BREVARD COUNTY, FLA. — Disney Cruise Line will conduct a simulated cruise Saturday from Port Canaveral — part of an effort to resume sailing under the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s conditional sailing order.

It will mark the first simulated cruise for Port Canaveral, which says it expects others to follow before Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras on July 31 becomes the first revenue-making cruise from the port since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Port Canaveral touts itself as the world's second-busiest cruise port in multi-day embarkations.

Cast members, as Disney calls them, will board from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for Saturday’s simulated cruise.

Disney Cruise Line late last month delayed its first test cruise, for two nights on Disney Dream, from Port Canaveral due to what it called inconsistent COVID-19 test results. Disney employees were to serve as volunteer passengers.

The CDC’s conditional sailing order spells out phased guidelines on how the cruise industry can resume U.S.-based operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agency took a step toward resuming U.S.-based cruises in May when it said cruise lines would be able to begin trial voyages in U.S. waters. And saying that it exceeded the CDC's requirement that 95% of passengers be vaccinated, Celebrity Edge late last month became, at reduced capacity, the first cruise ship to leave a U.S. port since the beginning of the pandemic.

The CDC this month asked a federal appeals court to intervene on its attempts to maintain its conditional sailing order on the U.S. cruise industry.