Royal Caribbean is just days away from restarting cruises from England, and the ship to kick things off has arrived to start up operations.

Anthem of the Seas arrived in Southampton, where she will begin offering cruises on July 7, 2021.

Anthem will offer a combination of 4-night cruises to nowhere in early July and 5- to 8-night British Isles cruises, starting 15th July, that feature visits to destinations such as Liverpool, England, Kirkwall in Scotland and Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

All crew members onboard will be fully vaccinated.

Anthem’s summer itineraries are open for bookings and are available to UK residents above the age of 18 who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and those under the age of 18 with negative test results. In addition, all crew onboard are fully vaccinated.

Ben Bouldin, vice president, EMEA, Royal Caribbean commented: "Anthem of the Seas has always been a firm favourite for UK guests, and we have seen incredible demand for our sailings since announcing our return in March. With a jaw-dropping lineup of onboard activities, restaurants and entertainment, Anthem presents the perfect getaway this summer. We can’t wait to welcome families back on board one of the most revolutionary ships in our fleet for a summer of adventure."

Anthem of the Seas will offer "staycation cruises" around the British Isles.

Royal Caribbean International's first cruises back in the United States are officially a go.

Freedom of the Seas received a Conditional Sailing Certificate from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to offer revenue cruises with paying passengers.

Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley shared the good news, just days before Freedom is scheduled to return to service.

"This is exciting progress," Mr. Bayley said in a social media post. "We look forward to welcoming our guests onboard."

When she sails, Freedom of the Seas will be the first Royal Caribbean cruise ship to return to service in the United States.

Freedom’s first revenue sailing will celebrate Fourth of July weekend, July 2-5, departing from Miami and visiting Nassau and Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island destination, in The Bahamas. 

Freedom of the Seas completed her test cruise last weekend, which was a 3 day, 2 night simulated voyage to Perfect Day at Coco Cay.

Test cruises are part of the Conditional Sail Order (CSO) that the CDC implemented as a way for cruise ships to resume operations.

Since Royal Caribbean will not require at least 95% of its cruise passengers to be fully vaccinated, test cruises are needed to demonstrate to the CDC that the onboard health protocols work.

All of the crew members will be fully vaccinated on Freedom of the Seas, and any unvaccinated guests (mainly children, according to the cruise line) will be subject to additional testing requirements and specific health protocols. 

Some of the protocols for unvaccinated guests include being limited from accessing certain venues onboard, as well as being required to get travel insurance for sailings beginning in August.

Here is a list of the full health protocols for Freedom of the Seas sailings from Miami.

RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com will aboard the first sailing of Freedom of the Seas next week to share what the first Royal Caribbean International sailing from the United States in 15 months is like for passengers.

Another policy change has been announced by Royal Caribbean for unvaccinated cruisers, this time requiring travel insurance on Florida sailings.

Unvaccinated passengers booked on cruises sailing from Florida homeports between August 1 through December 31, 2021 will be required to get medical expense and evacuation insurance that covers a positive case.

This policy applies to sailings from August 1 through December 31, 2021, and all bookings — except bookings made between March 19, 2021 and June 28, 2021.

The cruise line has begun sending emails to guests with the specific policy requirements:

For cruises departing from Florida homeports from August 1 through December 31, 2021, as a condition of boarding, each unvaccinated guest 12 and older must provide proof of a valid insurance policy that has a minimum of (a) $25,000 per person in medical expense coverage and (b) $50,000 per person for quarantine and medical evacuation related to a positive COVID-19 test result.

The insurance policy must name the unvaccinated guest as the policy holder or beneficiary, and may be purchased from a travel insurance company of the guest’s choosing or through the Royal Caribbean Travel Protection Program, which includes the requisite coverage.

This new insurance requirement is yet another policy change aimed to address unvaccinated cruisers sailing from Florida homeports, where cruise lines cannot mandate vaccines for its passengers due to Florida laws.

