behavior of a select few.

Agreed. Looks like the admins are doing that. Let's all keep this thread on the subject of the test cruises (which are directly affected by the case), without politics, and we won't kill it.

 

[jrapps]

Could we please be allowed to have a non-political thread about the facts of the legal matters. It’s very confusing to a regular person and many of us here appreciate the information provided by folks who understand the law. Just prune the folks who don’t comply so the rest of us can obtain information very relevant to upcoming cruises (which many of us have in the next few months). Lately I feel like we are being punished due to the bad behavior of a select few.

I agree with this. Just to be clear, my concern was not the discussion about the lawsuit (I actually appreciate the insight brentm77 and others are able to give us on this). It was some of the follow up opinionated conversations about the CDC that strayed off course. Seems those posts have been cleaned up now.

Thanks!

 

[Lynes88]

To me, the lawsuits are connected to the Test Cruises. There are a lot of moving parts and I think the posts have been much more informative lately than "political". If the Cruise companies are not bound by the CSO, then it seems that the calculation/approach around test cruises changes potentially. The Fantasy is scheduled for a test cruise so I would like to see if that gets affected by these actions... I am on the Sept. 4 sailing.

 

[jrapps]

At this point Disney's best course is to proceed with test cruises as planned. If the CSO does ultimately become just a suggestion, then DCL can shift accordingly at the last minute. I for one hope they are still planning on the Fantasy test cruise, and that they still plan a rescheduled Dream test cruise in the next week or so. If instead they hedge their bets on the results of the appeal and it doesn't go their way, it would only further delay the restart (and our Sept. Cruises!)

 

[epcotrulz]

Does anyone know the math for the Dream, in terms of the test cruise must happen by this date for the first scheduled revenue cruise in August to still happen? Just curious how much time is left on the clock ….

 

[cvjw]

Does anyone know the math for the Dream, in terms of the test cruise must happen by this date for the first scheduled revenue cruise in August to still happen? Just curious how much time is left on the clock ….

I believe I read that other cruise lines were approved for revenue cruises just a week or so after their test cruise. Doesn’t appear to be much time required between test and revenue cruises. Which is good for us since we have 2 cruises on the dream in august!

 

[jrapps]

The Dream is docked at Port Canaveral again today (arrived just before 8am). Someone had suggested that the Dream could resume her test cruise as early as "late this week", but I assume that depends on when she first became Red status.

Unrelated, but the Wonder (in Miami) just lowered from Red to Orange yesterday.

 

[JWelch62]

Unrelated, but the Wonder (in Miami) just lowered from Red to Orange yesterday.

Where is this data published? I'm trying to figure out the timelines for the Wonder.