Australia will finally end its ban on cruise ships from operating in its waters due to Covid-19.

The Australian government announced it will not renew its ban on international cruise ships arriving and departing from Australian ports as of April 17, 2022.

Similar to the United States last year, Australia had a ban in place since early 2020 that prohibited foreign-flagged cruise ships from operating.

Based on medical advice, the government came to the conclusion it was time for the ban to end.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the decision allow the ban to lapse is based on medical advice and it is now up to states to reopen ports.

"On the basis of medical advice and with the agreement of National Cabinet, lifting the cruise ban is consistent with the reopening of Australia's international border and shows that we have successfully navigated Australia's emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr Hunt said.

Cruise ships sailing from Australia will have to adhere to a series of requirements:

• Enhanced pre-arrival reporting and identification of COVID-19 risk through more questions of passengers and improved processes.
• Amendments to the Biosecurity (Negative pratique) Instrument 2016 to ensure cruise vessels always arrive in negative pratique (that is, permission to unload passengers and cargo).
• Stress testing of the emergency response system in relation to cruises.
• Engaging with the cruise industry on safe resumption.
• Passengers will be required to be double vaccinated.

According to the cruise industry, Australia's cruise ship ban cost the economy $10 billion.

Ships returning

Royal Caribbean told local media in Australia that its ships won't return to Sydney until October 21st, with the first due in Brisbane on November 9th.

Royal Caribbean’s Quantum and Ovation of the Seas are committed to an Alaska season until September.

"We are delighted that after two years, we have an approved pathway to work with state governments to determine the roadmap for a safe return," a spokeswoman said.

Other cruise lines will return to Australia, with some making it back as early as May.

Carnival Cruise Line will begin cruising from Sydney on October 5th.

P&O Cruises will restart on May 31st with the Pacific Explorer.

Holland American Line's Noordam will sail from Sydney beginning on November 12.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth will arrive on November 7 in Perth.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lowered its warning level to just a level 2 risk.

After reaching a level 4 warning earlier this year, the CDC has lowered its warning level now two times.

The level 2 warning means it there is a "moderate" risk of Covid-19, which is based on statistics that show the agency has seen 50 to 99 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

This means essentially that there has been a marked decrease in Covid-19 cases on cruise ships operating in the United States.

At a level 2 warning, the CDC simply advises everyone to make sure you are up to date with Covid-19 vaccines. Those that are not and are at increased risk for severe illness from Covid, should avoid cruise ship travel.

The four warning levels are as follows: 

• Level 4: Very high level of COVID-19
• Level 3: High level of COVID-19
• Level 2: Moderate level of COVID-19
• Level 1: Low level of COVID-19

Prior to this change, cruise ships were at level 3. The CDC lowered the warning from level 4 to level 3 on February 15, 2022.

In order for cruise ships to get to level 1, they must have fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days.

The good news comes nearly two years to the day when Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines voluntary shutdown in March 2020 due to Covid-19.

Ready to move forward

Plummeting Covid cases on cruise ships is not news to the cruise lines, who are eager to move past the restart phase and back into normal operations.

Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of hotel operations, Mark Tamis, talked about the prospects of moving past Covid last week while on Wonder of the Seas, "We are back and it’s the greatest vacation and safest there is."

"We’re not saying the return to cruising anymore, because we’re officially back."

"We’re back to bold."

A big part of cruising's success has been its reliance on proven health protocols throughout the pandemic.

Royal Caribbean requires guests aged 12 and older to be fully vaccinated and are asked to provide a negative test result taken no more than two days prior to boarding (or 3 if they are unvaccinated).

Unvaccinated children 11 and younger are required to test prior to sailing and are required to book an antigen testing appointment onboard the ship prior to departing. Unvaccinated children are only allowed to take approved Royal Caribbean shore excursions.

Crew are fully vaccinated and boosted when eligible, and Royal Caribbean states that they are regularly tested. 

Have you ever thought of holding and petting a sloth, monkey, or iguana? 

Many families look for animal encounter opportunities while in a port call, and we decided to try out one of these tours while on a visit to Roatan on Wonder of the Seas.

