MIAMI – Two Royal Caribbean cruise ships will resume operations in June, ending a one-year break in their activities caused by the pandemic, but passengers aged 18 and over will have to test negative for coronavirus before boarding.
Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean, said on Friday that its Celebrity Millennium ship will sail on June 5 from St. Maarten. One route will stop in Aruba, Curaçao and Barbados, and the other in Tortola, Saint Lucia and Barbados.
Celebrity Cruises CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said the return to the Caribbean “marks the measured beginning of the end of what has been a particularly difficult time for everyone.”
The Royal Caribbean Group line will begin a week later with a trip from Nassau, Bahamas aboard the Adventure of the Seas.
In both cases, passengers aged 18 and over are required to take a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of boarding.
Given that the Caribbean is an extremely popular destination, “it’s not at all surprising to see Celebrity and Royal Caribbean find a way back to the region,” said Colleen McDaniel, a staff writer for Cruise Critic, a website that analyzes ships. cruise. “But this is huge news for the cruise industry and for the Caribbean itself.”
In the Dutch territory of St. Maarten, tourism accounts for almost 80% of all jobs and almost 80% of tourists arrive on cruise ships.
Shares of Royal Caribbean in Miami rose more than 2% on Friday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has suspended cruise operations in US waters since March 2020, although it has established guidelines for cruise ships to resume their voyages with conditional navigation certificates.
The Caribbean is a popular destination for Americans. And Alaska, but the Canadian government has banned ships with more than 100 passengers until February 2022, which will prevent many ships from visiting Alaska this summer.