Disney Cruise Line will require some of its youngest passengers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the new year.
On a message posted to its website, the cruise line stated it would continue to require all who are eligible to be vaccinated against the virus. For now, that applies to anyone ages 12 and older, but with the recent expansion of vaccine availability in the U.S. to those ages 5 and up, Disney is now going to require that of them as well.
All guests, either U.S. or international, ages 5 and up will need to be fully vaccinated by their sail date starting Jan. 13, 2022.
Fully vaccinated, based on guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, means having both rounds of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or the single dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S. Disney accepts other vaccines for international travelers.
The CDC and Federal Drug Administration recently expanded the use of Pfizer for those 5 and up.
Initially, Disney Cruise Line followed CDC rules to return to sailing that would allow for passengers to not be vaccinated. This was due in part to the conditional sail order that is still in effect that required cruise lines to either sail with 95% vaccinated passengers or go through a simulated sailing and have more COVID-19 protections in place. Since Disney sails with more families, it opted for this alternative approach.
The government of the Bahamas, though, made an emergency order over the summer that forced cruise lines to shift since the country would not allow any ship to even come into port without fully vaccinated guests and crew.
Since most cruise lines were using the Bahamas, including their private islands such as Disney’s Castaway Cay, as central components to their returns to cruising, the lines opted to shift policies and require the vaccines.
While the emergency order in the Bahamas has expired, its vaccination policy remains in place, and cruise lines continue to require vaccinations from its crew and passengers.
The cruise lines’ vaccine requirements still run afoul of a Florida law that would fine companies for each instance they require people to show proof of vaccination.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s parent company, though, sued the state over the law, and won an injunction against the state for enforcing it, although the state has appealed that decision.
Disney Cruise Line and others are among several businesses being tracked by the state as potential violators of the law, although a spokesperson for the governor said that it would not be enforcing fines against cruise lines until a decision on the appeal has been made.
