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What if a member of my traveling party tests positive for COVID-19 prior to the cruise?

Guests who test positive for COVID-19 within 10 days of their sail date can apply their cruise fare toward a future sail date or receive a refund in their original form of payment without Disney-imposed cancellation fees. Please note that travel insurance and cancellation fees imposed by third-party suppliers, including airlines, are not refundable.

When applying the cruise fare toward a future sail date:

• New sail date is subject to availability
• If an offer was used to book the original sail date, it may not be available or applicable to the new sail date; offer terms and conditions will apply, including blockout dates
• Guests cannot change their reservation back to the original sail date after taking advantage of this policy

If you booked your reservation before December 9, 2022, you can view information about the Flexible Refund Policy here.

Please contact a member of our reservation team for assistance at (866) 325-6685 or (407) 566-7797.

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Disney to require COVID-19 shots for cruise guests 5 and up

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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney Cruise Line will require all guests ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before setting sail starting early next year, the company announced.

In a statement posted on its website on Wednesday, Disney announced the new rules will begin on Jan. 13, 2022. The vaccine was recently approved for children ages 5 to 12.

The cruise line currently requires anyone 12 and older who is vaccine-eligible to be vaccinated, while passengers who are not vaccine-eligible must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken between 3 days and 24 hours before the ship sails.

Younger children who are not eligible for the vaccine must complete testing requirements, which must be a NAAT test, rapid PCR test, or lab-based PCR test, the company said. Rapid antigen tests are not acceptable options, officials said.

Disney’s vaccine requirement runs against a Florida law that would fine companies for mandating vaccines. Norwegian Cruise Line’s parent company has sued over the law, and won an injunction against the state for enforcing it. The state has appealed the decision.

An upcoming Disney cruise might sail without children as its vaccine mandate doesn't allow exemptions

• Disney Cruise Line's 14-night cruise aboard the Disney Wonder in November may have to sail child-free.
• All guests aboard the San Diego to Texas sailing must be vaccinated, no matter the age.
• Children 11-years-old or younger aren't currently eligible for the vaccine.

Disney has always maintained a family-friendly reputation, but an upcoming 14-night Disney cruise may have to sail child-free amid the cruise line's updated COVID-19 vaccine protocols.

On November 5, the Disney Wonder will embark on a 14-night sailing from San Diego, California to Galveston, Texas. The 2,713-passenger ship will pass through the Panama Canal and will stop in destinations like Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Cozumel, Mexico, and Cartagena, Colombia.

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Everyone aboard the ship must be vaccinated against COVID-19, no matter the age, according to the cruise line. And guests will still be required to undergo a COVID-19 test upon boarding the cruise.

But at this time, the FDA has yet to greenlight the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12-years-old. If vaccine eligibility doesn't change before the November trip, the Wonder will have to sail child-free, Gene Sloan first reported for The Points Guy .

Would-be sailors interested in sailing aboard the Wonder but want to bring unvaccinated children must opt for the ship's three to four-night sailings from San Diego to Mexico instead. This series, which will begin in October, will be operating with a less rigid vaccine mandate.

Like all other Disney Cruise Line sailings, all guests 12-years-old or older aboard the shorter Wonder cruises are required to be fully vaccinated, and will have to take a COVID-19 test upon boarding the cruise. Children younger than this minimum age don't have to be vaccinated but will have to take a PCR test before the trip, and again upon embarkation.

Disney Cruise Line did not immediately respond to Insider for comment. 

Watch: One in every 10 Americans moved during the pandemic. Here's where they went.

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• Cruise News

Disney’s Updated Policy for COVID-19 Recovered Guests

Sarah Bretz, Contributor

• February 1, 2022

Disney Cruise Line has updated its ‘Know Before You Go’ website with policies for passengers who have recently recovered from COVID-19.

In some cases, those who have recently recovered may still test positive. If guests have tested positive within 11 to 90 days of their sail date, they may qualify to be considered as “90-Day-Recovered.”

90 Day Recovered

With the appropriate documentation and approval from Disney Cruise Line, those who are considered “90-Day-Recovered” do not have to take a COVID-19 test during the pre-sail, embarkation, or disembarkation phases of their sailing.

