The Cruise Industry Pressured Caribbean Islands Amid Coronavirus Concerns

“While we are following all U.S. CDC and World Health Organization screening protocols and guidelines, we want to avoid any possibility of a visit to a destination where there is uncertainty or we risk being turned away,” said Carnival in a statement to press at the time.

“What were Jamaica and the Cayman Islands doing? They were just trying to enforce their own health codes. Carnival didn’t like it,” said Jim Walker, an attorney who created the blog Cruise Law News and represents clients suing cruise companies.

After a meeting with Carnival and MSC on March 6, Jamaican officials announced a deal in which the cruise lines would begin handing over the ships’ medical logs, including temperature readings and travel history. The companies also consented to stricter rules for passengers with a recent history of travel to the most impacted countries.

The same day, the government of Turks and Caicos declined to allow the Carnival Magic cruise to dock because several guests on board were exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Carnival was “enormously frustrated.” The company responded in the same way that it had to Jamaica, rerouting three cruises from Turks and Caicos as it entered discussions with the government.

Meanwhile, the Costa Luminosa sailed on, making stops in the Cayman Islands, Honduras, and Mexico. By March 8, the tourist from Italy had arrived in Puerto Rico. The island government had no notification from Carnival that anyone on board had presented coronavirus-like symptoms when 1,370 passengers and 410 crew members disembarked in Old San Juan. But after the woman was diagnosed with pneumonia by a ship doctor, she was rushed to a local hospital. Because she came from the heart of the pandemic in northern Italy, medical workers administered a Covid-19 test.

Of course, in another indication of the deep uncertainty that the pandemic has sown, Puerto Ricans only received the results of the Italian tourist’s Covid-19 test from the CDC on Friday night, a week after the patient was hospitalized. The news that the cruise passenger and her husband had tested positive broke hours after the Cayman Islands’ government announced that another Costa Luminosa traveler had become the first patient to test positive in the territory. He was hospitalized at Health City Cayman Islands after going into cardiac arrest but developed a dry cough after six days of treatment. Thirty medical workers who came into contact with him are now under quarantine, and the private hospital has decided to close for the next two weeks. The 68-year-old patient died Saturday morning.

Divide and Conquer

Klein said the cruise industry’s response to the crisis is business as usual. “The cruise industry always wants ports to know, ‘We’re mobile, so if you get out of line, there’s plenty of ports that will welcome us,’” he said.

The ships operate under “flags of convenience,” basing themselves in whatever nation gives them the best deal. “They enjoy freedoms from many laws and controls, whether it be in the U.S. or a Caribbean island,” said Klein.

One of the most important ways the industry is able to fleece Caribbean nations is via port fees, a tax per head on the passengers who disembark. Klein said the fees are often lower than what it costs for the islands to maintain the facilities the cruise companies demand. Caribbean islands have attempted to collectively demand fair fees, but so far, the industry has succeeded in a divide-and-conquer strategy that leaves all of the region at the behest of the corporations.

Many critics argue that the problems the ships bring aren’t worth the tourists they attract on shore. In many cases, cruise companies steer passengers toward excursions and shopping destinations that allow them to take a cut of profits.