Florida signed a law that prohibits businesses, schools, and government agencies from requiring people to show documentation certifying Covid-19 vaccinations or post-infection recovery before gaining entry.

Other states have no such laws, or have provisions that allow for the law to be bypassed if required by the federal government.

In addition to requiring travel insurance, unvaccinated guests 12 and older are also required to pay for third-party Covid-19 tests, which will cost $136 USD per guest on sailings of 6 nights or less, and $178 USD per guest on sailings of 7 nights or more. 

For guests age 2 to 11, Royal Caribbean will cover the cost of any required testing.

Royal Caribbean strongly recommends its passengers get fully vaccinated before their cruise, if they are eligible.

The first Royal Caribbean cruise ship to sail from Florida will be Freedom of the Seas on July 2, although more ships will begin sailing from the state later this summer.

By the end of August, five Royal Caribbean cruise ships will be sailing from Florida.

Thus far, Royal Caribbean has only released full protocols for Freedom of the Seas sailings from Miami, where unvaccinated passengers will have to wear masks at all times while indoors, unless actively eating or drinking.

Vaccinated passengers on Freedom of the Seas will be issued wristbands that show they are vaccinated and allow them access to vaccinated-only venues and events.

Passengers who are unvaccinated will have a hole punched in their SeaPass cards.

All passengers will have to show their SeaPass cards to access lounges, shows and dining venues on the ship.

It looks like Disney Cruise Line's return to service will take a little while longer.

Disney announced on Monday its first scheduled test cruise has been postponed due to concerns surrounding test results.

DCL will not start a test cruise it had scheduled on the Disney Dream due to Covid-19 test results “considered positive by the CDC”.

Disney Dream was scheduled to sail from Port Canaveral on June 29 on a 2-night cruise with about 300 volunteer employees onboard. Instead, the simulated voyage will be rescheduled for next month.

A few weeks ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had given the Disney Dream permission to conduct a test cruise between June 29 and July 1.

Disney Dream is the second cruise ship to cancel its scheduled test cruise due to Covid-19 onboard, following Odyssey of the Seas test cruises being pushed back a few weeks.

Thus far, only Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas has successfully completed a test cruise.

Test cruises are required by the CDC if a cruise ship will not reach 95% of its cruise passengers being fully vaccinated (along with 98% of its crew members).

Disney and Royal Caribbean rely on many families to sail, and since children cannot be vaccinated, the test cruises are necessary since less than 95% of the passengers will be vaccinated.

Each cruise ship needs to conduct test cruises in order to receive approval by the CDC.

While cruise ships are slowly returning to service in North America and Europe, when people will be able to cruise down under remains a mystery.

Australia still has a cruise ship travel ban that runs through September 2021, leaving many cruises scheduled for later this year in a state of flux.

Australia's Health Minister Greg Hunt announced an extension of the legislation governing Australia's coronavirus travel ban until at least September 17.

Royal Caribbean sent an email to guests with cruises booked sailing from Australia that updates will hopefully be available soon, but in the meantime, final payment dates will be suspended until further notice for Australia cruises.

"The final payment due date will be suspended until further notice for those sail dates that reach Final Payment while we iron out the details of our next steps."

"We’re currently working through this latest government update, and it is taking a bit of time to finalize, but we are getting closer to sharing details with you very soon."

The final payment date is the when full payment for the cruise is required.  Ordinarilly, if final payment was not made, the reservation would be cancelled.

Royal Caribbean did something similar with Alaska cruises earlier this year, when they kept pushing back the final payment date until Alaska cruises got the go-ahead to sail this year.

Since March 27, 2020, no foreign-flagged cruise ships may enter Australian waters.  The Australian Health Principal Protection Committee reviews the ban regularly.

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) said the ongoing red light on cruises is putting 18,000 jobs at risk, and estimated it has cost the nation $6 billion since last March.