The following documentation should be uploaded to the Safe Passage website for those who would like to be identified as “90-Day-Recovered”:

• A copy of your previous positive COVID-19 test result which is greater than 11 days and less than 90 days from the sail date. The test must have been antigen, NAAT, rapid PCR, or lab-based PCR. The test result must include your date of birth.
• A signed letter (on official letterhead that shows the name, address, and phone number of a licensed healthcare provider or public health official) stating that you have recovered from COVID-19 in the last 90 days and are clear for travel.

MORE: Carnival Pulls Cruise Ship from Australia, Redeploys to Florida

Those who are able to prove they have recently recovered from COVID-19 are not exempt from Disney Cruise Line’s current vaccination policy. Those who are ages 5 and older must be vaccinated to sail, regardless of whether they have had COVID-19 recently or not.

This means that all passengers 5 and older who do  want to be considered as 90-Day-Recovered must also upload proof of vaccination in addition to their 90-Day-Recovered documentation onto Safe Passage.

Bring the documentation with you to the port on embarkation day, as well.

Everyone Else

Those who are not old enough to be vaccinated and haven’t recovered from COVID-19 recently will need to test prior to the cruise as usual with one of these options:

• United States residents can purchase an at-home PCR test directly from the Safe Passage website by Inspire Diagnostics. Tests must be completed and mailed back 3 days prior to sailing, or dropped off at one of the Central Florida testing locations offered by Inspire Diagnostics.
• The second option is to use the Safe Passage website to purchase and schedule a pre-trip test to be performed at one of the Inspire Diagnostics testing locations set up for Disney Cruise Line passengers near the terminal, 1 to 3 days prior to sailing.
• The third option is to obtain a PCR test from any independent testing provider.

On embarkation day, all guests regardless of their age or vaccination status will be required to take a test at the terminal prior to boarding the ship.

READ NEXT: 10 Fun Facts About Disney Dream You Probably Didn’t Know

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There's COVID-19 on nearly every cruise ship right now: Here's what cruisers need to know

Things are getting iffy again for cruisers -- at least for those with near-term bookings.

The ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases around the world is causing a growing number of disruptions to itineraries and even some last-minute cancellations of entire voyages.

The number of passengers being quarantined on ships (after testing positive for COVID-19) also is on the rise. And passengers who aren't COVID-19 positive are getting caught up in short-term quarantines for being "close contacts" of shipmates who are.

For more cruise guides, tips and news, sign up for TPG's cruise newsletter .

Meanwhile, just getting to ships is becoming increasingly stressful, as getting the pre-cruise COVID-19 test that's often required before cruising is getting more difficult . Plus, a "perfect storm" of soaring COVID-19 cases and rough winter weather has wreaked havoc with airline operations for weeks.

Still, the situation isn't anywhere near as dramatic or disruptive as what we saw at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, when whole ships were being quarantined due to outbreaks of the illness and, eventually, the entire industry shut down.

As I saw myself during a cruise to Antarctica in recent weeks, many sailings are operating relatively normally, even when there are COVID-19 cases on board.

Here's a look at everything you need to know if you've got a cruise booked in the coming weeks -- or further out.

COVID-19 cases on ships are up a lot

While cruise ships have recorded relatively few cases of COVID-19 over the past year, in part due to unusually strict health protocols , the number of passengers and crew testing positive on ships has been rising sharply in recent weeks along with the greater surge on land.

At the end of December, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 5,013 COVID-19 cases had been reported on cruise vessels operating in U.S. waters during the last two weeks of the month, up from just 162 cases during the first two weeks of the month.

That's a 3,094% increase.

Anecdotal reports are that the number of cases on ships is up even more in the first 10 days of the new year.

Notably, all 92 cruise vessels currently operating in U.S. waters have recorded at least a handful of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, according to CDC data.

Still, it's important to note that most of these "cases" of COVID-19 are asymptomatic or mild, only discovered during routine testing. While some ships only are testing passengers who report feeling ill for COVID-19 (and close contacts of those who subsequently test positive), other ships are testing every single passenger at least once per voyage, sometimes more. One line, Viking , is testing every single passenger for COVID-19 every day.

Cruise lines also are testing all crew members regularly.

The result is the detection of many asymptomatic cases that otherwise would have gone undetected. This is a level of surveillance that is much greater than what is the norm for other travel venues such as land-based resorts or theme parks, and it can give the false impression that the positivity rate for COVID-19 on ships is unusually high as compared to other places.

If anything, the positivity rate is far lower on ships than on land, thanks to much stricter health protocols (more on that in a moment).