We booked Royal Caribbean's Easy Monkey, Sloth & Iguana tour while onboard the ship so my kids could check off this item from their must-dos. I was a little more hesitant about being that close to some of these animals, but I decided to try it out for my kids.

Description

The tour begins at the pier after disembarking our ship in Roatan. A group of 17 people in total boarded a bus and we went on our way.

A guide narrates the tour, along with the driver onboard.

There are three stops along the way:

• Sloth, monkey & parrots
• Iguanas
• Market

The trip to the the first stop is perhaps 10 minutes, and you walk outdoors to a series of enclosures.

The first enclosure are guinea pigs, followed by sloths, then parrots, and finally monkeys.

In each enclosure, you walk inside and a guide hands the animal to you, with the exception of the monkeys.  The monkeys do their own thing and will jump on or off you as they scatter around.

The sloths and monkeys are by far the most popular part of this tour, and you have enough time for everyone to hold the sloth, guinea pig, or parrot and then take photos and take it all in.

On our tour, there was no set time limit or anything. In fact, I found the guides to be quite laissez faire about how long anyone holds each animal.

The sloths are the most docile of the animals to interact with, so even animal-phobes, such as myself, can tolerate it.

The parrots might nip once or twice to see if you have food, but my kids enjoyed the birds on their arms and heads.

With the monkeys, you don't really hold any unless they want to be held. On our visit it rained, and evidently that sends the monkeys into a bit more of a frenzy than normal.

The next stop is a short bus ride down the road to the iguana sanctuary.

Here, you will find dozens of iguanas mulling about. You are given large leaves to feed them. The key is to hold onto the leaf while you feed them, but drop it once they get to the stem.

Rain usually sends iguanas running for cover, but there were enough that didn't mind the shower if it meant getting fed.

There's also a tarpon area to feed fish a short walk away.

The final stop is the Maccaw Market, which has drinks, souvenirs, food, and even a chocolatier.

It's a nice looking market area to pick up a souvenir or something to eat.

The entire tour was just around 3 hours from start to finish, although the shore excursion said it would be 4 hours. I think the discrepancy is because the tour assumes longer waits for each stop. On our day in Roatan, we were the only cruise ship in port.

Comments

Overall, this shore excursion delivered exactly what we wanted: time to hold, be with, and see sloths, monkeys, and iguanas.

Our guide was knowledgeable and talked just about every minute of the tour.

I appreciated that the group size was small enough that we did not have too much time standing around waiting for others. Whether or not this would have still been the case if there were 2 or 3 other ships in port with us, remains to be seen.

If you're looking for an easy tour to meet these cute animals, then this excursion is exactly what you want.

The cost for each person was $59.99.

Happy weekend! We hope you remembered to Spring Forward! Here’s all the Royal Caribbean news this week!

The big news this week is all about the biggest cruise ship in the world.

Wonder of the Seas set sail on her maiden voyage from Port Everglades, and that gave all of us our first peek at what this new ship is all about.

Wonder of the Seas has eight neighborhoods, has capacity for 6,988 guests and 2,300 crew members, and features the "tallest slide at sea," as well as a 10-deck-high zip line and a huge poolside movie screen.

We sailed on Wonder of the Seas to share with you a look at what it's like onboard.

Short cruises on Oasis Class cruise ship will be offered for the first time

Royal Caribbean will soon offer 3- and 4-night cruises on an Oasis Class cruise ship for the first time ever.

Allure of the Seas will begin offering short sailings in late 2023 instead of 7-night cruises.

Traditionally, Oasis Class ships sail 7-night cruises.  These are the biggest cruise ships in the world, and by offering so much to see and do onboard, Royal Caribbean always sailed them on the longer sailings.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The 445th episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is now available, that previews the major projects coming up for Royal Caribbean.

When will we be able to book Icon Class? How soon can we visit the Royal Beach Club in Nassau? Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer Jay Schneider answers these and other burning questions cruisers want to know.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

New RCB Video: Wonder of the Seas ship tour

Have you subscribed to the Royal Caribbean Blog YouTube Channel? We share some great videos there regularly, all about taking a Royal Caribbean cruise! This week, we are sharing our latest video — Wonder of the Seas ship tour — and don’t forget to subscribe here.

