Since July 2021, when the cruise industry returned from its more-than-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 they weren't in some vaccinated-passenger areas. Exactly where you had to wear a mask changed from week to week.
Once the cruise lines built back their capacity and settled into what cruising looked like in the covid era, the rules became fairly stable. Royal Caribbean (RCL), Carnival (CCL), and Norwegian (NCLH) required all passengers ages 12 and older to be vaccinated and everyone of any age boarding their ships to 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 cruises. The cruise lines generally do not provide dockside testing, so passengers had to arrange their own tests and ensure they got the results in time for their sailings.
It was an added hoop passengers had to jump through 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 they traveled to their ships, or they could contract covid in any number of ways after their negative tests before they boarded.
Now, Royal Caribbean has decided to make a big change to its testing policy.
Image source: Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean Drops Most Precruise Covid Testing
During its second-quarter-earnings call, Royal Caribbean outlined 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 and Prevention stopping tracking of covid cases onboard cruise ships, and Virgin Voyages becoming the first cruise line to drop precruise covid testing.
Chief Executive Jason Liberty explained the changes in the company's second-quarter-earnings news 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 12 and over must still provide proof of vaccination before they sail. (Virgin Voyages, which sails only 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.