It's also important to note that the detection of COVID-19-positive passengers or crew on board your ship won't necessarily impact your sailing (unless you are among those testing positive).

Health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few -- or even a lot -- of passengers and crew test positive for COVID-19. The current protocol on most ships is to isolate COVID-19-positive passengers and crew but otherwise continue on with voyages as planned.

Your itinerary could change

While health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few passengers or crew test positive for COVID-19, the presence of the illness on board a vessel still could result in notable disruptions to your itinerary.

Cruise lines in recent weeks have faced a growing number of ports that are balking at allowing ships with COVID-19-positive passengers or crew to dock.

Several ships recently had to skip port calls in Mexico , for instance, after passengers and crew on board the vessels tested positive for COVID-19. The ports have since reopened after Mexico's Health Department overruled the decisions of local port officials.

Cruise ships also have had to cancel stops recently at the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, and at San Juan, Puerto Rico, due to local worries about COVID-19-positive passengers and crew on board and/or tighter COVID-19-related entry requirements.

Lines also are dealing with a small but growing number of destinations -- India and Hong Kong, for example -- that are at least temporarily closing to cruising completely, even for ships where no one has tested positive for COVID-19.

Viking on Sunday was forced to announce a major revision of its soon-to-begin, 120-day world cruise after India notified the line it was closing to cruise ships. Viking's 930-passenger Viking Star will begin its world cruise this week by heading south from Los Angeles to Central America and South America instead of sailing westward toward Asia, where it was scheduled to spend a significant amount of time in India.

Your cruise could be canceled on short notice

A growing number of cruise lines are canceling sailings on short notice, citing the disruptions caused by COVID-19. The world's largest cruise operator Royal Caribbean on Friday canceled soon-to-depart sailings on four of its 25 ships, including the next three departures of the world's largest ship, Symphony of the Seas .

Norwegian Cruise Line on Wednesday canceled soon-to-depart voyages on eight of its 17 ships.

Other lines canceling one or more sailings in recent days include Holland America , Silversea , Atlas Ocean Voyages, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, MSC Cruises , Costa Cruises and Oceania Cruises .

The cancellations come as lines struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels on some ships due to crew members testing positive. When crew test positive, they and their close contacts must stop working and isolate, even if asymptomatic, leaving shipboard venues short-staffed.

You probably won't be quarantined, stranded or stuck

As noted above, health authorities no longer are quarantining whole ships when a few -- or even a lot -- of passengers and crew test positive for COVID-19.

The current protocol on most ships is to quickly isolate COVID-19-positive passengers and their close contacts. But only the COVID-19-positive passengers are being isolated long term.

As my colleague Ashley Kosciolek experienced first-hand on a cruise in 2021, close contacts only are being isolated for a short period while they are tested for COVID-19. If they test negative, they typically are allowed out of their rooms to rejoin the rest of their fellow cruisers on board.

This means that many sailings are going ahead as planned, with little disruption, even when some passengers and crew on the trips test positive for COVID-19. I experienced this myself in late December when on a Silversea vessel where four passengers tested positive for COVID-19. Some passengers who were deemed close contacts of the passengers who tested positive were isolated for a short period while being tested for COVID-19. But the positive cases had little impact on most of the passengers on board the vessel, and the voyage went ahead as planned.

Such a protocol comes at the recommendation of the CDC, which has set guidelines for how cruise lines should respond to COVID-19-positive cases on board ships, and it has worked well for the past year .

Of course, if you do test positive for COVID-19 on a ship, you will, unfortunately, face what could be several days of isolation in a cabin on a ship or on land. If you are an American cruising overseas, you also won't be able to return to the U.S. until you have tested negative for COVID-19 (or until you recover from the illness and are cleared in writing to travel by a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official).

This is one of the biggest risks of taking a cruise right now, and one reason you may consider canceling a sailing scheduled in the short term (see the section on more-flexible cancellation policies below).

Most COVID-19 cases on ships aren't serious

Cruise lines are reporting that the vast majority of passengers testing positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

All major cruise lines currently are requiring all or nearly all passengers to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, with some also starting to require booster shots , to boot. This creates an onboard population that is far less likely to experience serious symptoms of COVID-19 than a cross-section of people on land, according to CDC data.

For all adults ages 18 years and older, the cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate is about eight times higher in unvaccinated persons than in vaccinated persons, according to the latest CDC data.

