Cruise Ship News: Royal Caribbean Welcomes Unvaccinated Passengers For Nearly All US Sailings

Royal Caribbean (RCL) updated its protocols for unvaccinated passengers on Monday to allow passengers to embark on its ships from nearly all U.S. ports.

The cruise line said on its website, "Unvaccinated travelers can join us for almost all U.S. sailings."

Effective on Sept. 5, passengers on Royal Caribbean will no longer be required to be fully vaccinated when sailing on U.S. cruises that don't visit Canada or Bermuda.

According to the Royal Caribbean website, this includes any cruise from a Florida homeport. It also includes any cruise on the Oasis of the Seas ship from Cape Liberty in New Jersey, and cruises from Los Angeles and Galveston, Texas, as well as New Orleans or any cruise from a European homeport.

European cruise passengers who are unvaccinated will still be required to take a COVID test to get off the ship in Greece or Spain, in accordance with European Medicines Agency standards.

With this new COVID protocol update, Royal Caribbean added Cape Liberty and Florida to its list of ports where unvaccinated passengers may embark on its ships without proof of being fully inoculated against COVID-19.

Starting Sept. 5, unvaccinated passengers aged 5 and up will be required to provide a negative COVID test within three days of boarding any Royal Caribbean cruise ship, regardless of the length of the voyage.

Vaccinated passengers will no longer have to provide a pre-cruise COVID test on Royal Caribbean sailings that are shorter than 10 nights.

Royal Caribbean said it will begin accepting self-administered home tests as proof of COVID testing starting on Sept. 5. For these test results, embarking passengers will need to show a picture of the negative home test on their phone or present the actual negative test itself.

Royal Caribbean will continue to require passengers to be fully vaccinated for cruises from Australia and Singapore, any cruise that departs or visits Canada or Bermuda, and all transatlantic sailings, until further notice, the cruise line said.

As of Monday at 1:41 p.m. ET, shares of Royal Caribbean were trading at $37.94, down $1.71, or 4.31%.