Royal Caribbean Protocol Updates

Updated August 30, 2022

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have announced that they are welcoming all guest, regardless of vaccination status, beginning with sailings departing on September 5, 2022, from any U.S. homeport (excluding sailings visiting Bermuda or Canada).  Please make note of not only the changes to vaccination status for U.S. departures, but also testing requirements for some of our European itineraries. 

What You Need To Know

All U.S. Departures beginning September 5^th (excluding Canada, Bermuda, and Transpacific sailings)

Vaccination:

• If eligible, we recommend that guests be fully vaccinated against COVID‐19. While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask that guests disclose their status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.
• Grand Cayman will now allow unvaccinated guests to disembark in port

Pre-Cruise Testing:

• Sailings 9 nights or less:
  • Unvaccinated guests ages 5 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken no earlier than 3 days prior to sailing.
  • Fully vaccinated guests do not need to test for these sailings.
  • Accepted tests are FDA‐approved PCR or antigen tests, which now includes self-tests. (Yes, the unsupervised ones!)
    • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results, a clear photo of the self-test result, or the actual self-test in hand.
• Sailings 10 nights or more:
  • All guests ages 5 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken no earlier than 3 days prior to sailing.
  • Accepted tests are FDA‐approved PCR or antigen tests, which now includes self-tests. (Yes, the unsupervised ones!)
    • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results, a clear photo of the self-test result, or the actual self-test in hand.

U.S. Departures visiting Bermuda beginning September 5^th

• While requirements for sailing have changed for some destinations, most of Bermuda’s local regulations and requirements are still in place.
• This means vaccination and pre-cruise testing requirements remain unchanged.
• We’ve removed the boarding day test requirement.

Sailings beginning September 5^th that begin, end, or stop in Canada

• While requirements for sailing have changed for some destinations, Canada’s local regulations and requirements are still in place.
• The vaccination requirement and the pre-cruise & embarkation testing requirement (2 days prior for vaccinated guests | 3 days prior for unvaccinated + boarding day test) remain in place.

All European & UK Departures beginning September 5^th (excluding Transatlantic sailings)

Vaccination:

• All European and UK Itineraries (excluding Transatlantic sailings)
  • We recommend that guests be fully vaccinated against COVID‐19 and up to-date, when eligible.
  • While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask you disclose your status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.

Pre-cruise Testing (check departure port for info):

Sailings departing from Amsterdam, Barcelona, and the U.K.

• Sailings 9 nights or less:
  • Guests ages 12 years and older who are unvaccinated or not up-to-date must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken no earlier than:
    • 24 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
    • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
  • Up-to-date guests do not need to test for these sailings.
  • Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests, which now includes self-tests. (Yes, the unsupervised ones!)
    • 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.
• Sailings 10 nights or more:
  • All guests ages 12 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result.
  • Up-to-date guests must present a negative COVID-19 test taken no earlier than 3 days prior to boarding day.
  • Unvaccinated or not up-to date guests must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken no earlier than:
    • 24 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
    • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
  • Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests, which now includes self-tests. (Yes, the unsupervised ones!)
    • 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.

Sailings departing from Athens, Greece

• All guests ages 12 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken no earlier than:
  • 48 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
  • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
• Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests taken in person.
  • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results.
  • Telehealth and unsupervised self-testing are not accepted for sailings departing from Greece

Sailings departing from Tarragona, Spain

• All guests ages 12 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken no earlier than:
  • 48 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
  • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
• Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests taken in person or supervised virtually.
  • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results.
  • Unsupervised self-testing is not accepted for sailings visiting Greece

Sailings departing from Haifa, Israel

• All guests ages 12 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken no earlier than:
  • 48 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
  • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
• Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests taken in person or supervised virtually.
  • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results.
  • Unsupervised self-testing is not accepted for sailings visiting Greece

Sailings departing from Italy visiting Greece

• If the sailing departs from any Italian port and makes at least one (1) stop in Greece, the following testing is required.
  • All guests ages 12 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result from a test taken no earlier than:
    • 48 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
    • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
  • Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests taken in person or supervised virtually.
    • Proof of a negative test can be the printed or digital results.
    • Unsupervised self-testing is not accepted for sailings visiting Greece

Sailings departing from Italy not visiting Greece

Vaccination:

• Guests ages 12 years and older who are unvaccinated or not up-to-date must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken no earlier than:
  • 24 hours before boarding day if taking an antigen test
  • 72 hours before boarding day if taking a PCR test
• Up-to-date guests do not need to test for these sailings.
  • Accepted tests are PCR or antigen tests, which now includes self-tests. (Yes, the unsupervised ones!)
  • 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.