You'll face lots of new health protocols

If you haven't cruised since before the pandemic, you might be surprised by how many new health- and safety-related policies cruise lines have implemented to keep COVID-19 off ships.

For starters, there are the vaccine mandates noted above. No other segment of the travel industry has been as uniform in requiring almost every customer to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Related: Will I need a COVID-19 vaccine to cruise? A line-by-line guide

As noted above, cruise lines also are requiring passengers to undergo COVID-19 tests before boarding ships -- a screening process that is keeping many COVID-19 positive people from ever stepping on board a vessel.

When COVID-19 is detected on a ship, cruise lines sometimes then test passengers multiple times to ensure it isn't spreading. On my recent trip to Antarctica, I underwent six COVID-19 tests in just eight days -- three in advance of stepping on board the vessel (including a PCR test required by Chile, where my trip began) and three while on board.

In addition, most cruise lines now are requiring passengers to wear masks at all times while in interior spaces of vessels, and they have stepped up cleaning regimens, improved air filtration systems on ships and made other onboard changes.

The CDC says to avoid cruising for now

On Dec. 30, the CDC added cruise ships to its list of "Level 4" destinations you should avoid visiting for now due to high levels of COVID-19.

For what it's worth, more than 80 countries around the world -- including a good chunk of all the places you might want to travel -- are on this list. So, the CDC is basically telling you that now isn't a good time to travel. Fair enough. But the warning shouldn't be seen as a call-out on any elevated risk to cruising as opposed to visiting other places, per se.

Places on the Level 4 list currently include Canada, much of Europe and nearly every country in the Caribbean.

The cruise industry has been highly critical of the designation, arguing that cruise ships are far safer places to be right now than almost anywhere else, given their strict health protocols.

"The decision by the CDC to raise the travel level for cruise is particularly perplexing considering that cases identified on cruise ships consistently make up a very slim minority of the total population onboard — far fewer than on land — and the majority of those cases are asymptomatic or mild in nature, posing little to no burden on medical resources onboard or onshore," the main trade group for the industry, the Cruise Lines International Association, said in a statement to TPG.

You can cancel if you're worried (in many cases)

If you're booked on a cruise in the coming weeks, and you're having second thoughts, there's a good chance you can get out of your trip. Many lines continue to be far more flexible than normal about cancellations.

Take cruise giant Carnival Cruise Line . Its current flexible cancellation policy allows passengers to cancel as long as a public health emergency remains in effect and receive 100% of the cruise fare paid in the form of a future cruise credit. Passengers are also able to cancel if they test positive for COVID-19. (Proof of a positive test result is required.)

Another large line, Norwegian, just last week extended its pandemic-era Peace of Mind policy to allow passengers to cancel any sailing taking place between now and May 31. For now, the cancellation needs to be done by Jan. 31, and the refund would come in the form of a future cruise credit to be used on any sailing that embarks through Dec. 31.

That means you could call the line right now to back out of a cruise that is just days away. In normal times, you'd lose all your money if you backed out of a seven-night Norwegian cruise with fewer than 31 days' notice.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

• A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
• The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
• The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
• A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
• 21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
• 15 ways cruisers waste money
• What to pack for your first cruise

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Subscriber only, travel | cruise demand leaves pandemic in rearview with record passengers, more construction on tap.

MIAMI BEACH — The COVID pandemic drove the cruise industry to a standstill, but numbers released Tuesday signal the years of comeback are officially over with more expansion on tap.

More than 31.7 million passengers took cruises worldwide in 2023, said Kelly Craighead, Cruise Line International Association president and CEO, speaking at the annual Seatrade Cruise Global conference at Miami Beach Convention Center.

CLIA is the lobbying group for member cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line, Carnival, Norwegian, MSC and most other major brands.

The pandemic shut down sailing from March 2020 with only a small number of ships coming back online 18 months later in summer 2021. Cruise lines didn’t return to full strength until partially through 2022, so it wasn’t until a full year of sailing in 2023 that the industry could get a real handle on just what the demand had grown to as people returned to vacation travel.

“We are an industry that’s resilient and thriving all around the world, breaking records in ways we might never have imagined,” she said.

The 2023 total is 2 million more than the industry had in 2019. CLIA projects 34.1 million in 2024 growing to 34.6 million in 2025. It’s still a miniscule chunk of the overall travel pie of more than 1.3 billion, but cruise’s share is growing.

