Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Line Move Forward with Test Cruise Plans

After more than a year of planning, cruise lines are ready to take the next step in getting cruises sailing out of the U.S. once again. 

Royal Caribbean on Tuesday said in a statement that it had finally received Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approval for simulated cruises on Freedom of the Seas in June. The ship will sail a two-day itinerary out of PortMiami on June 20

“This is the latest promising step to return to sailing in the U.S. We look forward to seeing our crew and loyal guests this summer,” Royal wrote in an update.

The goal for the sailings, according to a letter from the CDC to Royal shared by Royal president Michael Bayley, is to test Royal’s plan for return to service and record “any deficiencies” in the process. The ship will be required to sail with at least 10% of its regular passenger volume and maintain a color-coded status with the CDC leading up to the test cruises. All guests will be notified of the CDC’s Travel Health Notice for COVID-19 and Cruise Ship Travel prior to embarking, too.

The push for test cruises prior to CDC approval also means that Royal is wanting to be able to sail without the vaccinated requirement that the CDC is mandating if cruise lines want to skip test cruises. Royal has opted for requiring vaccination for passengers in some of its sailings, but this week’s news means that Royal is looking to see if it is able to drop that requirement with these test cruises.

No word yet on when invites for guests will go out, but it doesn’t seem that the line will have any difficulty reaching that 10% threshold—when Royal opened up registration for the test sailings back in November 2020, over 250,000 volunteers submitted applications.

Carnival near approval
According to a report in the Galveston County Daily News, Carnival Cruise Line is not far behind Royal in getting CDC approval for test cruises.

Port of Galveston Director Rodger Reese told attendees at a Board of Trustees meeting this week that Carnival is planning on running its test cruises out of the Texas port. Carnival has tentative plans to start sailing actual cruises out of Galveston on July 3 and Rees expects Carnival to attempt a test cruise prior to that in order to be able to drop the vaccinated requirement.

Dropping the vaccination requirement would allow Carnival, like Royal, to get families with young children onboard cruise ships, a major part of the line’s audience. 

According to the Galveston County Daily News, Carnival was “close” to finalizing the plan and an announcement could be coming very soon.

Carnival is still requiring guests booking its Alaska itineraries in July to have received their final dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to the beginning of the cruise and have proof of vaccination in order to be allowed to sail.