Royal Caribbean, Celebrity announce plans to resume cruises in June 2021

After going more than 1 year with out sailing, the first major cruise companies are making plans to begin sailing the Caribbean again today. Both Royal Caribbean, and their sister line, Celebrity cruises have announced today that they will be sailing 7 night round trip cruises beginning in June. This comes as quite a shock to the cruise world, as several of the other major cruise lines have announced they have suspended operations for the month of June. Both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean International are owned by Royal Caribbean Group, along with Silversea Cruises.

Celebrity was the first major line to make the announcement, making it known they would be offering 7 night cruises aboard the wonderful Celebrity Millennium from it’s new home port in St. Maarten. This cruise line will be initially offering two itinerary options: The first one takes passengers to Barbados, Curacao, and Aruba, and the second takes passengers to Tortola, St. Lucia, and Barbados. Both options will be round trip from St. Maarten. Their shortened Caribbean season will take travelers on round trip itineraries beginning June 5th and ending in August. Celebrity noted that the ship capable of carrying 2,218 passengers will begin sailings at 40% capacity.

Since the line will be sailing round trip from St. Maarten, passengers will need to book their own travel to the island, and comply with St. Maarten’s travel requirements for international travel. For United States travelers, a negative antigen test will be required at disembarkation in order to return to the country. In addition, Celebrity will also require all staff, and passengers over the age of 18 to have received a full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Children under the age of 18 will be allowed to board with a negative PCR within 72 hours of embarkation.

Royal Caribbean International also announced today their plan on returning to the Caribbean in June 2021. Royal Caribbean will base Adventure of the Seas in a temporary home port in Nassau, Bahamas and sail 7 night round trip itineraries that call in Cozumel, Grand Bahama Island, and include two nights at their stunning private island, CoCo Cay. Adventure of the Seas will also begin sailing at a reduced capacity, in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 percent of it’s available 3,114 passengers.

Since the ship will be based in the Bahamas, passengers will need to follow the country’s travel guidelines, which include a negative PCR test five days before arriving on the island. Royal Caribbean will also mandate all passengers and crew are fully vaccinated if over the age of 18.

Royal Caribbean has also begun sailing in Singapore for residents of Singapore and in Israel for residents of Israel, but they mark the first major cruise line to begin sailing the Caribbean again. While Royal Caribbean is expecting most of the passengers to be American, the cruises will be available to anyone who is allowed travel to the Bahamas.

Both of the cruise lines will implement different health and safety protocols based on Royal Caribbean Group's Healthy Sail Panel. Those rules currently require masks in public places and social distancing onboard, as well as ship-sponsored excursions in port.

Many travelers have sought the cruise lines to consider alternate departure ports outside of the U.S. since the CDC has not provided a safe restart date from U.S. based home ports. This is a great sign for the restart of the cruise industry as a whole, the CEO and President of Celebrity remarked today in the news release “Returning to the Caribbean after more than a year away is such a significant moment for us.” The CEO and President of Royal Caribbean International, Micheal Bayley added, “We are excited to get back to delivering memorable vacations in the Caribbean, gradually and safely. The vaccines are clearly a game changer for all of us, and with the number of vaccinations and their impact growing rapidly, we believe starting with cruises for vaccinated adult guests and crew is the right choice. As we move forward, we expect this requirement and other measures will inevitably evolve over time."

The cruises for Royal Caribbean will go on sale March 24th, and the cruises for Celebrity will go on sale March 25th.

Are you excited about the potential restart of cruising? We would love to hear from you: seeseeksleep@gmail.com

Read about one of our favorite cruises here and our review of Royal Caribbean’s beautiful Anthem of the Seas here!