She noted that surveys of travelers who would consider a cruise for a vacation are at an all-time high, noting that 82% who had previously cruised said they would cruise again, but more importantly, among those who had never sailed, 71% would consider it.

The youngest generations — Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z — are the biggest drivers.

The fleet for the growing demand continues as well, including the introduction this year of the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas.

She said CLIA member lines had more than 300 ships sailing globally for the first time in 2023, with 14 new ships that began sailing in 2023 and another eight expected before the end of the year. They have 88 new ships on order through 2028.

Already this year, both Royal Caribbean Group and Carnival Corp. announced major new ship construction deals, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings added to that this week with its order of eight more vessels across its three brands.

The heads of those groups were on stage to discuss where the industry is headed and enjoy their recent success.

Carnival Corp.’s president and CEO Josh Weinstein put it in a way that gained plaudits from fellow panelists and others at the conference.

“The concept of pent-up demand for cruising is gone,” he said. “We have been cruising for three years, right? It’s over. This is natural demand because we all provide amazing experiences. We delivered happiness to literally 31 million guests last year. And people see it, they feel it.”

A big part of what cruising missed during the pandemic he said was that word-of-mouth promotion that is needed to convince people to try their product.

“We now have 31 million people getting off our ships and going home and telling their friends and family who have never cruised before, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ ‘This is amazing.'”

All of the leaders echoed the industry line that they offer a much better value than land-based vacations, but that the experience gap between the two has now shifted in their favor coming out of the pandemic.

“The appreciation for building memories with your friends and family coming out of COVID is at extraordinarily high levels,” said Jason Liberty, president & CEO at Royal Caribbean Group. “Also wealth transfer, right? Grandparents wanting to see that wealth transfer live, watching their kids and their grandkids experience that is also at an all-time high. … We have the secular trends of people buying less stuff, they want experiences. We’re in the experience business.”

Another bright aspect to the industry has been the spillover effect of all of the new ships since the pandemic, said Harry Sommer, president & CEO at Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.

“Their new products are so extraordinary, and so much better than what was delivered back in ’15, ’16 and ’17, that it’s driving additional excitement for the entire industry,” Somer said. “When any new ship is delivered, no matter whether it’s part of our portfolio or the other portfolios, demand improves for all of us because it adds excitement to the industry.”

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NEWS: Petition To Fight Disney’s Disability Access Service Changes Gains Support

Disney World  and  Disneyland Resort recently announced that they would soon make changes to the Disability Access Service (DAS) system .

These changes will impact parkgoers who have disabilities, and how rides are accessed through a line-skipping option . There’s been some confusion among fans on just how these changes are going to work, garnering a bit of a reaction online. And now, a group has started a petition to fight these changes.

Disability Access Service is a system that accommodates visitors who have difficulty in the parks due to a disability. Disney World visitors who are eligible are those who have a developmental disability and are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period.

The service does not provide immediate access to all rides, however, visitors can request a return time for a specific attraction that reflects the standby wait. Instead of physically waiting in line, that person can experience other things in the park until their DAS window is called. It’s very similar to a Virtual Queue, except that it’s only used by people with disabilities.

Over the past five years, DAS usage has tripled and is the most requested service. The goal with the new updates is to preserve DAS for those it is designed to accommodate and make sure these services are going to appropriate visitors.

But, some in the disabled community aren’t too happy with the changes and have banded together to try and fight it. A growing group of over 140 members — known as the “DAS Defenders” — has been created to “address the exclusions created by the program’s new updates and advocate for a more inclusive and accessible experience for all visitors.”

The DAS Defenders state that these updated changes now primarily focus on developmental disabilities, “…leaving out a diverse range of individuals with disabilities beyond developmental ones such as cancer patients, veterans with PTSD, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, those with rare diseases, and many more, both visible and invisible.” They shared their concerns for fairness and inclusivity with these changes.

As a result, the group has written a letter to the Walt Disney Company and has also created a petition urging Disney to revise the changes “to include a diverse range of disabilities” and not just “developmental” ones.

“We believe that Disney, as a global leader in entertainment and hospitality with a value exceeding 200 billion dollars, should uphold its reputation as a beacon of inclusivity and joy for everyone,” the DAS Defenders state in their petition. “By excluding many disabled individuals from these cherished experiences, Disney not only perpetuates discrimination but also sends a clear message that the rights and needs of the disabled community can be overlooked.”

In addition, the group is requesting devices and programs Disney offers as “accommodations” to be free or low-cost, abundantly available, and provided to those who only truly need them.