Interesting facts you might not know about Wonder of the Seas

In-between all the buzz about the largest cruise ship in the world, there are a few changes and tweaks Royal Caribbean has made.

While these may not be the "I can't believe they did that" type of changes, I thought these were interesting enough to share for someone that goes on Wonder of the Seas soon to know about.

Certificate of Covid recovery option now available for pre-cruise test

As a backup in case someone continues to test positive well after symptoms subside and isolation protocols are followed, Royal Caribbean will accept a certificate of Covid-19 recovery.

Guests sailing out of these ports will now have the option to submit a Certificate of Recovery if they have had Covid-19 at least 11 days before sailing, however, some restrictions do apply.

The arrival of Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas heralds a point in time where the cruise industry is ready to move past the comeback phase.

"The Royal comeback is behind us. We are back. The world’s greatest vacation is back," is what Royal Caribbean International Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations, Mark Tamis, told members of the media while onboard Wonder of the Seas this week.

Since June 2021, Royal Caribbean has been focused on getting its ships back up and running.  But with two new cruise ships launched in less than 6 months, the cruise line is ready to look forward to getting back to the sort of plans it had before the pandemic.

Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer Jay Schneider oversees quite a few of these plans, including the line's private destinations, ship upgrades, and new builds.

With Wonder of the Seas in operation, Royal Caribbean has big plans for the next few years across the world.

While Royal Caribbean's next new cruise ship is Icon of the Seas, there are plenty of other things coming down the pike, "We're working on Oasis six. We're working on the expansion of CocoCay with Hideaway Beach. We're working on our new Beach Club in Paradise Island and Nassau."

Those plans are projects the company has publicly commented on, but there's more on the horizon, "We're also imagining the far flung future as well, because as a brand, we're never going to stop innovating."

Icon of the Seas

Ever since Royal Caribbean announced it had plans to build a new class of cruise ship with the Icon Class, there has been very few details, but that may soon change.

Mr. Schneider indicated that the public will finally hear more about Icon of the Seas in the April or May timeframe, "We go to market on Icon in the next two months."

"Over the next two months, you'll hear us talk publicly about the size of the ship, the number of passengers, the neighborhoods."

That's right, Icon of the Seas will retain the neighborhood concept from the Oasis Class ships, but Mr. Schneider hinted that may be the only traditional aspect of the ship, as they intend to innovate beyond what the Oasis Class offered.

"Everything you'll see on icon will will be an evolution or revolution. And and we'll push forward again us being the at the top of the mantle on the ultimate family vacation."

Port projects

Besides new ships, Royal Caribbean is hard at work on a number of land-based initiatives. Here's what Mr. Schneider had to share for updates on each of these previously announced expansions.

Royal Beach Club in Nassau

"Moving forward, we are still in negotiation with the government on the full proposal.

"We've been going through our environmental impact assessment. We've posted as a result of that on our website, our various plans."

Freeport

"We continue to move forward with our port development in Freeport."

Royal Beach Club in Antigua

"We still have an ambition for a Royal Beach Club in Antigua."

"Right now, our priority is the Royal Beach Club and Paradise. First, we want to really get one live, understand it before we commit to the next Royal Beach Club."

Perfect Day at Lelepa

"It's still in our planning cycle. We are really waiting for the Pacific to reopen in a massive way."

"We, as an industry, are a challenged right now, with China closed and with a slow opening of Australia."

Hideaway Beach

"Hideaway Beach is under construction right now."

"There were a handful of decisions that we made during the pandemic to be smarter about that construction, specifically just the movement of some of the back of house functions."

"It's going to be an amazing adult space for about 2,000 guests opening, opening in... mid to late 2023."

Royal Amplifications

The pandemic caused a few Royal Caribbean cruise ships to miss their planned amplifications, but those plans are not totally gone.

For the first time ever, an Oasis Class cruise ship will offer regular 3- and 4-night cruises.

Royal Caribbean unveiled its 2023-2024 Short Caribbean cruises on Tuesday, and Allure of the Seas will begin offering short sailings in late 2023.

