The CDC Wants Your Opinion on Cruising

The CDC has just recently piqued the interest of those involved in the cruise industry by announcing a new online questionnaire designed to gather information about cruises. This comes just a bit after they extended their No Sail Order, so it will likely be a bit of a surprise.

The questionnaire

The questionnaire is given the lengthy title of the Request for Information Related to Cruise Ship Planning and Infrastructure, Resumption of Passenger Operations, and Summary Questions. In the CDC’s own words, “This information may be used to inform future public health guidance and preventative measures relating to travel on cruise ships.” So it seems that this questionnaire will be used to simply educate the CDC so that they are able to make more informed decisions about the future of the cruise industry. Sounds good to us!

Who can participate?

While it doesn’t specifically say, it can easily be assumed that the CDC is largely looking for people that work within the cruise industry to give their input. (Please do not send the CDC troll messages if you do not work within the cruise industry.) Getting factual information is the most important thing to them right now, and only those with insider knowledge should be participating. It also states that organizations, rather than individuals, can submit responses to the questionnaire.

The questions

One of the main reasons that we are assuming that they only want people involved in the industry to answer the questionnaire is simply due to the amount of in-depth and complicated questions being asked. The questions are separated into a few different categories: planning and infrastructure, resumption of passenger operations, and summary questions. There are 28 questions in total, but that isn’t counting sub-questions.

What does the questionnaire mean for the cruise industry?

On its surface, it really is just the CDC looking for more information. However, the mere fact that they are trying to figure out the issue of cruising during the pandemic is likely a great thing for the industry. It means that they want to find a solution, which is definitely preferable to them simply extending the No Sail Order without working towards a safer future for cruises.

If you’re involved in the cruise industry and you want to help give input, you can check out the questionnaire here. The more information the CDC has, the sooner we can all get back to safely travelling again!