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Updated Protocols: U.S. Departures 9‐Nights or less

Below find our updated protocols for U.S. departures that are 9 nights or less — excluding sailings to Bermuda and Canada. Should there be any changes, we are committed to keeping you informed.

All Guests, All Aboard
Beginning September 5th, 2022 we are welcoming all guests, regardless of vaccination status, on most U.S. departures.

Vaccination Recommended
If eligible, we recommend that guests joining us be fully vaccinated against COVID‐19. While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask you disclose your status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.

Testing
Pre-cruise
Unvaccinated guests aged 5 and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 3 days of our sail date. Vaccinated guests, regardless of age, no longer need to test for sailing lengths of 9 nights or less.

Accepted Tests
Guests can now take advantage of at-home antigen tests (even unsupervised ones!) to satisfy this requirement. Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results, a clear photo of your self-test result, or your actual self-test in hand. To learn more about our accepted tests, visit our FAQ.

Check out our Healthy Sail Center for our full sailing protocols

VIEW HEALTHY SAIL CENTER




 
 
 
 
 
     
 













 




 

 

 

 

 




 


© 2022 Royal Caribbean International. Use of our various websites, mobile application(s), kiosks, and other digital platforms are subject to our Terms of Use.

Royal Caribbean Intl.
1050 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132
www.royalcaribbean.com

Not cool

Royal was first to make an announcement... that led to confusion and more questions than answers.  We've seen that play out here on the boards.  
Some of the other cruises lines haven't been completely transparent in their announcements while once again the usual suspect blew it wide open.  
In time Royal may prove to be have the best approach but as the CDC has all but given up and universally removed protocols that has left Royal as the only cruise line in the industry still keeping its protocols.  Speaking as an investor as well as a cruiser it does make me wonder what Royal is doing while the rest of industry and the CDC have moved forward.  

Just let everyone cruise. I really do not care if COVID positive peeps are on the ship or not - hint hint they are already on every cruise. As long as the bars are open...  
People with colds and other communicable diseases have always been allowed to cruise. A woman ,in the casino, was coughing up a lung for hours the other day. Didn't slow me down at all.

Testing isn't the answer and testing doesn't stop covid because in incubation period for covid according to the CDC is now up to 14 days. During that incubation period an individual can still test negative.  I don't know how long your vacation was in South Carolina but it is entirely possible that you had covid prior to the start of your vacation but were in the incubation period and developed symptoms as your vacation was winding down. This can and is happening on cruises there is no such thing as keeping covid off cruise ships the Delta variant was proof of that and vaccines were fresh when Delta swept through,.  Then came Omicron which left a slew of infected individuals and now we have the BA5 variant. What do all of these variants have in common they all found their way onto cruise ships despite cruise lines requiring all passengers over the age of 2 to present a negative Covid test and requiring adults over the age of 12 be fully vaccinated.
The idea that testing and vaccines will keep Covid off cruise ships has already been dispelled, and Royal will do away with the vaccine requirement just as soon as more destinations drop their vaccine mandates.

This is why, as much as I didn't like it at first, Royal may have the best approach right now.  They aren't shifting it to guests to figure out, Royal is taking the high road and shouldn't suffer blow back IF local destination requirements stay in place beyond early September.
NCL and CCL have taken a big gamble.  "Read the fine print" isn't going to go over weil if they have to deny boarding guests in the terminal.  

