MS Nieuw Amsterdam arriving early morning into Vancouver, photo credit Spacejunkie2 (Flickr)
Effective immediately, unvaccinated guests sailing on “standard protocol” voyages will no longer need a test prior to disembarkation.
Guests will also not have to provide evidence of vaccination unless they are required to do so by a destination.
“Our guests continue to show their excitement to return to cruising, and this is another step toward making it as easy as possible for them to safely explore the world in a way they love,” said Gus Antorcha, president of HAL.
“Standard protocol” voyages now also include Panama Canal transits up to 15 nights and guests on “enhanced protocol” voyages will be provided additional information about protocols based on ports visited.
Independence of the Seas in Southampton, Photo Credit Spacejunkie2
Royal Caribbean Group will ditch pre-embarkation testing for fully vaccinated guests on sailings of five days or less from 8 August, president and chief executive Jason Liberty has confirmed.
Speaking during Royal’s second quarterly results call on Thursday (July 28), Liberty said the change in policy would be “subject to local destination requirements” and unvaccinated passengers would still be tested.
“We also anticipate in the not-too-distant future that pre-embarkation testing for longer-duration voyages will be reduced,” he added.
Asked on the call when testing requirements for longer cruises might be lifted, Liberty predicted further easing could follow soon but did not rule out reintroducing measures if needed.
“So we’re starting off here by doing the five days or less and we’re going to look at that. But I think our expectation here, call it, in the next 45 days or so. And of course, following local requirements, which will somewhat dictate in some of our destinations, what those testing requirements will be that the majority of the testing requirements will be lifted, especially around the majority of our deployment,” he said.
“We might, depending on where the ships are going, take some additional protocols and of course, we’re going to continue to follow where Covid is in society and take the necessary actions.”
Average second-quarter (three months to 30 June) load factors ran to 82% and to nearly 90% in June, while the group expects third-quarter (three months to 30 September) load factors to average around 95% before “increasing to triple digits” by the end of the year.
Royal’s positivity came despite posting a US $500 million Q2 net loss, one the group said “exceeded the company’s expectations” and was “driven by better revenue and cost performance”.
In its trading update, the company revealed that second-quarter bookings for sailings departing in the second half of the year remained “significantly higher” than those received in Q2 2019 for the latter half of 2019.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevent on Monday ended its COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships.
“New guidance for cruise ships to mitigate and manage COVID-19 transmission will be available in the coming days,” the CDC said in a statement on its website.
While no guidance was immediately available, this would point to cruise line’s being able to set their own vaccination and testing rules for ships operating or calling in U.S. ports.
The CDC will also reportedly stop tracking COVID-19 cases on cruise ships, having launched a dashboard earlier this year.
The CDC’s Program for Cruise Ships replaced the previous Conditional Sail Order, which went through multiple revisions that led to the industry’s 2021 restart in North America. That Order had replaced the original No Sail Order that was issued in March 2020.
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