FLORIDA — Starting today, all Disney Cruise Line passengers 5 years old and older must be fully vaccinated before setting sail.

Disney Cruises updated its COVID-19 policy in November of last year.  However, in December, the CDC warned against cruises regardless of vaccination status due to the onboard outbreaks fueled by the omicron variant. The CDC set the travel health notice status for cruise travel to Level 4, the highest level.  

As of Jan. 3, 16 ships that sail from Port Canaveral, including several Disney Cruise ships, are either under investigation or were previously investigated and are under observation after reaching the "Yellow" status, which indicates that “reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation.”

For those who choose to travel on a cruise ship, Disney accepts Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Covishield, Novavax, Sinopharm, Sinovac, and Covavaxin vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines fully vaccinated as 14 days after receiving:

• A single dose of an accepted 1-dose vaccine
• The second dose of an accepted 2-dose vaccine
• The full series of an active (not placebo) COVID-19 vaccine in the US-based AstraZeneca or Novavax COVID-19 vaccine trials
• The second dose of any “mix and match” combination of accepted COVID-19 vaccines (administered at least 17 days apart)

Previously, passengers 12 years old and up had to be vaccinated.

Children 4 years old and younger must provide proof of a negative COVID test taken between three days and 24 hours before their sail date, according to Disney Cruise Line's website. The test should be a NAAT test, rapid PCR test, or lab-based PCR test.

While Disney's vaccination policy changes, other companies are canceling cruises. Both Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean canceled cruises from Florida this week due to the "global public health environment."