That is easy to say however there are some destinations that will not even allow unvaccinated guest to embark the cruise at the embarkation port but the cruise line will still allow the unvaccinated guest to purchase the cruise.  In the fine print you will notice the cruise line will not advise you of your ineligibility until you are at the embarkation port.  Some destinations will not allow unvaccinated guest to disembark the ship, while other destinations require unvaccinated guest to test 48 hour prior to ships arrival in port.  Depending on the length of the cruise (lets say 7 nights) you could visit 3, 4, or even 5 ports depending on the embarkation port. From the US that could be up to 5 different countries with different entry requirements for unvaccinated individuals that the unvaccinated guest would need to look up first before they purchase the cruise. 
With NCL reporting a near 40% increase, Carnival reporting over 50% increase and according to the Today Show report a travel agent reported a 200%-300% increase I wonder how many of those customers are unvaccinated and how many of them read the fine print v.s. how many of them just booked a cruise bases solely off the headlines?  I wish everyone was as responsible and diligent as you but if entry requirements don't change for the unvaccinated this will certainly blow back on the cruise lines.  
One last thing if people have purchased non-refundable cruises and they don't have travel insurance and they don't find out until they arrive at the embarkation port that they can't even board the ship, correct me if I'm wrong but I think the normal cancellation policy applies, which means they loose all their money.  How do you think that will play out port-side? 

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Through the restart the Bahamas didn't differentiate between staying on the ship versus getting off.  
When a ship arrives in a foreign port the entire manifest is presented to that nation and everyone on the ship, guests and crew is processed by that nation's immigration officials.  Once you have been processed by their immigration officials you are legally in that country.  It doesn't matter if you get off the ship or not. 
If you are not processed by another nation's immigration officials you would be in violation of the US PVSA laws having never visited another country.  
The Bahamas has always had one set of rules for fly in tourists and a separate set of rules for cruise ships guests, at least once they allowed cruise ships to visit.  
Early in the restart there were some countries that allowed ships to enter and only vax were allowed to debark but that was applied to children only since they had requirements that any person eligible to vaccinate must be vaccinated.  I recall angry Carnival customers at guest services claiming no one told them their children couldn't leave the ship because kids under 12 (at the time) couldn't be vaccinated.  They found out when trying to get off and the buzzer denied their children.  
As far as I know, only the Caymans has a policy that allows unvax to remain on the ship. Cayman's joined the party much later having remained closed to all cruise ships until more recently.  Their policies have always been different than other nations.  

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

Bahamas, Bahamas, Bahamas. Until they relax restrictions on vax requirements for 12+ (which I expect will be soon since they follow CDC guidelines) that's why Florida isn't yet included.

Carnival has a great chart on their website that lists different ports and their vaccine or testing requirements. I wish RC would just rip the band-aid off and let unvaxxed be responsible for what ports require what when disembarking. Or just let me stay on the ship… I’m ok with that too. 

I just still want to know why Michael Bayley promised all cruises starting August 8th would not require vaccination and Royal still hasn’t addressed that or apologized for the gross miscommunication. 

A friend messaged me after contacting RCCL about the app not allowing her to upload her vaccine information for her upcoming cruise. Their response back this afternoon basically said that guests will no longer need to upload their vaccination record during mobile check-in for cruises departing on August 9th, 2022 or after that date, but until further notice cruisers ages 12 and older would need to bring their 2 dose vaccine card to the port.
 
Although the following was not stated by the rep,  I can only assume that they changed the app in anticipation of a new policy rolling around regarding vaccinations that would likely begin on or after August 14th (perhaps to be announced on the 14th?). Again, the last part is entirely my supposition. But I know this has been a question floating around everywhere about the app vaccination info so I wanted to pass it on this information. There was actually somebody in one of the groups that I belong to that got the same information from another RCCL rep today so the story is consistent.

It's going to be surreal, I will probably cry once we've boarded, lol. Three years is a long time!

Little do you know that the additional health protocols include taking daily shifts as the "washy washy" person.

I started our check in today for our cruise next month and got this notification when I went in and ticked that each of us were unvaxxed. 

Why are you afraid of the unvaxxed? Follow the science, it makes no difference to you getting infected.

Why are you afraid of the unvaxxed? Follow the science, it makes no difference to you getting infected.

Why are you afraid of the unvaxxed? Follow the science, it makes no difference to you getting infected.

Why are you afraid of the unvaxxed? Follow the science, it makes no difference to you getting infected.