Royal Caribbean receives CDC Authorization for first CSO Test Cruise on Freedom of the Seas!

Huzzah! Excited for this to happen!

Excellent...actual physical progress...just be aware...sooner or later (probably sooner) the CDC will have to "flunk" somebody's ship....just because.....

Of course they will. Although, Im sure as soon as Mr Bayley made the letter public, every cruise line's operations crews got orders to kick it into high gear to make sure that every CDC Inspectable item on the Vessel Sanitation Program checklist is cleaned or repaired 5 times over...the CDC's Green Sheet will have never been so good.

I saved a shortcut to it...of course its waaaaay out of date....probably ships on it that don't exist anymore...and even a few new ones....either way, I'd like to see if they up date it, even ship by ship....it WAS an amazing doc!!!

A passing Vessel Sanitization Program inspection is required for each Test Cruise to commence, so I would venture a guess that they would update it...however, this is the US Government we're talking about...the same government that managed to bollocks up portable fuel canisters...

You're preaching to the choir....I got 5 5 gal gas cans...a few are the old style....which means they work without growing a third arm...the rest, I had to search the good ol internet to get the nozzles replaced so they could be used by a mere mortal...it became an epic...., so you wind up having to buy new gas cans just for the can itself.......I actually trashed all the new style nozzles...absolutely useless to me...the trials and tribulations of "life out here..." BTW, as a reward for inventing those "new style cans", that person now is in charge of cruise ship rules at the CDC....

That sounds about right!

Ive been buying NATO Jerrycans and fuel nozzles for years to avoid their...expertly engineered...fuel containers. I have 10...enough for 2 tanks of fuel in my truck...or about 2 weeks of fuel in my generator. LMAO

Rumor has it, Carnival will be next.. I hate that everything is still in limbo, but if they can do a test cruise and pass, there is a better chance we will actually go in July.

C'mon guys, you're making fun of years and years of government funded engineering and testing. They're just trying to make things "safe" for those of us who would have succumbed to Darwinism years ago.

My thinking is that there will only be a handful of test cruises at best. I think it's now more of the CDC telling themselves "we said they're going to have to do this, so lets show the lines we meant it". I think after each line does one or two test cruises, the CDC will come back and say "Ok, just keep doing what you're doing here on the rest of your boats, and we're cool".

Am I being naive?

FDR has said that Norwegian wont be ready until atleast mid August, or at least that was his stance about a month ago. I would Probably agree that Carnival would be next.

I have a feeling that you may be right, but perhaps a few more than 2. My guess would be, that since ol' Uncle Sam loves percentages, that once 25-30% of each line's fleet has completed successful test voyages, they will waive the remaining.

Unless there are fees that the Cruise Lines have to pay the CDC to run their tests, then there will be no curtailment. Only thing Uncle Sam likes more than percentages, is Cash.