RaelynM

This sounds promising! https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/08/10/royal-caribbean-drops-vaccine-requirement-certain-cruise-ship-sailings?fbclid=IwAR2uDVXK_7rlCLG59LruVvVJSocSE5CV-Ko0R8VpwFGXXaQhkNbWk8vGLQw&mibextid=us0yfe&fs=e&s=cl

1402 hours - Just received a call from my TA. RCI Rep stated there are a lot of moving parts right now. He could not guarantee anything at this time. There is another announcement coming out on 8-15 from what she was told. We just canceled the trip we had booked for November. We will re-book once we see something in writing from RCI.

Yes, things are in the works by the sounds of it! RCI staff my TA spoke to this morning were clueless & then she noticed the webpage was down. She wondered if they were updating it?! Found a few articles last night that were interesting. "For longer sailings, Royal Caribbean and Carnival will still require passengers to test, though they have more flexibility with testing, able to provide a test result from up to three days before the departure date. Additionally, unvaccinated passengers will still be required to test before all voyages, though they will no longer be required to test at the cruise terminal on the day of departure." https://reason.com/2022/08/03/cruise-lines-relax-covid-testing-and-vaccination-policies/ This was positive 😃 "Is the cruise industry coming back? After more than 2 years under a COVID cloud, the answer is yes. '► Royal Caribbean Group has dropped its testing requirement for vaccinated passengers on some voyages, the company said. Testing is now required for vaccinated guests only on sailings that are six or more nights. Testing is required for unvaccinated guests on all trips according to a news release. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2022/07/28/cdc-covid-cruise-ship-program-end-travelers/10098433002/

My travel agent called this morning & the guy she spoke to was clueless. She then checked the site & it appeared to be down. Here's an article I found last night, "Beginning August 4, vaccinated passengers on Carnival company sailings that last less than six days will no longer be required to provide a negative PCR or antigen test result before boarding vessels. A similar policy will take effect on Royal Caribbean company sailings on August 8. In a Facebook post, Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley also shared that unvaccinated guests who have recovered from COVID in the last 90 days will be allowed to sail with the company, marking a departure from existing policies, which had barred most unvaccinated people from going on cruises. This major decision from the industry's main cruise companies comes as smaller cruise lines, including MSC Cruises, Azamara Cruises, and others, have abandoned testing and vaccination requirements altogether (if not required by ports)." We will standby to standby. Just received a credit on my cc a few months ago for the deposit we had on a cruise from January 2020! We have our cruise booked for November, but we do not have to pay a deposit until August 15th. If this have not changed by that time, we'll cancel & wait until they get their things together! https://reason.com/2022/08/03/cruise-lines-relax-covid-testing-and-vaccination-policies/

Thanks for the link. As stated on their website (https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center?icid=hlthys_wrnssn_hlt_nbrdxp_pghdr_3467), "Our current testing protocols will remain in place through August 7, 2022 for all U.S. departures. We are continuing to work with our destination partners to evolve and finalize other travel protocols, as we begin transitioning to the point where everyone will be able to vacation with us. We look forward to providing more updates in coming days." So it does appear things will possibly be changing tomorrow, August 8, 2022. Our travel agent will be reaching out to them tomorrow. Hope to see you onboard 😀

Agreed! Thank you!

Can you share your source about the "official announcement?"

We have ours booked, but have not paid a deposit. If our travel agent is not able to get confirmation from RCI tomorrow about us being guaranteed as part of the 10% on the trip we booked, we will cancel. While we have been going to to all-inclusive resorts over the past two years, we are excited about the possibility of cruising again. Here's another article about it, "As of Aug. 8, testing for vaccinated passengers will only be required on trips of six nights or longer; unvaccinated guests will need to test before all sailings. The company said it would keep a “high percentage” of fully vaccinated guests on all trips — without saying what that means; under the CDC program that just ended, 90 percent of passengers were supposed to be vaccinated to meet that designation. Crew members will be fully vaccinated and boosted when they are eligible." https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/07/29/carnival-royal-caribbean-covid-testing/

Our TA is calling RCI tomorrow to confirm we would be guaranteed as part of the 10%. If they cannot guarantee we would be part of the 10% allowed to cruise on the trip we booked, we will cancel the trip. Not putting any money down until they can give us a guarantee. Took almost 2.5 years to get a deposit back from the trip that was canceled in January 2020. "Royal Caribbean is the second line to change its policy, following Virgin Voyages announcement last week that it would allow up to 10% of passengers on any given sailing to be unvaccinated for Covid-19."

As stated in the link in my original post, "Royal Caribbean is the second line to change its policy, following Virgin Voyages announcement last week that it would allow up to 10% of passengers on any given sailing to be unvaccinated for Covid-19." Our TA has confirmed this information. The only thing we are waiting to hear tomorrow from RCI is if we would be guaranteed as part of the 10%. We are not going to put down a deposit unless they can guarantee we would be part of the 10%. Spent almost 2.5 years getting our deposit back from them after this all started from a January 2020 cruise. Definitely do not want to go through that again 🤪

Just booked our first cruise since the pandemic. Sounds like Royal is relaxing a little for unvaccinated guests. Not paying the deposit until our TA calls Royal on 8-8. We want to clarify that we would be guaranteed as part of the 10% or whatever number unvaccinated people they allow on board. We are excited we are hopefully going to be cruising in November! https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2022/07/29/royal-caribbean-will-allow-unvaccinated-passengers-cruise-ships-early-august?fbclid=IwAR1o7dFtEGL1U-jA3JOr-d5f4CZqVe6Awuto7xQOVVSQLjbIRfLX1QDYZDA&mibextid=us0yfe&fs=e&s=cl

Any update from Royal regarding this? Will we now be able to cruise without the vaccine? https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-ends-covid-program-cruise-214604761.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb&mibextid=us0yfe&fs=e&s=cl