The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new recommendations pertaining to Covid-19 for cruise ships and cruise lines.

Included in the recent post, the CDC addresses the following categories; onboard Covid-19 response plans, shoreside response plans, port operation components, medical care components, housing components, Covid-19 vaccines, surveillance for Covid-19, Covid-19 surveillance testing reminders, and procedures for embarking passengers including pre-embarkation Covid-19 testing.

This recent posting by the CDC comes on the heels of their announcement on July 18th, 2022 that the voluntary Covid-19 Program for Cruise Ships was coming to an end.

Instead, the CDC would provide general guidance and recommendations to cruise lines for safe practices regarding Covid-19. With this new guidance, the CDC will instead provide general health and safety recommendations to cruise lines, this is very similar to how they are providing guidance to other areas of the travel industry, such as airlines.

We have a look at some of the changes Royal Caribbean has made or announced over the last week.

With a fleet of 26 ships, there are always going to be things happening and in an effort to keep everyone up to date, here's a quick run through of the latest news from this week.

In addition to starting construction on a new cruise ship and Royal Caribbean's CEO sharing his thoughts on policy changes, here is a look at everything else that happened this week you should know about.

Great news for travelers flying home to the U.S. after a cruise, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will no longer require travelers entering the U.S. to provide a negative Covid-19 pre-departure test.

An official announcement will come from President Bident later today, a welcome change for the travel industry and travelers alike.

The new policy will come into effect Sunday at 12:01 a.m. after heavy lobbying from airlines and the travel industry.

Despite these changes, Royal Caribbean still requires pre-cruise testing for its sailings worldwide, along with vaccination requirements.

Happy Sunday and unofficial start to summer! Temperatures are rising, and so is the pace of cruise news to share with you this week.

Remember that sphere object that is going into Icon of the Seas? It got installed onboard the ship this week and we still have no idea what it is!

Royal Caribbean released a new construction update teaser that talks about the pearl-shaped object being added to Icon of the Seas.

In the video update, the object was placed about mid-ship, amidst the various blocks of Icon of the Seas during her construction progress.

It appears the collision of Harmony of the Seas was due to the harbor pilot.

Thursday morning Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas collided with a dock at the port of Falmouth, Jamaica.

No injuries were sustained to either crew or passengers. The collision is said to have caused mostly cosmetic damage to the vessel, including dents and paint scrapes.

The damage was caused when Harmony of the Seas struck a concrete mooring pylon while docking at the port. The incident occurred around 7 a.m. local time, Thursday morning. 

“There were no injuries to guests or crew and only minor cosmetic damage to the ship’s stern. The sailing will continue as scheduled,” stated Royal Caribbean about the incident. 

It's taken many months, but every single Royal Caribbean cruise ship is back in service.

Rhapsody of the Seas returned to service on Monday, which was the last cruise ship in the fleet to resume cruises following the shutdown due to Covid-19 in 2020-2021.

Rhapsody is beginning to offer 7-night Mediterranean and Greek Isles itineraries from her summer home in Rome (Civitavecchia).

As of today, all 26 ships are back in service. To date, Royal Caribbean International has carried more than two million passengers, cruising to 160 destinations across 2,000 voyages. 

Royal Caribbean had methodically resumed service on 13 of its ships since August 2021, which involved gathering crew members to staff the ship, prep the vessel for operation, and get everything going onboard.

It's incredible to see how much progress Royal Caribbean has made in less than a year with its restart plans, but there are still a handful of issues the cruise line is working through.

Royal Caribbean is on the brink of having the last ship in the fleet restart operations (Rhapsody of the Seas), which is an important milestone for a company that was decimated by a "black swan" event in the form of the global health crisis.

While the cruise experience has improved rapidly with higher guest satisfaction scores, more ships back in service, and rolled back Covid protocols, there are still a few notable issues that Royal Caribbean is tackling.

It's important to note that these issues are not just Royal Caribbean problems. Nearly every form of travel leisure has their fair share of challenges. The reason why I'm bringing these issues up is to help anyone with a cruise manage expectations properly.

Stay up-to-date with all the Royal Caribbean news from this week with our roundup of all this week's news.

Could Icon of the Seas be even bigger than the Oasis Class cruise ships?

One Royal Caribbean executive recently said Icon of the Seas will be the largest ship when she debuts next year.

Sean Treacy, Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations, said, "Icon will be the biggest. It launches in the fall of next year."

Welcome to a new week of Royal Caribbean news, which has a few tidbits and updates you should know about.

There's a lot happening in the world of cruising, and this week's update aims at catching you up on a few changes that we've seen over the past few days.

If you notice something different, be sure to email any news tips over to [email protected]

Change for Covid testing on Alaska land tours

Royal Caribbean has changed the Covid-19 testing policy for guests that have booked a cruisetour add-on to their Alaska cruise.

Crew members can now disembark cruise ships in port during their time off once again.

One of the many Covid-19 protocols on cruise ships prohibited crew members from visiting ports of call, but that rule has been changed.

Ovation of the Seas crew member Chris Wong shared a video update recently that crew members are getting once again free flow.

"We have just been told that we are officially getting once again free flow surely for crew members, which means we can go back out into port, just like it was pre-pandemic days."

"Since the restart, crew shore leave or any crew members to go out into port was not allowed."