In a bid to resume cruise shipping, Carnival Cruise Line is threatening to abandon its American home ports and move its ships out of United States (US) waters to locations where it can offer cruise shipping.

Carnival has 14 home ports along the east and west coasts of America and the Gulf of Mexico. The threat comes as the company cancelled all cruises departing from U.S. ports through to June 30 and on the heels of new guidance published last Friday by America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new guidelines detail the second phase of its conditional sailing order (CSO), which the cruise industry had pushed the agency to lift given that it has resulted in cruise vessels being grounded in America’s home ports. Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, declared that, “while we have not made plans to move Carnival Cruise Line ships outside of our US homeports, we may have no choice but to do so in order to resume our operations which have been on ‘pause’ for over a year”.

Cruise lines pulling ships from American ports

Other cruise lines have already taken action to move their ships to other parts of the world so they could resume operations. Two days ago, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that its official return to service would begin in July in Europe and the Caribbean.

Last month, Royal Caribbean International announced that sailings in Israel, Bermuda and the Bahamas with its sibling cruise line, Celebrity Cruises adding itineraries for St. Maarten – all with specific vaccine requirements.

Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corp, the parent company to Carnival Cruise Line, reported yesterday that, though the cruise company would prefer to homeport in America, “if we’re unable to sail, obviously, we will consider home porting elsewhere”.

According to Duffy, “we remain committed to working with the Administration and the CDC to find a workable solution that best serves the interest of public health”.

She contended that, “Carnival is asking that the cruise industry be treated on par with other sectors of the travel industry as well as US society at large”.

Although there was new information on the benchmarks that cruise lines need to hit before carrying paying passengers once more, there was no word on when cruising will be able to restart in US waters.

CDC reiterates its commitment to working to resume sailing

The CDC said in a statement on Tuesday (April 6) said it is committed to working with the cruise industry to resume sailing by staying the course of a phased approach outlined in its order. The statement explains that  “this goal aligns with the desire for resumption of passenger operations in the United States expressed by many major cruise ship operators and travelers, hopefully by mid-summer”.

However, CDC spokesperson Caitlin Shockey is pointing out that this doesn’t mean cruises will restart this summer. She told USA Today that the resumption of sailing “is dependent on cruise lines working through the phases of the CSO”.

The cruise industry has been shuttered in US waters since last March while other sectors have been allowed to continue to operate or reopen with health and safety modifications, including airlines and theme parks.