The DAS Defenders are also calling for “…anti-ableism training for cast members, flexible party size considerations, reduced prices on Genie+, and more disability-friendly accommodations within the parks and resorts.”

Disney recently updated the rules on party sizes (among other things). The program used to allow six people to be part of your party, but now it will be limited to immediate family members or a limit of four people (if you’re traveling with friends).

Currently, DAS comes with two pre-entitlements. However,  when the new system goes into effect, pre-entitlements and DAS will not be coupled together  but will be used as separate options depending on the person’s needs. For the most part, people who are eligible for DAS will not receive those entitlements. Pre-entitlements mean that you get two rides per day you could pre-book.

Another change coming to the DAS system is that  enrollment will extend to 120 days instead of 60 days.  In addition, Disney is partnering with Inspire Health Alliance to help with enrollment — the same company that handled COVID-19 vaccination confirmation for Disney Cruise Line (when cruisers had to be vaccinated to sail).

The DAS Defenders stated that they’re “committed to working collaboratively with Disney to find a better solution that upholds the company’s values of inclusivity and accessibility.” It’s unclear whether or not Disney will respond to the petition, which now has over 5,000 signatures.

As of now, Disney has not publicly responded to any letters or made any further statements on the DAS changes since the initial announcement. We’ll let you know if that changes.

Stay tuned to AllEars as we continue to keep an eye on the latest changes around the Disney parks and more.

5 CHANGES Coming to Disney World’s Disability Access Services

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Pregnant Disney Cruise Passenger Airlifted Off Ship by U.S. Coast Guard: See Video

The 'Disney Fantasy' was 180 miles out at sea when Coast Guard members responded to a medical emergency involving the 35-year-old patient

Natalia Senanayake is an Editorial Assistant, Lifestyle at PEOPLE. She covers all things travel and home, from celebrities' luxury mansions to breaking travel news.

• A video shared by the U.S. Coast Guard on April 16 shows a passenger aboard the Disney Fantasy being airlifted into a helicopter 
• In the clip, the U.S. Coast Guard successfully performs a medevac for the pregnant patient
• The Disney Cruise Line ship was located 180 miles from land when the Coast Guard responded to the call

A pregnant passenger aboard the Disney Fantasy was airlifted from the ship after experiencing health complications on April 15. 

The Disney Cruise Line vessel was 180 miles northwest of Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean when the passenger “required a higher level of medical care ashore,” according to an April 16 press release from the U.S. Coast Guard. 

A video of the incident shows the Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter aircrew executing a medevac in order to transport the patient safely to land by helicopter. 

In the harrowing clip, an aircrew member gets lowered by rope onto the ship and at least seven crew members are seen carrying the woman on a stretcher. Per the release, the aircrew’s rescue swimmer then “prepared a rescue basket and litter to safely hoist the patient and cruise ship doctor aboard the aircraft.”

United States Coast Guard

The patient was met by local emergency medical responders at the Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was then transported to the local Centro Medico Hospital.

According to the release, Coast Guard members first got the call that there was a medical emergency aboard the ship on the morning of Monday, April 15. 

“Watchstanders in Sector San Juan received a communication from the Disney Fantasy Monday morning requesting medevac assistance as the cruise ship was transiting 260 nautical miles northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico,” according to the release. 

Lt. Cmdr. Todd Stephens stated in the release: “Our crew was able to quickly, safely, and efficiently execute a long-range MEDEVAC for the patient to receive the higher level of care she required. This case demonstrates the value of good crew resource management and the capabilities of our Jayhawk helicopter.”

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Echoing a similar sentiment, Ensign Michael Riccio, Coast Guard Sector San Juan operations unit leader for the case, said, “The competency displayed by the Disney Fantasy crew and the Coast Guard personnel and units involved made all the difference.”

Disney Cruise Line did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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Another Disney Cruise Line worker arrested on child pornography charges

Another Disney Cruise Line worker has been arrested for alleged possession of child abuse material in South Florida.

Tirso Neri, 44, was arrested on Monday by the U.S. Marshals Service and booked into the Broward County jail, records showed.

According to a criminal complaint, the arrest comes after an investigation that began in December 2023 found he was in possession of child pornography on two mobile devices.

Neri was identified as a crew member working for the Disney Dream, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

On or about December 18, 2023, after the cruise arrived from the Bahamas, United States Customs and Border Protection officers boarded the ship and searched Neri’s cabin, according to the complaint.

