Norwegian drops masks March 1st.

[Sykes]

My question isn't really "could Delta ignore the mandate," it's more "why can Norwegian ignore the mandate?"

The CDC says that it does apply to cruise ships, but the order allows cruise ships that comply with previously the CSO and now the new COVID-19 program more flexibility in how they implement their masking program.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I don't have intimate knowledge about the text in the Executive Order regarding masks, so I might very well be wrong here.....but perhaps one aspect that explains it is that these ships are not US ships, traveling in international waters. The ships can chose to adhere to the EO, but I don't think they are required to or whats driving the masking on the ships. it's the CDC guidance and protocols on ship travel. These cruise lines dont want to be seen as not adhering to the guidelines.

The EO states that cruise lines are subject to it, unless they comply with the CSO. The CSO is what gave them flexibility to make some tweaks and changes. But since they've abandoned the CSO, I don't believe they have an exception to the EO any longer.

The CDC says that it does apply to cruise ships, but the order allows cruise ships that comply with previously the CSO and now the new COVID-19 program more flexibility in how they implement their masking program.

I see, so with the CSO expired, there's some other program that the cruise ships are voluntarily complying with that grants them exception to the EO in a way similar to the CSO when it was in effect.

 

[Sykes]

I see, so with the CSO expired, there's some other program that the cruise ships are voluntarily complying with that grants them exception to the EO in a way similar to the CSO when it was in effect.

Yup. As far as I can tell the CDC never amended the January 29, 2021 EO to explicitly state it like they had planned to, but it does seem that either cruise lines are getting explicit exemptions or they feel confident that the CDC will continue to decline to enforce the requirement for cruise ships as long as the cruise operators continue to play nice with the CDC. (And there really wasn't much reason for them to not play nice--the cruise lines were pretty happy with the state of the CSO by the time cruising restarted last June. I'd assume that's still the case, but I guess we'll see if a bunch of ships drop off the program later this month.)

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Disney let me breath for me trip this month!