Florida politics on Covid-19 vaccinations threatens to disrupt the cruise industry restart in Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced guidelines for trial cruises with volunteer passengers to test safety measures, which will be required for each ship before resuming regular passenger voyages in US waters. To bypass the trial cruises, the CDC says at least 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers must have been vaccinated.

Almost simultaneously, the Florida legislature passed a law prohibiting businesses from asking whether employees or customers have been vaccinated against Covid-19. In response, Frank Del Rio, the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. said that the new law could cause the company to suspend Florida departures and move its ships elsewhere.

“At the end of the day, cruise ships have motors, propellers and rudders, and God forbid we can’t operate in the state of Florida for whatever reason, then there are other states that we do operate from, and we can operate from the Caribbean for a ship that otherwise would have gone to Florida,” Del Rio said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

CNN reports that Del Rio says he hopes the CDC’s conditions will override the governor’s action when it comes to the cruise industry, although he said he was “disappointed at first read” of the agency’s proposal for resuming cruise operations.

“It is a classic state versus federal government issue,” said Del Rio. “Lawyers believe that federal law applies.” He added that the company has been in talks with the governor’s office but did not specify what was discussed.

Norwegian Cruise Line had previously hoped to resume cruises on July 4, and said it was willing to require all passengers and staff to be vaccinated in order to gain CDC approval. That’s no longer possible, Del Rio said Thursday.

“It was possible back in early April when we proposed to the CDC 100% vaccination. We’ve always said it takes about 90 days to stand up a vessel,” he said. So the cruise line is now looking at August at the earliest.

Whether Norwegian decides to operate in Florida or not, it and other cruise companies will have to meet the CDC requirements before setting sail from US ports.