Whoa.
We all know cruising has a devoted, passionate fan base, but this is wild.
More than 20,000 people asked to be passengers on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' test cruises before it resumes full service again, after the cruise line put out the call for volunteers.
Uh, that's 20,000+ in the first 24 hours, according to a fun post by Matt Hochberg on the Royal Caribbean blog.
Royal Caribbean knew earlier this week that it had something along the lines of lightning in a bottle based on some of the response that was coming in for the initial call for help. The cruise line received more than 3,000 emails from people asking how they could volunteer. When RCCL responded by opening a Facebook group page and sign-up form, it saw that more than 22,000 people joined.
As Hochberg noted, part of the process for any cruise line to receive approval to restart cruises from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to conduct a series of test sailings that have volunteer passengers onboard.
In a statement, Royal Caribbean said, "This group will serve the community of adventurers who are excited and ready to be the first back at sea. Get ready to dust off your suitcase and get back to adventure!"
RCCL has not announced any plans when the test sailings will start nor how it would pick volunteers to join the cruises. The only stipulation is that guests must be at least 18 years old.
"We are still reviewing the CDC framework and do not have details on our simulated sailings," the company said.
"While we review the requirements proposed by the CDC and consider when we can host our simulated trial sailings, we are gathering information from those who have shown interest on our Facebook group and will be in touch with them when we have more details. Our priority is to ensure that we can exercise our comprehensive set of measures in a safe and healthy manner while making sure we provide a memorable vacation experience."
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