The cruise line plans to largely drop a major pandemic-related rule.
Since the cruise industry returned in July 2021 from its more-than-a-year-long shutdown, covid protocols have been a key part of cruising. In the early days, the rules changed fairly often. Masks were required, but there were vaccinated passenger areas where they weren’t, and exactly where you had to wear a mask changed from week to week.
Once the cruise lines built their capacity back and settled into what cruising looked like in the covid era, the rules became fairly stable for the major U.S., cruise lines. Royal Caribbean International (RCL) – Get Royal Caribbean Group Report, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) – Get Carnival Corporation Report, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) – Get Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Report required that all passengers ages 12-and-over be vaccinated and that everyone of any age boarding their ships provide a negative covid test taken no more than two days before their sailing.
That testing requirement created problems for many passengers, especially those who flew in for their cruise. The cruise lines generally do not provide dockside testing to passengers had to arrange their own tests and make sure they get the results in time for their selling.
it was an added hoop to jump through in order to get onboard and, while the intent of the rule — to keep infected people off ships — was clear, the testing was at best partly effective. People could test negative and then get exposed to covid while traveling to their ship or they could contract covid in any number of ways after their negative test before boarding.
The pre-cruise testing was at best partly effective and now Royal Caribbean has decided to make a big change to its testing policy.
Image source: Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean Drops Most Pre-Cruise Covid Testing
During its second-quarter earnings call, Royal Caribbean shared a major change to its testing policy, Matt Hochberg first reported on the Royal Caribbean Blog.
“Starting Aug. 8, testing will be required for unvaccinated guests on all voyages and for vaccinated guests only on voyages that are six nights or longer,” he shared.
The move follows the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stopping tracking of covid cases onboard cruise ships and Virgin Voyages becoming the first cruise line to drop pre-cruise covid testing.
CEO Jason Liberty explained the changes in the company’s second-quarter earnings press release.
Since our return to service last year, we have seen more than 3 million guests enjoy cruise vacations responsibly, under an evolving operating environment. Last week, the CDC ended its COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships. Based on this change, we are continuing to adapt our protocols to align more closely with how the rest of society and other travel and leisure businesses are operating. This means that we’re transitioning to the point where everyone will be able to vacation with us while always working with our destination partners to meet their regulations. Starting Aug. 8, testing will be required for unvaccinated guests on all voyages and for vaccinated guests only on voyages that are six nights or longer.
Royal Caribbean has not made any changes to its vaccination policy. All passengers ages 12-and-over must still provide proof of vaccination before sailing. Virgin Voyages, which only sails with adults, will allow up to 10% of passengers to sail unvaccinated.
All crew members will continue to be vaccinated and wear masks while in public areas on board.
Testing will still be required on cruises where a destination port mandates it,
