| NCLH sues Florida

NORWEGIAN Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) has upped the ante over Florida’s controversial ban on vaccine passports (CW 31 May), launching a lawsuit against the state’s Surgeon General.

The court action accuses the state of preventing NCLH from “safely and soundly resuming trips,” because of a law introduced in May, which imposes fines of US$5,000 per violation on businesses which force customers to provide proof of vaccination.

NCLH said after extensive planning and preparation it was ready to resume sailing from Florida’s ports on 15 Aug.

“Unfortunately despite our best efforts we have been unable to reach a reasonable and mutually agreeable solution with the State of Florida that would allow us to require documentation confirming guests’ vaccination status prior to boarding.

“Despite the ongoing global pandemic and the accelerating spread of the Delta variant, Florida continues to prohibit us from requiring vaccine documentation which we believe would enable us to resume sailing in the safest way possible,” it added.

NCLH said it had “reluctantly turned to the courts for relief,” saying it believes Florida’s approach is on the “wrong side of federal law, public health, science and is not in the best interest of the welfare of our guests, crew and the communities we visit”.