Onboard Testing:

• Any sailing visiting Greece
  • Guests ages 12 years and older who are unvaccinated or not up-to-date will require additional testing to be completed onboard at their own expense, in order to go ashore.
• Any sailing ending in Spain
  • Guests ages 12 years and older who are unvaccinated or not up-to-date will require additional testing to be completed prior to debarking in Spain at their own expense.

Resources

• Royal Caribbean Healthy Sail Center
• Royal Caribbean Healthy Sail Center FAQs
• Celebrity Healthy at Sea
• Celebrity Country Travel Requirements

 

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Royal and Celebrity Announce Protocol Updates

Celebrity Cruises & Royal Caribbean

Updated August 22, 2022

Beginning with sailings departing on September 5, 2022, Royal Caribbean is thrilled to welcome ALL GUESTS, regardless of vaccination status, on cruises from any U.S. homeport (excluding sailings visiting Bermuda or Canada).

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have shared vaccination and pre-cruise testing updates for cruises departing from Los Angeles, Galveston, New Orleans, and European ports. Please review the below carefully.

Royal Caribbean

What You Need to Know

 Eligible Itineraries

Please note that any itinerary not listed below will continue to follow the published protocols, until further notice.  Please continue to reference the Healthy Cruising Hub for the latest information.

• Cruises departing from Los Angeles, California 
• Cruises departing from Galveston, Texas 
• Cruises departing from New Orleans, Louisiana
• Cruises departing from a European homeport 

Protocol Updates

Effective on select itineraries, beginning September 5, 2022

LAX & GAL Departures

• Vaccination
• We recommend that our guests be fully vaccinated against COVID‐19, if eligible.
• While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask that guests disclose their status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.
• IMPORTANT Sailings that visit Grand Cayman: unvaccinated guests 12 years and older can join our sailing; however, they’ll need to stay onboard when we arrive in Grand Cayman.
• Pre-cruise Testing
  Accepted tests are FDA‐approved PCR or antigen tests supervised in person or supervised by a telehealth professional.
• Sailings 5 nights or less –
• Unvaccinated guests ages 2 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 3 days of the sail date.
• Fully vaccinated guests do not need to test for these sailings.
• Sailings 6 nights or more –
• All guests ages 2 years and older must present a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 3 days of the sail date.

New Orleans Season (November 1, 2022 – January 31, 2023)

• Vaccination
• We recommend that our guests be fully vaccinated against COVID‐19, if eligible.
• While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask that guests disclose their status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.
• IMPORTANT Sailings that visit Grand Cayman: unvaccinated guests 12 years and older can join our sailing however, they’ll need to stay onboard when we arrive in Grand Cayman.
• Pre-cruise Testing
• Testing for these sailings is still being finalized
• We will contact booked guests and travel partners directly with more information.

 

All EU departures

 

• Vaccination
• We recommend that our guests be fully vaccinated and up to date against COVID‐19, if eligible.
• While vaccination is not required, we kindly ask that guests disclose their status during check-in to ensure we maintain a highly vaccinated onboard population.
• Guests who are 12 years and older who are considered unvaccinated or who are not up to date with their vaccination will require additional testing.
• Pre-cruise Testing
• Testing will remain the same for EU departures.
• Guests that are not “up to date” on their vaccination per EMA standards will need to take a test onboard in order to get off the ship in Greece and Spain

 

Other Homeports & Destinations

We are working with local governments in the Eastern Caribbean to align on vaccination requirements for more itineraries. We want to ensure a great experience going ashore at these ports, for guests of any vaccination status, while meeting local health regulations. We’ll share information as it becomes available to both you and your clients.  We continue to maintain additional layers of protection that far exceed any other vacation experience - This includes vaccination of all crew and keeping them up to date with boosters when eligible, routine surveillance of all crew, enhanced testing, and treatment capabilities in our onboard medical centers, and much more. 

