MIAMI — ******** restrictions on *******-based cruise ships are no longer in place under a ruling Friday by a federal appeals court, while the U.S. Centers for ******* Control and Prevention seek to fight a ******* lawsuit challenging the regulations.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had temporarily blocked a previous ruling last Saturday that sided with ******* officials, but the court reversed that decision on Friday, explaining that the *** failed to demonstrate an entitlement to a stay pending appeal.

Last weekend’s temporary stay had kept the *** regulations regarding *******-based cruise ships in place while the *** appeals the June decision by U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday. Those regulations can no longer be enforced but can still be used as guidelines.

The lawsuit, championed by ********** Gov. Ron DeSantis, claims that the ***’s multiple-step process to allow cruising from ******* is overly burdensome, harming both a multibillion-dollar industry that provides some 159,000 jobs and revenue collected by the state.

In court filings, attorneys for ******* had urged the 11th Circuit to reject the *** request to keep its rules intact.

“The equities overwhelmingly favor allowing the cruise industry to enjoy its first summer season in two years while this Court sorts out the ***’s contentions on appeal,” *******’s lawyers argued.

The ***, however, said keeping the rules in place would prevent future ******** outbreaks on ships that are vulnerable to the spread of the ***** because of their close quarters and frequent stops at foreign ports.

“The undisputed evidence shows that unregulated cruise ship operations would exacerbate the spread of ********, and that the harm to the public that would result from such operations cannot be undone,” the *** said in a court filing.

The *** first flatly halted cruise ships from sailing in March 2020 in response to the *********** ********, which had affected passengers and crew on numerous ships.

Then the *** on Oct. 30 of last year imposed a four-phase conditional framework it said would allow the industry to gradually resume operations if certain thresholds were met. Those included ***** mitigation procedures and a simulated cruise to test them before embarking regular passengers.

Merryday’s decision concluded that the *** can’t enforce those rules for *******-based ships and that they should merely be considered nonbinding recommendations or guidelines. Several cruise lines have begun preliminary cruises under those guidelines, which the Tampa judge agreed with ******* are too onerous.

“******* persuasively claims that the conditional sailing order will shut down most cruises through the summer and perhaps much longer,” the judge wrote in June, adding that ******* “faces an increasingly threatening and imminent prospect that the cruise industry will depart the state.”
Disney Cruise Lines held its first simulated sailing under *** rules last Saturday when the Disney Dream departed from Port Canaveral, *******. The passengers were volunteer Disney employees.