Royal Caribbean confirmed that it will allow all passengers, regardless of vaccination status, to certain locations on its ships.
A spokesman for the company said that starting Sept. 5, it will drop its COVID-19 vaccine requirements “as long as testing requirements are met.”
“We are working with local governments across the Caribbean to coordinate vaccination requirements for additional itineraries,” the spokesman told USA Today.
On its website, Royal Caribbean said that “a COVID-19 vaccination is not required for cruises departing from homeports in California, Louisiana or Texas.” The company had required guests 12 and older to provide proof of vaccination before boarding ships in North America.
Carnival Change Requirements
Similarly, Carnival Cruise Line is relaxing COVID-19 testing requirements for vaccinated passengers and allowing unvaccinated individuals to travel without exemption.
“Carnival is pleased to announce new policies applicable to cruises departing September 6, 2022 or later that will make it easier for more guests to sail with simplified vaccination and testing policies, including no testing for vaccinated guests on cruises of less than 16 nights and eliminating the exemption request process for unvaccinated guests who only need to present a negative test result upon embarkation,” Carnival said in a statement.
The cruise line’s announcement said it would no longer require testing for vaccinated passengers who are fewer than 16 nights on board ships. Unvaccinated passengers will not have to submit exemption requests, the company said, adding that the changes would take effect next month.
All unvaccinated passengers “are welcome to sail and no longer need to apply for a vaccination exemption, except when cruising in Australia or on voyages of 16 nights and longer,” the statement said.
Vaccinated passengers, she added, “are still required to provide proof of their vaccination status prior to embarkation.”
The cruise industry has been hit hard since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ended its COVID-19 ship reporting rules and urged cruise lines to relax the guidelines.
“CDC has worked closely with the cruise industry, state, territory and local health authorities, and federal and seaport partners to create a safer and healthier environment for cruise passengers and crew,” the CDC said in July. “Cruise ships have access to guidance and tools to manage their own COVID-19 mitigation programs.”
In the spring of 2020, international media focused intensely on an outbreak aboard the Diamond Princess cruise that took place off a port in Japan for several weeks. At the same time, some ships that had reported COVID-19 outbreaks were prevented from docking in a number of different ports, including within the United States.
And despite rules imposed by cruise lines that require everyone on board to be vaccinated, there have been multiple instances of ships reporting dozens of people on board have contracted COVID-19 this year. This included, for example, a “100 percent vaccinated” Princess Cruises ship that reported a COVID-19 outbreak in March.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Royal Caribbean for comment.
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Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times, based in New York.