Traditionally, Oasis Class ships sail 7-night cruises.  These are the biggest cruise ships in the world, and by offering so much to see and do onboard, Royal Caribbean always sailed them on the longer sailings.

In recent years, Royal Caribbean has steadily improved the vessels offering weekend cruises from Florida, beginning with amplified Voyager Class ships, and more recently the slightly larger Freedom Class ships.

Allure of the Seas transitioning to short Caribbean voyages will open up a new enticing option to the getaway cruise market.

Allure of the Seas will sail from Port Canaveral, Florida beginning on October 31, 2023 and alternate between 3- and 4-night cruises that visit Nassau, Bahamas and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

The new short sailings run through at least April 15, 2024.

Allure of the Seas had been deployed to Galveston, Texas since late 2022, but Harmony of the Seas will take over so that Allure can move to Florida.

In an interview with Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President and Chief Product Innovation Officer Jay Schneider, he indicated the idea of having short cruises on an Oasis Class ship is an exciting new plan, "We've loved our our three or four short program. It's been tremendously successful.

"We've never piloted that with an Oasis class ship before. So Allure of the Seas will be the first pilot of a three or four night short program."

Other short Caribbean sailings

In addition to the Allure change, Royal Caribbean released 7 other ship deployments.

Adventure of the Seas will sail from Galveston and offer 4-, 5- and 6-night Western Caribbean cruises.

Freedom of the Seas will continue to offer 3- and 4- night cruises from Miami that visit CocoCay & Nassau.

Grandeur of the Seas will also sail from Miami, and run primarily Southern Caribbean voyages that are as long as 12 nights in some cases. She will also offer 4- and 5- cruises to The Bahamas and Western Caribbean.

Independence of the Seas will sail 3-, 4-, and 5- night cruises from Miami to CocoCay & Nassau.

Liberty of the Seas will call Fort Lauderdale home, and offer 3-6 night cruises around the Caribbean and Bahamas.

Mariner of the Seas will also sail from Port Canaveral with more varied 4- and 5-night Caribbean cruises.

Radiance of the Seas will move from Vancouver, and initially offer one west coast cruise down to San Diego, before embarking on a Panama Canal cruise to Tampa, where she will sail 4- and 5-night Western Caribbean cruises.

Next deployments

More cruises will be announced over the course of the next few weeks.

Royal Caribbean's deployment schedule is as follows:

• Week of March 14: Los Angeles
• Week of March 28: Barbados & Panama
• Week of April 4: Australia
• Week of April 11: China
• Week of April 18: 7-night Caribbean
• Week of June 6: Singapore

Keep in mind that the deployment schedule is subject to change.

Planning on booking a 2023 cruise? These stories will help:

• 5 things to look for before you book a cruise
• What is the cheapest month to go on a cruise?
• Should I take a short or a long cruise?
• Why you shouldn't book the cheapest cruise you can find

Wonder of the Seas is filled with impressive new features and amenities, but Royal Caribbean also included a few things that are slightly different or even unique to this ship.

While the press releases will always highlight the big headline-grabbing features of a new ship, there are a few interesting anecdotes and tweaks Royal Caribbean has made with Wonder of the Seas.

While these may not be the "I can't believe they did that" type of changes, I thought these were interesting enough to share for someone that goes on Wonder of the Seas soon to know about.

Largest Windjammer at sea

The Windjammer is the epicenter of quick meals for many families, and Royal Caribbean designed the Windjammer to be the largest in the fleet.

Royal Caribbean Vice President Food & Beverage, Linken D'Souza, said the Windjammer on Wonder has 1048 seats, 300 bigger than any other Windjammer.

They also added a "kidjammer" station at right height for kids so they can grab their own food.

This is significant not just because it's a very large Windjammer, but because traditionally the Windjammer on Oasis Class ships were not always that large.

In an effort to keep passengers separated and not too close in one area, the original Oasis Class ships purposefully not a massive Windjammer to promote the idea of going to alternative quick service food choices, such as Park Cafe, Mini Bites and others.