CLIA Managing Director Australasia Joel Katz said the cruise ship ban has had a major impact on Australia's economy, "After months of discussions with government, the suspension has been extended again without any clear route from government towards a careful and responsible resumption of cruising."

"The cruise industry has done an enormous amount of work to implement extensive new health protocols globally, but Australia is now the only major cruise destination in the world where there is no progress towards their adoption."

"The cruise industry is not asking for special treatment or to simply reopen the doors to cruising."

When Royal Caribbean restarts sailing on its first cruise ship back in service, a few areas of the ship will be unavailable to unvaccinated passengers.

Freedom of the Seas will sail from Miami on July 2, and Royal Caribbean has updated its website with a list of places on the ship that are available to vaccinated or unvaccinated passengers.

Royal Caribbean says all cruise companies sailing from U.S. ports are guided by CDC regulations which currently govern many aspects of cruise ship operations. 

Guests who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 will have full access to venues onboard, and won't need to wear a mask at vaccinated-only venues. 

This list of areas unavailable to unvaccinated passengers applies to Freedom of the Seas from Miami in July 2021 only. Royal Caribbean has not announced a list of venues similar to this list for other ships yet.

Unvaccinated guests have access to the turquoise colored boxes and not to the white boxes. 

Your SeaPass card will be required to access lounges, shows and dining venues.

Vaccinated guests will receive a wristband and those who are unvaccinated (or choose not to disclose if they are) will have a hole punched in their SeaPass card.

The concept of areas specifically for those vaccinated is not new, as the cruise line previously announced such plans.

According to its website, Royal Caribbean says it thinks most guests will be vaccinated, and primarily children will make up the majority of unvaccinated passengers.

"On your sailing, most guests (and all our crew) will be vaccinated and those that aren’t are primarily children."

"Travel parties with vaccinated and unvaccinated guests, such as parents with kids, should stick to those venues marked unvaccinated, when together."

It is important to remember the protocols will likely change often with changes to onboard rules throughout the summer and fall.

Volunteering to show vaccination status

Due to Florida law, Royal Caribbean cannot ask if a passenger is vaccinated or not, so it is up to the passenger to inform the cruise line if they are vaccinated.

For guests sailing on the July 2nd Freedom of the Seas cruise, an email was sent to allow them to submit their vaccination status.

Unvaccinated guests 16 years of age and older will need to undergo an RT-PCR test administered by an accredited laboratory of the guest’s choice, and taken within three days of sailing.

Royal Caribbean will require documentation of a negative result for this test prior to embarkation. All costs for this test are the unvaccinated guest’s responsibility.

There is now even more time to earn double Crown and Anchor points.

Royal Caribbean announced it has extended the Loyalty 2X Points benefit so that it applies to existing bookings, as well as new bookings made between now and September 30, 2021 for cruises sailing through December 31, 2022.

Prior to this extension, the program was good for bookings made through June 30, 2021 and departing between now and September 30, 2022. This is the third time Royal Caribbean has extended the Double Points offer.

Double points means guests earn twice the amount of points per night than usual in the Crown and Anchor Society.

There is no change to existing cruises booked during the extended time period, as they already qualify for the benefit as well.

Since the Double Points benefit was announced, it was a big hit with guests because it allows people to move up the cruise line's customer loyalty program faster.

Instead of the usual one point per night, Royal Caribbean said it would double the points per night (including other staterooms as well):

• Standard room: 2 points per night
• Suite room: 4 points per night
• Solo guest in standard room: 4 points per night
• Solo guest in suite: 6 points per night

Loyalty 2X Points is available to Gold, Platinum, Emerald, Diamond, Diamond Plus, and Pinnacle Crown & Anchor Society members.

Crown and Anchor points will be applied once the guest has paid their booking in full and completed their sailing. 

Why you want double points

Earning double the amount of points per night means you can earn points quicker, which is something Royal Caribbean has rarely offered in the past.

