Celebrity Cruises Drops Vaccination Requirements for Most Sailings

Following the lead of its sister-cruise line Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises announced Monday that it would drop vaccination requirements for guests sailing out of most ports.  

Starting Sept. 5, all guests will be able to sail on most cruises from U.S. and Europe as long as local testing requirements to board are met. That includes almost all sailings except those to and from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand ports, which will still require guests 12 and up to be fully vaccinated.

At the same time, unvaccinated guests will be welcomed aboard those sailings with a testing requirement in place. Celebrity will accept a negative test result from “a simple, unsupervised and self-administered test” for all sailings except for those going to Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Greece, or New Zealand. Guests going to those destinations will still need a supervised test.

Those under 5 years old in the U.S., and those under 12 years old in Europe, will not need to test prior to boarding regardless of vaccination status.

“A new world is waiting and I’m thrilled to now more closely align our operations with the rest of the travel industry and open up opportunities for everyone to explore, once again,” said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises.

“Travel is making its grand comeback and we’re looking forward to the continued momentum from consumers around the world.”

For a comprehensive list of all cruise lines’ testing and vaccination protocols, go here.