On June 20, Royal Caribbean is going to sail once again. It’s a huge step for the cruise industry after cruises paused their operations during the pandemic. This time around, the cruise will run a simulated voyage to meet the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s requirements. This makes Royal Caribbean the first big cruise ship to sail in the US for more than a year.
Freedom of the Seas will sail on June 20-22. The main goal of the simulated voyage is to test how they can implement safety measures to mitigate COVID19 transmission onboard. In April, CDC announced that the cruises can skip simulated voyages with one condition. The cruise should have at least 95% of passengers and 98% of crew fully vaccinated.
CDC’s Caitlin Shockey said that the health agency and the cruise industry executives meet several times a week to discuss the safety strategies for both passengers and crew members.
250,000 Applications
Some details about the simulated voyage are not yet announced. How many passengers are going on board? How will Royal Caribbean choose its passengers? Where is the ship going to stop? According to the CDC’s protocol for simulated voyages, the ship must carry at least 10% of the maximum number of passengers on its first two non-test cruises.
The Freedom of the Seas has a capacity of 3,934 passengers if two people will stay in a room. However, Royal Caribbean has not announced how many they are looking to accommodate this time around. Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Lyan Sierra-Caro said that “there are logistics to figure out and we will share details once they have been worked through”.
A whopping 250,000 people volunteered to take part in the simulated voyage. According to the CDC, the volunteer passengers need to be 18 years old and above. They should also be either fully vaccinated or not at risk for severe COVID. Testing will also be done for those who haven’t completed their vaccination.