 

Effective September 5, 2022
	LAX & GAL Sailing 5 nights or less	LAX & GAL Sailing 6 nights or more	New Orleans	Europe	Other Homeports
Vaccinated	Vaccination Recommended No Testing Required	Vaccination Recommended Testing Required (3 days)	Vaccination Recommended Testing To Be Determined	Vaccination Recommended (additional testing may be required for those not up to date) Testing Varies – see details	Vaccination Required - see details Testing Varies – see details
Unvaccinated	Vaccination Recommended* Testing Required (3 days)	Vaccination Recommended* Testing Required (3 days)	Vaccination Recommended* Testing To Be Determined	Vaccination Recommended Testing Required – see details	Vaccination Required for 12+  – see details Testing Required – see details
*Unvaccinated guests cannot disembark in Grand Cayman

Resources

• Royal Caribbean Healthy Sail Center
• Royal Caribbean Getting Ready to Cruise  

Celebrity

 What You Need to Know 

• Vaccination
• Beginning September 5th, 2022, all travelers, regardless of vaccination status, can now cruise on the following itineraries as long as they meet any testing requirements to board:
• All sailings departing from the UK and Europe (with the exception of Iceland)
• All sailings departing from Los Angeles 
• For all other sailings, please visit the Country Travel Requirements page for the country of embarkation for your sailing for more information regarding vaccination age requirements.
• Testing
• Testing and timing of requirements may vary by homeport country and port of embarkation. We continually evaluate and update country travel requirements to sail here. Booked guests will also be advised of the latest requirements.

 

Resources

• Celebrity Healthy at Sea
• Celebrity Country Travel Requirements

 

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Cruise Pause Extensions

U.S. Ports Impacted by CDC CSO

While cruising has resumed in other parts of the world, it is still paused in the U.S. due to the Conditional Sail Order issued by the CDC last October.   Recent CDC announcement didn't lift the CSO, so cruise lines are still playing a waiting game to find out how they can proceed safe and responsible resumption of cruising. 

Since it takes 60-90 days to stand up a ship once they get the OK, cruise lines have begun announcing additional cancellations as they extend the pause through June 30th.  Several lines have announced departures from non-U.S. homeports for Summer sailings.  The industry is hopeful that resumption can occur sometime in the Summer.

Carnival Corporation

Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy's on Tuesday said the line may be forced to pull the line's vessels from their U.S. homeports if the agency continues to prevent the restart of domestic cruising and is extending the suspension of U.S. operations through the end of June. 

 “While we have not made plans to move Carnival Cruise Line ships outside of our U.S. homeports, we may have no choice but to do so in order to resume our operations which have been on 'pause' for over a year,” Duffy said in the statement. “We appreciate the continued patience and support from our loyal guests, travel advisors and business partners as we work on a return-to-service solution."

Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald said he was "very disappointed" in the CDC's guidance released last week on the company's business update call on Wednesday morning. He asked CDC for fair treatment. 

 “Today,” he said, “you (referring to Americans) can fly and cruise in Europe and return home without being vaccinated. But even if you are vaccinated you cannot cruise out of the United States. “We are standing by the CDC, but we want to be treated similarly to other travel industries, tourism and entertainment.”

 Royal Caribbean Group

"Royal Caribbean has made the tough decision to further extend our operational pause through June 30, 2021. Exceptions to this include our Singapore sailings onboard Quantum of the Seas, China sailings departing after May 27, 2021, Israel departures on our newest game-changer - Odyssey of the Seas, and also Adventure of the Seas from The Bahamas and Vision of the Seas from Bermuda"

See Royal Caribbean Health & Travel Alerts for latest information including important dates for cancelling / rebooking your cruise.

Celebrity Cruises

 Celebrity Cruises announced today that it is extending the suspension of some sailings, including all sailings from the United States until June 30, while continuing its measured return to service with more sailings scheduled from different regions around the world. 

While we continue to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and government authorities around the world, we have made the following adjustments to upcoming 2021 itineraries: 

• Suspending sailings through June 30 
• Excluding all ships which have recently announced many new homeports around the globe 

See Celebrity Cruises Cruising Suspension page for latest information.

Disney Cruise Line

US Departures through June 2021 are Suspended 

We are carefully reviewing the recently released guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and working toward resuming operations. As we continue to refine our protocols for our eventual return to service, we are cancelling all Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy and Disney Wonder sailings departing through June 2021. 