Cruise fans know what they want, and Royal Caribbean dedicated the most space yet to the Windjammer on Wonder of the Seas.

The female-only aqua show wasn't intentional

Royal Caribbean touts the fact its all-female AquaTheater show on Wonder of the Seas is a first, but this wasn't the plan from the start.

Royal Caribbean Senior Vice President of Entertainment, Nick Weir, shared at the start of the planning process for "InTENse", they simply were looking to find the most adventurous and thrill-seeking performers they could find.

As the auditions began, Mr. Weir's staff noticed all the people auditioning were female.  They then had the idea to embrace that fact and make it an all-female show.

Cafe Promenade serves Starbucks drinks, and soon the entire fleet will too

If you order a latte or macchiato at Cafe Promenade on Wonder of the Seas, you will get a Starbucks beverage and soon all the Cafe Promenade's in the fleet will too.

Mr. D'Souza said the licensing agreement with their supplier allows Royal Caribbean to offer Starbucks branded drinks at Cafe Promenade, but also continue offering Starbucks drinks at the kiosk.

While the Starbucks kiosk beverages are not included with any drink package, the Starbucks drinks at Cafe Promenade are included with a Royal Caribbean drink package.

Genies are the only crew members without name tags

So this is not a Wonder of the Seas-only feature, but I forgot about this fact and wanted to share it with you.

The Royal Genies are the exclusive perk for the top suite guests onboard Wonder of the Seas. Genies are kind of like a cross between a butler and wish maker, and they are shared between just a few cabins.

On Wonder of the Seas, there are 3 genies across 8 Star Class suites.

Genies don't wear a nametag while in public areas of the ship, because the cruise line doesn't want other guests asking them questions or otherwise taking time away from the families the genies are assigned to.

Wonder is first ship to bring back events cancelled due to Covid

Two major onboard events are coming back to Wonder of the Seas for the first time since Covid-19.

Laser tag is already up and running on Wonder of the Seas, and the Royal Promenade parade should ready by the second voyage.

The street parade has 98 people in cast.  The plan is to bring back parades to other ships systematically.

Both of these events were suspended due to Covid-19 social distancing concerns up until now.

First ship to have a country band onboard

If you prefer Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryant, or Garth Brooks, Wonder of the Seas is for you.

At the Mason Jar restaurant, there is a bar area that features a country music band trio that performs most nights.

While Royal Caribbean has always been a major proponent of live music on its ships, country music was usually not in the repertoire.

Wonder of the Seas has its first VIP high roller casino area

Wonder of the Seas was designed with a high roller casino area in lieu of a jazz club to appeal to the Asian cruise market. When Royal Caribbean changed plans to keep Wonder of the Seas in the United States, they decided to keep the VIP room.

Cruise line executives I spoke with admitted they weren't sure whether or not the concept will be a hit with Americans, but it seemed worth a try.

If you are worried about missing out on jazz music, Royal Caribbean still offers live jazz music in both Central Park and the Music Hall.

There's been a few milestones on the return of cruising, and Labadee is one of the most recent of those.

Royal Caribbean resumed visits to Labadee a few weeks ago, and today Wonder of the Seas visited Royal Caribbean's private destination.

We docked early in the morning and I walked off the ship to get a full day.

The first thing I noticed were little tweaks to Labadee that Royal Caribbean has made, such as adding more umbrellas, and repainting a number of buildings with brighter colors.

Royal Caribbean told me they also re-worked the flow of the arrivals area to eliminate the security building near the entrance (it's now a towel station), as well as fixing the irrigation of the area to prevent flooding when it rains a lot.

Walking around Labadee, things looked more similar than not, and it all looked beautiful.

While Labadee lacks the sheer variety of things to do at Perfect Day at CocoCay, it's still a really fun and relaxing beach day.

I had rented a Nellie's Beach over the water cabana for the day. We had cabana number 3 on the hill to the right of the beach.

Royal Caribbean had upgraded its cabanas at Labadee. I heard some of the Barefoot Beach cabanas were brand new. Our cabanas had new furniture inside.

The cabana was lovely, and I love getting one whenever I visit to have shade and a "home base of operations" while there.

