GALVESTON
Cruise ships have been sailing in and out of the Port of Galveston for weeks, spurring hope among travelers who long for a return to the high seas.
Carnival Cruise Lines on May 11 announced it hoped to restart cruising July 3 with a sailing of liner Vista from Galveston. That would be the first pleasure cruise from a domestic port since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention halted them more than a year ago.
Although it’s still unclear whether the cruises will actually happen, the odds are good, a port official said.
Port of Galveston director Rodger Rees said Thursday he saw a 75 percent chance of cruises resuming the first weekend of July.
“What I’m more confident about than anything is that we’re ready to handle it on our end,” Rees said. “I think we’re ready. We’ve been ready.”
The two cruise terminals in Galveston have been renovated to include COVID-protection measures, including plexiglass shields around desks and reception areas, germ-killing UV lights on escalator handrails and upgraded filters in the terminal’s air systems.
But the actual return of cruises depends on more than just the port’s efforts to upgrade the properties it owns.
This week, possibly as soon as Monday, Carnival is expected to submit a final COVID-safe cruising plan to local health officials, who must sign off on it for cruises to be permitted by the CDC.
The local health plan covers issues such as what will be done if a cruise ship returns to Galveston carrying people who must be quarantined or hospitalized.
Carnival probably would try to meet the July 3 deadline by requiring most passengers and crew members to be vaccinated, Rees said. Under the latest CDC guidelines, ships can sail if 98 percent of crew members and 95 percent of passengers are vaccinated.
If cruise companies don’t seek to meet that requirement, they would have to go through a rigorous protocol that requires them to run simulated cruises with volunteers before they can welcome back paying passengers.
The port as of Thursday hadn’t received any information about running simulated cruises from Galveston, Rees said.
No cruises have left from Galveston or any other U.S. port since March 2020.
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May 24, 2021 at 04:15AM
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Odds are cruising will resume July 3, Galveston port director says - Galveston County Daily News
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