When Royal Caribbean International resumes US voyages in July and August with trips leaving ports in Florida, Texas, and Washington state, it will do so with a crew that is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but not necessarily passengers who are. When Carnival sets sail again in US waters July 3, it will only do so with guests who have received both doses.
In announcing its fleet deployment for the resumption of service from US ports late last week, RCI noted that, with the exception of Alaska sailings, it would only “strongly recommend” that its passengers be vaccinated – albeit still requiring that unvaccinated passengers be tested for the virus and follow other yet-to-be-announced measures. (Subject to age requirements and ongoing lawsuits, Alaska passengers must be vaccinated).
But while RCI president and CEO Michael Bayley maintained that 90% of its customers are already either vaccinated or planning to get jabbed by the time of their cruise, observers were quick to note that the plan backtracks on statements made by the cruise line earlier this year.
The new protocols also come at time when the state of Florida, where some RCI customers will embark, has banned vaccine passports, prompting concern that cruise lines would not be able to enforce vaccination requirements even if they wanted to.
Norwegian Cruise Line has threatened to move operations from Florida because of the dispute, however, the company announced yesterday that it is in fact planning conditional summer sailings from US ports, including two out of Florida, and that all initial voyages will be operated with “fully vaccinated guests and crew.”
A number of consumer surveys also suggest that people will only cruise again if vaccinations measures are in place, prompting several cruise lines to make sailing conditional on passengers have been fully inoculated.
This includes Carnival Cruise Line, which announced yesterday that it would return to operations from Port of Galveston, Texas, on July 3 with Carnival Vista, followed by the return of operations on Carnival Breeze on July 15. However, only guests who have received their final dose of a CDC-approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination, will be allowed to sail.
“The current CDC requirements for cruising with a guest base that is unvaccinated will make it very difficult to deliver the experience our guests expect, especially given the large number of families with younger children who sail with us,” said Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy. “As a result, our alternative is to operate our ships from the US during the month of July with vaccinated guests.”
Carnival notes that Carnival Horizon is scheduled to restart operation in July from
PortMiami and said it will issue an update on Friday as it continues to negotiate with the state of Florida and the CDC.
For its part, Royal Caribbean says its first US sailing since March 2020 will leave Miami on July 2 on the Freedom of the Seas and that over the following six weeks, five other ships will sail the Caribbean after leaving from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. Two ships will sail from Seattle to Alaska.
The cruise line plans to have 12 ships operating worldwide by the end of August. Those include ships sailing from the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, on the weekend, Celebrity Cruises – a Royal Caribbean Group brand – marked the return of big ship cruising with North America passengers as it set sail with about 500 guests from its new homeport in St. Maarten for a seven-night cruise calling in Barbados, Aruba, and Curacao.
Celebrity says in addition to health and safety standards diligently devised over the past year, it will continue to operate its Caribbean sailings with a fully vaccinated crew and at least 95% vaccinated guests.