First Caribbean cruise since start of pandemic reports positive Covid-19 test result

(CNN) – A Covid-19 scare is the last thing the cruise industry needs to get back to the Caribbean.

SeaDream 1 is the first cruise ship to resume navigation in the Caribbean since the start of the pandemic.

Intercom announcement of a positive test result

Sloan reported that the captain informed passengers of the preliminary positive test on the ship’s intercom system shortly before lunchtime on Wednesday.

Passengers were instructed to return to their cabins and remain isolated there, he said.

The ship was anchored off Union Island in the Grenadines at the time of the announcement, according to Sloan, and had returned to Barbados immediately.

The impact on the industry of the incident “will depend in part on how this situation unfolds in the hours and days to come,” Sloan told CNN Travel via email from his cabin on board. “But this is not a big development for the cruise industry. I think the hope was that the rigorous testing by SeaDream would keep Covid away from its ship.”

Passengers were tested both before getting to the ship and before boarding the ship, Sloan said.

“And SeaDream also tested the passengers four days after the trip began,” he said. “We were to be tested again today. It’s a more rigorous testing plan that most lines had discussed for their reboots.

Travel from Barbados

The line was confident in its safety precautions when it announced its winter trips from Barbados, which began on November 7. summer. “

“As the first luxury line to start sailing again, we have learned many lessons and are confident that we can provide a safe environment without sacrificing luxury,” SeaDream’s Andreas Brynestad said in the September announcement describing the trips in Barbados.

In addition to Barbados, the itineraries include stops in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, all of which are open to Americans.

Less than 250 guests

SeaDream’s ships, which the company calls “superyachts”, have 56 cabins, with a capacity of 112 passengers and 95 crew.

Carrying fewer than 250 passengers outside of U.S. waters allows SeaDream to operate outside of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s cruise orders.

The CDC recently published a “Conditional Navigation Control Framework for Cruise Ships”.

The order, which applies to cruise ships in U.S. territorial waters that have the capacity to carry at least 250 passengers, is seen as an interim step toward resuming cruise shipments.

Photo of the SeaDream Yacht Club. CNN’s Tamara Hardingham-Gill contributed to this report.