How to Make Cruises Safe Again? Operate in a Bubble
Lindblad Expeditions’ formula involves no human contact, no busy ports, and lots and lots of nose swabbing.
Illustration: Lucy Hollwedel
Adventure cruise operator Lindblad Expeditions thinks it’s cracked the code for safe cruising during a pandemic: Shelter passengers in a moving bubble of protection from viruses, prestart to finish. Chief Executive Officer Sven Lindblad says guests would not only travel together but also quarantine in the same hotel—isolating for long enough to get two negative Covid-19 tests per passenger before departure. The company hopes to restart cruises in Antarctica as soon as November.
Lindblad is not the first cruise line to begin operations again, but it’s the most thorough in its approach. In mid-July, Norway’s Hurtigruten thought it had the magic ticket to return to sailing safely, only to have its public-health procedures immediately break down. After two weeklong, 400-passenger sailings to the Arctic, dozens of crew and guests tested positive for the virus.