Lunch has not changed much and it gives me a better appreciation for the elevated lunch you get at CocoCay.

Something special for the media onboard was Royal Caribbean Vice President Food & Beverage, Linken D'Souza, managed to get some local food from the Haitians living nearby to sample. I love trying local cuisine!

In the afternoon, I was able to try out something brand new to me: the alpine coaster.

The Dragon's Tail Coaster has been at Labadee for years, but I hadn't gotten around to trying it.

Royal Caribbean sells one ride and all day passes. 

You watch a short video to understand how the braking works, and then it's into your car and up the mountain.

The views alone are worth the ride, but of course it's a really fast-paced ride down too. I admit I rode the brake down more than I thought, but it was exhilarating.

Overall, I loved our visit to Labadee, and it felt good to be back after so long.

We got back onboard in the mid afternoon, and if you hadn't heard, there was a sprinkler system malfunction on the Royal Promenade. It happened while I was in Labadee, but the video quickly spread on social media.

The good news is by the time I got back onboard, it was all cleaned up and you would not have known anything had happened. It's a credit to the hard working crew members who quickly swooped in to take care of it.

In fact, the country music trio from the Mason Jar performed on the Promenade.

As afternoon turned into evening it was time to get ready for dinner.

Our dinner plans brought us back to Izumi, but this time for sushi.

Izumi Master Chef Travis Kamiyama hosted us and provided some special sushi dishes in addition to what's on the menu. It was a tremendous sampling.

I love going to Izumi for either sushi or teppanyaki, and today's meal did not disappoint.

We wrapped up our evening with drinks at The Mason Jar.

Tomorrow we will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Stray Observations

The stowaway piano player is back in elevators again.

I ran into Ben, David & Stef from YouTube!

I ran into Royal Caribbean's Vice President of Entertainment, Nick Weir, and asked him about shows returning to other ships across the fleet, such as Grease and Columbus the Musical.

He said it's moving, but it takes a while to get shows back up and going again as it is no simple process to prepare casts and get them ready to perform.

He said it will be a process throughout this year for all the productions across the fleet to make a full return.

Our first full day on Wonder of the Seas is a sea day, and that is the perfect opportunity to explore more of the ship after the first day.

I started off my morning with coffee and breakfast at Park Cafe. I really like Park Cafe for an alternative breakfast spot for how easy and quick it is.

I spent the morning taking it easy after a busy day yesterday, but it was nice to spend some time enjoying the warm Caribbean breeze.

I walked up to the Royal Promenade to walk around and noticed a new change to the Cafe Promenade menu. Starbucks is now served at Cafe Promenade in addition to the free standing kiosk.

Unlike the kiosk, the Starbucks drinks at Cafe Promenade are included with a drink package. 

For lunch, we booked up a few tables at Giovanni's Italian Kitchen for the Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders who were onboard.

I loved Giovanni's on Odyssey and Freedom, so this seemed like a great spot for a group meal.

We had a group of over 30 friends onboard, and the food did not disappoint. 

After lunch, I headed back to my cabin for a little bit to relax. 

Something Royal Caribbean brought back on this sailing is laser tag.

I walked by and noticed it was open for anyone to hop in. I was wearing flip flops, or I would have tried it out myself!

Later in the afternoon, I took a visit down to Casino Royale. The casino has a different look than other ships, and is quite large as well.

I started out in the Golden Room, which is a high roller area, although right now it's open to all.

Royal Caribbean said the Golden Room is an idea to try out in the western market to see how well it resonates. For now, it's open to all and I appreciated the fact it was non-smoking.

Tonight was formal night, so it was back to the room to get ready.

Dinner brought us to Izumi hibachi, which I absolutely love going to every cruise.

Our chef, Roy, put on a great show and suffice to say, I did not leave hungry.

After dinner, I went to Wonderland bar to try out some of the specialty drinks.

One interesting change about Wonderland is there is more decor outside the restaurant, even extending into the elevator lobby.

I like the Wonderland has a bar you can go to without sitting down for a meal.

Tomorrow will be our first port of call, Labadee.

Stray Observations

In my cabin, there was Mason Jar swag waiting.