By earning more points, you can reach the higher tiers of Crown and Anchor Society faster, and there are some really lucrative benefits for reaching the Diamond and Diamond Plus tiers.

Complimentary alcoholic drinks, balcony discounts, complimentary photos, and reserved seating at shows are just some of the great freebies guests who reach the top tiers of Crown and Anchor Society can expect.

Moreover, this type of offer has rarely been seen.  Previous extra point offers were much more restrictive and have not been made available for a while.

Celebrity Edge will set sail today from South Florida, becoming the first cruise ship to sail from the United States since early 2020, but Royal Caribbean Group is still working on details for other ships to come.

Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain celebrated the restart of cruising from the U.S. from onboard Edge, but he admitted the exact path forward for all ships is still not totally certain.

Speaking in a new video update, Mr. Fain said there is still "confusion" surrounding requirements, regulations, and guidelines on the state and federal levels.

"There's still confusion and it will take a while for the fog to completely clear. For example, we're still not 100 percent sure about the specific protocols on specific sailings and here in Florida, we still don't understand all the implications of the law about vaccination documentation."

Celebrity Edge will sail today from Port Everglades, while Freedom of the Seas will sail from PortMiami next week.

Mr. Fain also alluded to the fact Florida won its lawsuit against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which puts the Conditional Sail Order in question.

"You also know that the U.S. District court ruled in favor of the State of Florida, in a lawsuit challenging the CDC's authority to issue the Conditional Sail Order."

"So more and more uncertainty pending, continued mediation between the parties, and possible further legal action."

Regardless of the challenges, Mr. Fain is optimistic that the industry can persevere.  Despite positive Covid-19 cases on Celebrity Millennium and Adventure of the Seas, the new protocols in place worked well and kept the rest of the guests safe and unencumbered.

"No drama for the other guests, no interruption of their cruise, no difficulty for the local community."

"Simply put, the protocols and procedures worked precisely as they were intended to work."

To summarize his thoughts, Mr. Fain proclaimed, "Cruising in the US is back."

RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com will aboard the first sailing of Freedom of the Seas next week to share what the first Royal Caribbean International sailing from the United States in 15 months is like for passengers.

Unvaccinated guests sailing on Adventure of the Seas will no longer be able to book shore excursions on their own beginning with the next sailing.

Guests booked on Adventure of the Seas received an email indicating unvaccinated passengers, including parents traveling with unvaccinated children, are required to participate in shore excursions offered by local tour operators approved by Royal Caribbean.

If your traveling party is fully vaccinated, there is no change in the shore excursion policy.

In an abundance of caution, when visiting ports other than Perfect Day at CocoCay, parties that include unvaccinated guests, including parents traveling with unvaccinated children, are required to participate in shore excursions offered by local tour operators approved by Royal Caribbean. These tours meet our health and safety requirements for unvaccinated guests.

Entirely vaccinated traveling parties may visit the port freely. All guests are subject to restrictions and requirements as defined by local authorities in the ports we visit. Additional details will be provided onboard.

Royal Caribbean will offer a discount for guests under 16 to help offset the change.

The cruise line says the decision was made "to protect you and the communities we visit."

The change comes one day after two unvaccinated children on Adventure of the Seas tested positive for Covid-19 and had to be quarantined and brought home.

Celebrity Cruises made a similar change this week for their Celebrity Edge sailings that begin this weekend as well from the United States.

Guests traveling on #CelebrityEdge June 26 that excursions will be required to disembark in Mexico. This is a change from what was done on Adventure of the seas this week.

A bit disappointing, but we understand everyone must remain flexible for a bit. Happy to be #cruising! pic.twitter.com/llfaRjuk9k

— CruiseHabit (@CruiseHabit) June 24, 2021

Policy changes are nothing new for cruise lines as they resume operations. One constant in the months leading up to cruises restarting has been policy adjustments, reversals, and additions. 

