Vaccines Required for Disney Cruise Line Sailings to Bahamas & Castaway Cay

Disney Cruise Line will now require all guests ages 12 and older to provide proof of vaccination in order to sail on cruises to the Bahamas. This includes itineraries departing from Florida with stops at Castaway Cay, and is in accordance with a recent Bahamian government order. This post will share the latest from DCL and offer some commentary about the mandate.

For sailings to the Bahamas beginning September 3, 2021 until November 1, 2021, the Bahamas will require that all passengers ages 12 and older be fully vaccinated in order for a ship to be allowed entry into any of its cruise ports, including private islands in the Bahamas, such as Disney’s Castaway Cay.

To comply with this new requirement, all Guests ages 12 and older must be fully vaccinated to board the ship. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers people to be fully vaccinated 14 days after the final dose has been administered. Guests who choose not to provide proof of vaccination to meet the requirements of the Bahamas will not be permitted to board the ship.

Guests under the age of 12 must still provide proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken between 5 days and 24 hours prior to the sail date by uploading their test results to the Safe Passage by Inspire website.

Those guests under age 12 will also be required to undergo a second PCR COVID-19 test administered by Inspire Diagnostics at the Disney Cruise Line terminal prior to boarding the ship.

Guests on a sailing to the Bahamas (including Disney Castaway Cay) departing from September 3, 2021 to prior to November 1, 2021 may modify their sail date or cancel their sailing without any Disney-imposed cancellation fees by contacting Disney Cruise Line’s reservations team at (866) 325-6685 or (407) 566-7797 by September 3, 2021.

Please note that cancellation fees imposed by third-party suppliers, including airlines, as well as travel insurance, are not refundable. Refunds will be processed back to the original form of payment. Standard cancellation policies and terms and conditions apply for any cancellation or modification requests received on or after September 4, 2021. Guests and travel agents will receive an email from Disney Cruise Line outlining additional details and next steps.

Approved vaccines include those produced by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Note the following, in accordance with CDC guidelines:

• Guests who have received both doses of Moderna, Pfizer or AstraZeneca are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after the second dose has been administered.
• Guests who have received Johnson & Johnson are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after receiving one dose.
• Guests with both one dose of Moderna and one dose of Pfizer are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after the second dose.
• Guests who have received one single dose of a vector vaccine (e.g. AstraZeneca) and one single dose of a mRNA vaccine (e.g. Pfizer, Moderna) are not considered fully vaccinated.

Guests must provide proof of vaccination by uploading their vaccination card to the Safe Passage by Inspire website no later than 24 hours before their sailing.

Due to the new vaccine requirement, Disney Cruise Line sailings between September and (at least) November are impacted for both the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy ships.

DCL just announced that the Disney Fantasy will resume sailing beginning September 11, 2021, with shortened 4-night cruises from Port Canaveral, Florida. These 4-night sailings will be available to book beginning August 25, 2021. During this initial phase, the Disney Fantasy will only visit Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas. DCL indicated that they hope to resume 7-night voyages or longer onboard the Disney Fantasy in October 2021.

This new vaccine requirement for Disney Cruise Line sailings comes as the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new warnings to American travelers, recommending they not to travel to the Bahamas and several other countries due to COVID-19 risks. On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued its highest travel alert, “Level 4 – Do Not Travel,” for the Bahamas, which takes into account CDC travel health notices.

The CDC also lists the Bahamas as “Level 4: Very High” for COVID-19, according to an updated advisory. Per Johns Hopkins University data, there have been over 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Bahamas in the last month. This is the Bahamas’ worst wave yet, and accounts for nearly a quarter of the small country’s total cases throughout the pandemic. Only 15% of the population in the Bahamas is vaccinated.

You might recall the saga prior to this involving the CDC, cruise lines, and State of Florida. If not, here’s a quick refresher. At the start of summer, the CDC issued guidance providing that if cruise lines certify that 98% of their crew and 95% of their passengers are vaccinated, they would have an easier path to restarting passenger operations.

However, Florida enacted a vaccine passport law, effectively banning businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. There was the opportunity to create a carve out in that law for cruise lines, but the state declined to make that. (For significantly expanded commentary, see this spring’s article: No Vaccine Passports at Walt Disney World or in Florida.)

This resulted in numerous legal challenges, some of which were initiated by cruise lines. In a separate case involving the CDC and Florida, the court sided with the state, which had argued that the CDC overstepped its authority with overly onerous regulations that cost it millions in tax revenue. We could devote tens of thousands of words (there will no doubt be countless law review notes on the subject this year) to explaining and analyzing those decisions and their implications, but most are now rendered moot.

In early August, Norwegian Cruise Line challenged Florida’s law and a federal judge ruled in the company’s favor, temporarily halting enforcement of the Florida law prohibiting businesses from requiring customers to show proof of vaccination. Norwegian Cruise Line resumed sailings out of Florida the following week with a 100% vaccination mandate for guests and staff–but the state has appealed the legal decision.

While there is not yet final resolution to Norwegian Cruise Line’s case, the status quo allows it and any other cruise line to require vaccines when departing from Florida. Our assumption is that the state will now quietly drop its appeal, as continuing it would be self-defeating. However, we also expected that Florida would previously create a carve-out to its vaccine passport law to accommodate to cruise industry, so who really knows.

The critical distinction now is that neither Florida nor the cruise lines can call one another’s bluff. This vaccine requirement comes from the Bahamas and cannot be legally challenged by Florida, so there’s literally no other option here–aside from not sailing. (Under federal law, a “cruise to nowhere” is also not an option–ships must stop at a foreign port.)

If Florida continues its appeal, everyone loses. The state loses more tax revenue, cruise industry loses direct revenue, and guests lose the option to sail and spend money. There are also reputational and downstream impacts for and between Florida and the cruise lines. It’s thus difficult to imagine Florida moving forward with the litigation, unless the state is confident it will lose and is only undertaking the appeal for the sake of posturing. Then again, a lot of what’s transpired thus far in this saga can fairly be described as “difficult to imagine.”

For now, all we know for sure is that you’ll need to be fully vaccinated in order to set sail with Disney Cruise Line on itineraries that stop at Castaway Cay through at least November 2021. That date could be extended (possible) or shortened (pretty unlikely) depending upon what happens with the current wave of cases in the Bahamas. It’s also possible that Florida could proceed with its appeal in the Norwegian Cruise Line case, win, and bring an end to cruising from the state. That’s the ultimate “cut off your nose to spite your face” option, but it’s not totally beyond the realm of possibility.

Planning to set sail aboard one of the DCL ships? Read our comprehensive Disney Cruise Line Guide to prepare for your voyage, plus plan entertainment, activities & excursions, and learn what to expect from your Disney cruise! For personalized planning & recommendations, click here to get a cruise quote from a no-fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. They can find you all of the current discounts, and help you plan the details of your cruise.