Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas was the first CDC-approved ship for simulated voyage scheduled for June. This time, two more Royal Caribbean ships are scheduled to have test cruises. The Allure of the Seas will be having its test cruise on July 27 while Symphony of the Seas will perform its simulated voyage on August 1.
Simulated voyages are designed to try safety standards that are going to be applied in an actual revenue cruise. The CDC will monitor the health protocols implemented during the simulated voyages. The ship operators have to enforce hand hygiene, use of face masks, and maintaining social distancing among many others during the simulated voyage. The ship will also have to accommodate 10% of the maximum capacity of the ship.
The good news is that there is a way to skip simulated voyages. If the ship can get 95% of their passengers and crew vaccinated, then they don’t need to do any simulated voyage anymore.
Other cruise lines are now following Royal Caribbean’s move to go for simulated voyages. Carnival Cruise Line has two ships that have been recently approved for simulated sailings. Carnival Vista will be sailing from Galveston while Carnival Horizon will ship from Miami. Also, Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Dream was reportedly approved for a simulated voyage.
On the other hand, Celebrity Edge is the first large cruise vessel approved by the health agency to launch a “restricted voyage” by maintaining the vaccination threshold requirement. It is going to sail on June 26 from Fort Lauderdale. However, this isn’t the only Celebrity Cruises ship that’s going to skip simulated voyage. Celebrity Cruises also announced that Celebrity Equinox will be their second ship for revenue sailing.
For 15 months, cruises suffered losses due to the no-sailing order and the strict version of the conditional sailing order by the CDC. But as more people get vaccinated, the industry is now on its way to recovery.
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