According to the affidavit, child abuse material, such as photos and videos of child sexual abuse, some with 9-year-old girls, and at least one with a boy between 10 and 12-year-old, was found on Neri's two phones.

Neri confessed to having downloaded and purchased adult pornography through several group chats on the Telegram and Facebook Messenger and said that sometimes he obtained folders in chat groups and saved them to his phone without looking at them and then deletes them after, the complaint said.

Neri isn’t the first Disney Cruise Lines employee who’s been arrested this year for alleged possession of child pornography.

Another Disney Dream cruise employee, Amiel Joseph Trazo, was arrested in January when a border check was conducted and alleged child pornography material was discovered, according to the Miami Herald .

In February, 49-year-old Alvin Gonzalez , a native of the Philippines, was arrested after the Homeland Security Investigations Task Force said they found child pornography on his mobile devices after they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Agents conducted a border search when Gonzalez stepped off a Disney cruise ship at Port Everglades and found an 8:41-long video on a Micro SD card, which showed two naked children having intercourse with each other, according to an arrest report.

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Breathtaking video shows pregnant disney cruise passenger dangling over the ocean in coast guard rescue.

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Dramatic video captured the moment a pregnant woman suffering medical complications was airlifted from a Disney cruise ship.

Footage posted by the US Coast Guard shows a rescuer being lowered onto the Disney Fantasy on Monday in the Atlantic Ocean, about 180 miles northwest of Puerto Rico.

The 35-year-old woman, whose identity was not released, is then seen being raised by a Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk chopper to be flown to a hospital.

“Coast Guard watchstanders in Sector San Juan received a communication from the Disney Fantasy Monday morning requesting medevac assistance as the cruise ship was transiting 260 nautical miles northwest of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico,” the agency said.

The Coast Guard also deployed an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft from Air Station Miami to rendezvous with the cruise ship.

“Once on scene, the Coast Guard Jayhawk aircrew deployed their rescue swimmer aboard the cruise ship, who prepared a rescue basket and litter to safely hoist the patient and cruise ship doctor aboard the aircraft,” the Coast Guard said.

The woman was transported to the Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she was treated at Centro Medico Hospital, officials said.

“Our crew was able to quickly, safely, and efficiently execute a long-range MEDEVAC for the patient to receive the higher level of care she required,” Lt. Cmdr. Todd Stephens said in a statement. “This case demonstrates the value of good crew resource management and the capabilities of our Jayhawk helicopter.”

Ensign Michael Riccio, Coast Guard Sector San Juan operations unit leader, said his crew was “glad everything came together to help this passenger.

“The competency displayed by the Disney Fantasy crew and the Coast Guard personnel and units involved made all the difference,” he said.

It was unclear if the woman’s emergency was related to her pregnancy.

The Post has reached out to Disney Cruise Line for comment.

According to the company’s frequently asked questions , women must be no more than 23 weeks pregnant in order to set sail. If they enter the 24th week of pregnancy during the sailing, “they will be refused passage due to safety concerns.”

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Third Disney Cruise Line crew member arrested on child pornography charges

A third Disney Cruise Line crew member was arrested Monday on child pornography charges.

Law enforcement found sexually explicit pictures and videos of minors on two phones belonging to Tirso Neri, who was working on the Disney Dream. The material featured both teenagers and young children, according to an affidavit signed by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Eric Stowers.

Neri, 44, told investigators that he downloaded and bought links for files containing adult pornography via group chats on Telegram and Facebook Messenger. When asked about folders on one of his phones, including one that depicted sexually explicit images of a 17-year-old girl, he said he must have saved it to his phone without looking at it after receiving it in one of the group chats.

A further forensic examination showed that files in the folder had been viewed by the phone’s user, according to the document. Law enforcement also found numerous other folders “titled in the names of various females.”

Neri, who is a citizen of the Philippines, is charged with transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

“In accordance with our zero-tolerance policy for this kind of alleged behavior, this individual is no longer with the company,” the cruise line told USA TODAY in an emailed statement. An attorney listed for Neri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sexual assault on cruises: Reported incidents rose last year, according to federal data

The news comes after two other Disney Cruise Line crew members were arrested on child pornography charges in January. A cruise ship dancer was arrested on similar charges earlier this month, but law enforcement did not specify what ship he was working on.

Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at [email protected].