Disney Cruise Line Expected To Have Its First Test Sailing Out of Port Canaveral Today
Today is expected to be a momentous occasion for Disney Cruise Line as the Disney Dream is at Port Canaveral ready to embark on a test sailing. This is a hurdle that Disney Cruise Line must go through in order to start sailing after the COVID-19 shutdown.
The image above is from Port Canveral’s live-cam which shows the ship still at port at 5:30pm. You can get the latest updates here.
This sailing will also carry the distinction of being the first sailing with passengers from the Orlando port in more that 16 months. On this particular sailing, the passengers are all volunteer Disney employees sailing for free. This step is being taken so that Disney Cruise Line may officially get its conditional sailing certificate from the CDC.
We reported last month that the original test sailing was supposed to take place on June 29th. However, this was ultimately canceled after crew members tested positive for COVID. As a result, Disney was required to wait at least 14 days before attempting another sailing. According to a recent piece in The Orlando Sentinel, Disney confirmed that all crew had been vaccinated and that all COVID tests came back negative.


Image Credit: Disney
The reason the test sailing is happening is that the CDC passed a conditional sail order that has been in place for nearly a year. In order to get the cruise industry up and running again cruise lines can either guarantee that 95% of the passengers aboard have been tested OR perform a simulated sailing to show that the appropriate COVID-19 safety protocols are in place.
As the Sentinel points out, family-focused cruise lines have been hit particularly hard by this order since a lot of passengers are under the age of 12 and therefore don’t have access to vaccines.
We have been told that around 300 cast members will be taking part in the test sailing.
Disney has remained tight-lipped about future sailings. As of going to print sailings have been cancelled through Mid-August. Disney has not said yet whether further itineraries will be cancelled.
In an interesting twist of events, the Sentinel reminds us that Disney’s test sailing comes just ONE DAY before the sailing order imposed by the CDC becomes unenforceable. This is due to the fact that a federal judge granted an injunction against the order saying the CDC has overstepped its authority in shutting down the cruising industry.
However, in Disney’s case, the company agreed to comply with the order.
Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for further Disney Cruise Line news and updates.
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Source: Orlando Sentinel