Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Sues State of Florida Over Vaccine Requirement

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH)—parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises—has filed a lawsuit against the State of Florida over the company’s proposed rule to enforce vaccinations among its guests and the state's ban over such regulations.

As part of its planned return to service, each of NCLH’s three brands would require proof of vaccinations among guests. With that said, earlier this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an Executive Order barring businesses in the state from requiring customers to “provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business.”

The vaccination requirement, Regent Seven Seas Cruises said in a statement on NCLH’s lawsuit, is in place without issue in every port it sails from around the world except for Florida. The cruise line called the lawsuit its “last resort."

“The health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit is our number one priority,” Regent said, adding that “the swift deployment of vaccines has been the primary vehicle for people to safely get back to their everyday lives while containing the spread of the virus.”

“Our company has invested heavily in our comprehensive, multi-layered ‘SailSAFE’ health and safety program with science-backed protocols developed in conjunction with the nation’s top scientific and public health experts,” the cruise line said in its statement. “With our extensive planning and preparation, we are ready to resume sailing from Florida ports on August 15, 2021. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts we have been unable to reach a reasonable and mutually agreeable solution with the State of Florida that would allow us to require documentation confirming guests’ vaccination status prior to boarding.”

“Despite the ongoing global pandemic and the accelerating spread of the Delta variant, Florida continues to prohibit us from requiring vaccine documentation which we believe would enable us to resume sailing in the safest way possible. We believe Florida’s prohibition is on the wrong side of federal law, public health, science and is not in the best interest of the welfare of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit, therefore, we have reluctantly turned to the courts for relief. Today (Tuesday, July 13), we ask the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to invalidate Florida’s prohibition and to grant us a preliminary injunction to allow our company to resume sailing with stringent health and safety protocols to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, further spread of COVID-19.”

Should NCLH lose its case, CEO Frank Del Rio said the company would move its ships elsewhere. "At the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and God forbid we can't operate in the State of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from, and we can operate from the Caribbean for a ship that otherwise would have gone to Florida," he said during the company's quarterly earnings call, according to CNN.

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