Disney Magic European Season 

We have canceled Disney Magic sailings through September 18, 2021. The Disney Magic will set sail in the United Kingdom for a limited time this summer on short voyages limited to UK residents, pending the issuance of UK Government guidelines and authorizations.

See Disney Cruise Line Important Travel Information page for complete details.

Norwegian Cruise Line

In conjunction with our return to service announcement, we have extended our voluntary temporary suspension through August 31, 2021 for the following ships; Norwegian Breakaway, Dawn, Escape, Getaway, Sky, Spirit, Star and Sun. In addition, Norwegian Epic through Sept. 1; and Norwegian Pearl through Nov. 7, 2021 have also been canceled.

Norwegian Joy, Norwegian Jade and Norwegian Gem now boast new homeports in Greece and the Caribbean for three new and exciting itineraries sailing in July.

See NCL's Suspended Sailings page for complete details.

Princess Cruises

Like so many facets of life, travel has been hit hard by recent events. It is with a heavy heart that Princess Cruises has made the extremely difficult decision to temporarily pause our global ship operations. We know you were looking forward to sailing with us, and we apologize and share in your disappointment over these cancellations. You don’t need to take any action to receive the default compensation offer. You can find out details of your compensation by clicking the link that matches your sail date: 

Information on Impacted & Cancelled Cruises

Alaska, Canada/New England, & Land+Sea Journeys resume in 2022

Alaska sailings out of Seattle resume on/after June 28, 2021

 Australia/New Zealand resume on/after May 31, 2021

Cruises out of Southampton for U.S. passengers resume Sept. 2021

All cruises 7+ days in and out of U.S. ports through Nov. 1, 2021

 Cruises departing in and out of Japan resume on/after Nov. 8, 2021

Virgin Voyages

Virgin Voyages has cancelled its summer inaugural season out of Miami aboard the Scarlet Lady.

"As we continue to navigate what’s going on in the world, we’ve made the decision to cancel our sailings from July 4th through September 17th, 2021 on Scarlet Lady," the company said. "If your voyage has been impacted by this, please take a look at the details below so you can choose an offer that works best for you."

Details on Impacted Sailings on Scarlet Lady

Your Voice Matters:  Express you desire to see Cruising Resume out of U.S. Ports via CLIA's Action Center.  https://cruising.org/en/clia-action-center

We continue to monitor changes in cruise itineraries, cancellations, requirements to sail, etc. Follow us on any of our social media and this blog to stay informed.   We hope to be sailing on the high seas soon.

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I recently completed extensive training and have become Travel Safety Verified. As your dedicated Travel Advisor, your safety is our priority, and it's our job to ensure you have the necessary information you need to give you confidence and peace of mind when making your future travel plans. Click the link to review our Travel Safety program with valuable resources that will answer many of your questions.

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Carnival Not Moving Ships from US

Watch Video (click here)

Following CLIA's request to the CDC to allow cruising from U.S. ports to resume by July and the response from the CDC that it is sticking to the end date in the Conditional Sail Order of expiration of November 1, 2021, cruise lines have been making their own announcements regarding their plans.

Some cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises have announced cruises starting in June from new homeports outside the U.S.  See posts in our mini-series:  Let's Get Traveling.

Carnival Cruise Line Update

• Not Moving Ships away from U.S. ports
• No decision on vaccine requirements
• No decision on June sailings
• Extension of final payment to April 30 for June departures
• June sailings can be cancelled up to April 30 with no penalty

Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy said: 

 “Here at Carnival Cruise Line, we currently do not have any plans to move our ships away from their U.S. homeports. I’ve always said, Carnival Cruise Line is America’s Cruise Line. We sail from 14 U.S. homeports, 50% of our itineraries are less than 7-day sailings and a significant number of our guests drive to their Carnival cruise vacation.”

She also said that Carnival remains very encouraged by the vaccine rollout and that they are an important tool along with several health protocols. Carnival carries more families than other carriers.  Since no vaccine is available for children, making vaccinations mandatory would limit who would be able to sail at the moment.  

We will continue to monitor updates for all cruise lines.  We suggest you bookmark our mini-series and check frequently for updates.   You can also follow us on our various social media platforms.