Read more: Top 8 things you should know about going on a cruise in 2021

When Adventure of the Seas' sailings from The Bahamas were announced, shore excursions were initially limited to just cruise line tours.

Then, the company changed policies prior to the first sailing to allow guests to go on any tour, regardless of vaccination status.

Royal Caribbean added a series of new protocols to its ships to detect Covid-19 cases early, and the system in place identified two unvaccinated teenage passengers who tested positive for Covid-19 on Adventure of the Seas.

According to Royal Caribbean, two teenagers on Adventure of the Seas were in isolation and then disembarked in Freeport earlier today.

Their parents, who are vaccinated, tested negative.

As part of Royal Caribbean's multi-faceted plan in preparation for a scenario like this, the medical care and transportation home will be handled by the cruise line.

The cases were caught during end of cruise testing, which is required at the end of a sailing.

Here is Royal Caribbean's official statement:

Two guests on Adventure of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19 after routine testing that is required before returning home. Here are the facts:

• Both guests, under the age of 16 and unvaccinated, were immediately quarantined. One guest is asymptomatic, and the other guest is experiencing mild symptoms.
• Those in their immediate travel party are vaccinated and have tested negative.
• Close contacts were quickly identified and tested. All are vaccinated and tested negative.

The guests and their travel party disembarked today in Freeport, The Bahamas and are on their way home to Florida. Ninety-two percent of our guests on Adventure are fully vaccinated and the remaining 8% are under 16 years old. One hundred percent of our crew are fully vaccinated.

Adventure of the Seas is the first Royal Caribbean International ship to restart operations in North America, and she is on her second sailing back in operation.

On Adventure of the Seas sailings from The Bahamas, guests who are 16 years of age and older must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and those 12 and older as of Aug. 1.  In addition, anyone unvaccinated had to get a negative PCR test result in order to board the ship.

All crew members are fully vaccinated as well.

While the ship is sailing from outside the United States, Royal Caribbean's safety rules have been in development over the past year during the cruise industry's shutdown.  This includes testing, mandatory health screenings, online check-ins and contact tracing through CCTV cameras.

The ships have been upgraded to prepare for a situation like this, with immediate medical evaluations, rapid Covid-19 testing and dedicated zones for Covid-19 care, more critical care beds on each ship, and robust treatment plans.

Royal Caribbean has been keenly aware of the statistical likelihood of positive cases onboard, but they worked on how to catch it early and avoid it becoming a major issue.

Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain said the Health Sail Panel of health experts has worked on this specific contingency, "A really important part and a really big focus of the panel's effort was on how to respond if we do have a case that gets on board."

"We respond properly. We have a extensive contingency plan so that we don't have to go through one of these processes of quarantining huge numbers of people. We take care of the the the small number that we catch early and everybody else can go about their business."

Royal Caribbean Group Senior Vice President of Shared Services Operations recently spoke about the importance of these protocols to keep crew members and guests safe.

"All of the different things that we’ve done technology-wise as well as with testing and safety, those are going to stay. Those are Royal Caribbean protocols, whether or not they’re required of us or not," Ms. Hodges Bethge said.

"We feel very good that we have some of the strongest kind of processes of anywhere you go in the world today."

Response plan

Royal Caribbean developed a plan to respond to a scenario such as this, and coordinated these plans with the Bahamanian government.

According to Royal Caribbean's health protocols, in the event a guest tests positive for Covid-19, a "robust, tiered response plan" goes into effect.

The tiers increase protocols and vigilance onboard while providing transparent updates to guests the whole way.

In partnership with local authorities, Royal Caribbean has developed transport protocols to ensure we can get guests home safely. 

In fact, Royal Caribbean identified early that being "stuck" in quarantine on a cruise ship was not something any guest wanted, and a result, Royal Caribbean has developed transport agreements with local authorities in a situation like this to get everyone home safely.