Is Your Cruise Ship Safe? How To Check Its COVID-19 Status

If you have already booked a cruise or are in the throes of deciding whether or not to take one, you might be having second thoughts after listening to news reports of COVID-19 outbreaks at sea.

The CDC has recently reported that 15 of the 24 ships currently sailing in U.S. waters with paying passengers have experienced outbreaks of the virus on board.

Because traveling in the era of COVID is never risk-free, up-to-date information can help travelers make better-informed decisions, taking into account their personal health status and willingness to take risks.

What color is your ship?

A color-coded system developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can provide helpful information about the COVID-19 status of cruise ships operating or planning to operate in U.S. waters.

A table on the CDC website, which promises to be updated several times a week, assigns each ship a color status—green, orange, yellow, red or gray.

The color-coding is based on both surveillance data collected over the previous 7-day period as well as the findings of any CDC investigations. (When cruise ships notify the CDC of a suspected or confirmed case of the virus, the agency determines whether an investigation is needed.)

These are the CDC definitions of each of the color codes:

Green: No COVID-19 cases or COVID-19-like illnesses are reported onboard

Orange: Reported cases are below the CDC threshold for investigation, which varies for restricted voyages, simulated voyages and ships with crew-only

Yellow: The ship meets the threshold for investigation (for crew or passenger COVID-19 cases), or a state or local health department has notified the CDC of passenger cases occurring within five days of disembarkation

Red: The ship is at or above the threshold for passenger and crew COVID-19 cases. Based on CDC investigation, the ship is subject to additional public health precautions. such as immediate return to port or delay of the next voyage

Gray: The ship operator’s health and safety protocol hasn’t been reviewed or confirmed by the CDC; this only applies to ships arriving in, located within, or departing from a port in Florida that chose not to follow the CDC Conditional Sail Order (CSO) voluntarily.

The cruise lines that are rated

As of the latest update (August 13, 2021), ships operated by the following cruise lines are included in the table: American Queen Steamboat Company, Bahamas Paradise Cruise Company, Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc., Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, and Silversea Cruises LTD.

(If a cruise line or cruise ship isn’t listed, it means that the ship isn’t planning to operate in U.S. waters during the period of the CSO or the ship hasn’t yet completed the requirements for operating under a CSO.)

The safety ratings

Of the 67 ships currently listed and rated as sailing with passengers and crew, crew-only or on simulated voyages, 40 are green with no reports of COVID- onboard; 13 ships are rated orange; 14 are yellow; none are red or gray.

“The list is helpful because it shows a number of things,” says Tony Barnette, creator of La Lido Loca, a daily YouTube channel dedicated to cruise news and commentary. “First, it shows all cruise lines are experiencing and managing COVID cases. Second, it gives travelers the ability to look at their specific ship and see what is going on. When it comes to cruising, the more you know, the more comfortable you feel.”

However, Barnette says he would like to see a better breakdown of the number of COVID cases relative to the numbers of passengers/crew on the ships. “When you hear there are X number of cases and you don’t have a point of reference, you don’t know how concerned you should be. For instance, if the prevalence is less than 1%, that is less troubling than 10%,” he says.

Another limitation of the system: “Currently, it can be hard or downright impossible to trace a COVID case back to its original source, no matter where you contacted it – be it in a hotel, an airplane, a restaurant, a private party at someone’s home or a cruise ship,” says Chris Gray Faust, managing editor of Cruise Critic. Then again, there is no industry that really tracks that,” she says.

Like many cruise aficionados, Barnette is still comfortable cruising, having taken three cruises since June 2021. “I was excited to be back at sea and the cruise experience was great,” he says. As the Delta variant has emerged, he’s seen health and safety protocols become even more stringent in terms of requirements for pre-cruise testing, vaccinations, and the use of masks.

“The amount of safety measures and protocols in place on a cruise is unrivaled in most other businesses,” he says. “The vaccination status of each passenger is known and tracked; each cruise ship has certain medical facilities and procedures for testing and dealing with COVID in place, along with plans to get passengers home if need be. It’s hard to pinpoint other industries with such robust protocols,” he adds.

Urging caution during these uncertain times, the CDC notes that because cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission, public health measures such as testing and vaccinations are crucial. And regardless of the current status of a ship the agency recommends that anyone who is not fully vaccinated should avoid both river and ocean cruising worldwide.

So, is your cruise ship safe?

Answers to this question will vary for every individual. The circumstances that seem safe for one person may appear ominous to another. In the end, all COVID-era travel entails weighing available information in light of personal health factors and one’s tolerance for risk. The new CDC color code system for cruise ships offers one more metric to help make these tough decisions.