by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:05 AM ET, Tue March 23, 2021
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. CEO Richard Fain shared another video updating travel agents and travelers alike on the state of the cruise industry, this time with a predominantly positive spin.
Fain immediately addressed the question about when cruising will return, saying the cruise company's brands have already started sailing again and have carried over 100,000 passengers on 150 sailings during the pandemic, with only 10 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Thanks to the extensive COVID-19 health and safety guidelines developed and implemented by Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line officials-dubbed the Healthy Sail Panel-the positive coronavirus cases created only minor interruptions to sailings and no additional issues for destinations and local governments.
One of the biggest topics of discussion regarding the cruise industry moving forward has been vaccines and whether they will be mandated for passengers. Fain admitted he was unsure about the answer, but reiterated that COVID-19 vaccines are working and they could be the key for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to allow sailing in the United States again.
"In essence, we've just had 100,000 test cruisers and demonstrated that the process works," Fain said. "We look forward to a constructive dialogue with health officials in the U.S. for the path forward."
"Everybody knows that the vaccines are a game changer," Fain continued. "They work beautifully and I've called them the ultimate weapon. The evidence is that they work even better than most experts had hoped."
Fain also reminded travelers that Royal Caribbean's current sailings have been operating without a vaccine mandate for passengers and the safety rates are undeniable. The CEO revealed that customer experience ratings were up seven points on recent voyages with protocols compared to pre-pandemic itineraries.
With Royal Caribbean recently announcing the return of voyages from Israel and the Bahamas, Fain also said the company is preparing to activate more ships for a possible U.S. deployment during the summer 2021 season, as long as another coronavirus spike doesn't sabotage the plan.
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