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According to reports in the USA, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that the US federal government and the CDC had locked down the cruise industry for over a year and it was not reasonable, with Florida filing a lawsuit last Thursday morning against the Biden Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to allow cruises to restart in the United States.At a press conference in Miami, DeSantis said he did not believe the federal government had the right to shut down the industry for over a year based on “very little evidence and very little data,” adding that he thought he had a good chance for success.

DeSantis said, “This is not rational and guess what?…They say cruising isn’t safe, even with widespread vaccinate availability and all the testing you want…when it’s a much different situation than a year ago”, adding, “People are still going to go on cruises,”, adding cruise passengers will just fly to the Bahamas and spend money outside the United States”, and “We’re filing a lawsuit against the federal government and the CDC demanding that our cruise ships be reopened immediately”.

The situation here in Australia is very similar with the Federal and State Governments preventing even domestic cruises from starting, with some in the industry saying that perhaps it is time for the very slow, protracted and apparently non-productive negotiations between the sector and CLIA and the Federal and State Governments brought to an end and that litigation should commence here.

Alternatively, others have said that the New Zealand Government should offer cruise companies the opportunity to operate from New Zealand, with Australians then taking fly cruise holidays to New Zealand, now the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand has opened up.

A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor.