My goodness, I have missed cruising! I just returned from the first Royal Caribbean cruise to sail in North America in almost fifteen months! Fifteen months! Who would have ever believed that an entire industry would shut down for so long – and survive? But it did! Cruising is back!
While cruise ships won’t start sailing from the U.S. for a few more weeks, some cruises from international ports have begun! When Royal Caribbean announced that they would begin sailing from Nassau on Adventure of the Seas, I knew I had to be there.
All passengers, age 16 and over, had to be fully vaccinated by the time the cruise sailed. And for now, anyone returning to the United States from abroad, has to produce a negative Covid test. Other than that, we weren’t sure what protocols would be in place. I fully trusted Royal Caribbean to keep us safe though, so I grabbed a friend, and we booked our flights! We did end up having to take a last minute Covid test before boarding, but it was easy, and everyone made it onboard!
Much of the cruise was the same wonderful experience I have always loved, but a few things changed! And here are 10 of them.
1. Happiness Was Everywhere – From crew to guests, I think this may have been one of the most joyous cruises I have ever been on. Everyone just seemed so happy to be back. There was a celebration in Nassau when we boarded, the band was playing, the dancers were dancing, the crew was cheering, there wasn’t a grump in sight that first day. The crew was fully masked, but they were still smiling hard enough that you could feel it. At one point I commented to my friend that we couldn’t seem to walk 5 feet without someone saying hello and welcome back. I felt like the guests were also happy and thankful to be there! People were introducing themselves, making small talk with strangers, and socializing everywhere. Over the last 15 months, we have been starving for connections with other people, and this cruise was a chance to make some!
2. Guilt Free Mask Freedom – Because we were all vaccinated, guests 16 and up did not have to wear masks onboard, or on CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. Let me tell you – it was heavenly. It’s been a long time since I haven’t had to worry about whether or not I had a mask on me when going out. I suspect that based on different levels of lockdown across the country, some guests probably wore masks less that week than they have any time at home recently. We could finally see each other’s faces, and it was amazing!
3. Touch Free – Like the rest of the world, the ships have gone to a touch free experience whenever possible. In the dining rooms, the menu was available via QR code located at the table, although there were paper menus if you requested one. On Royal Caribbean there are Freestyle machines to get soda, but we weren’t supposed to touch them. There was a crew member stationed by them all day to get our sodas for us!
4. There Was Still a Buffet – Although the buffet was closed at dinner for this sailing, the buffet was open for breakfast and lunch every day! There were a few items that were pre-prepared as a single serve item, but for most things, the crew was waiting to dish it out to us. The buffet on the island was the same way. Available, but not self-serve.
5. Sanitizing and Cleaning – Cruise ships have always been clean. Under normal circumstances you can’t enter a dining room without washing or sanitizing your hands. Well, this was a whole ‘nother level. There was constant cleaning. Constant cleaning of handrails, sanitizing stations at every venue, the door to our stateroom was even noticeably wet at least twice a day after our stateroom host cleaned the room and sanitized. I couldn’t figure out what was on my hands when I opened the door, until he told me he’d just sanitized! The cruise lines are not messing around.
6. Low Occupancy – For our cruise, and probably for a little while as things get going again, we were at a very low occupancy level. The ship was only around 33% full! I’m not going to lie, that made for a spectacular experience for many things. CocoCay felt empty, with empty beach chairs everywhere. Because so few passengers were onboard, even with a slightly reduced crew, the service was also impeccable. The crew to passenger ratio was pretty close to one to one!
7. Social Gatherings Were Limited – While the cruise line never told us to avoid anyone outside our traveling party, they did spread people out when possible. In the main dining room, for instance, they did not assign multiple parties at one table. They also put reserved signs on several tables around the ship to keep people spread out, as well as some of those “stand here” footprint signs we’ve all grown accustomed to whenever a line may possibly form indoors. At one of the dance parties we went to in the evening, they had spotlights on the dance floor and encouraged people from the same traveling party to find a spotlight and dance in that spotlight! That one was pretty brilliant.
8. Virtual Muster – The muster drill onboard during the first day, brings people as a group to an assigned location to meet at an assigned time. Not anymore! We were asked to watch a video on the app, and check in to our Muster station at some point during the first afternoon to verify with a crew member that we had seen it. This was an excellent change, that I definitely hope sticks around! Although judging from the ship-wide announcements encouraging guests not to forget to go check in, it seems some people had a hard time following instructions on that one.
9. Shows Are Changed but Happening – There were still live shows onboard! The theaters and entertainment venues put reserved cloths over several chairs, which greatly spread people out. We did have to make reservations for shows (although that’s a common thing on some classes of Royal ships), but they repeated the shows so often that we never had a hard time getting in to anything.
10. Each Port Was Different – We quickly got used to the protocols onboard, but we were (understandably) expected to follow the local rules every time we disembarked. Every island we visited (besides CocoCay) wanted us to wear our masks unless we were physically distanced outside, or eating or drinking. So, security reminded us every time we got off the ship to put them on. During our excursions, it felt like we were bathing in sanitizer at times, as everyone from the bus driver, to the tour guides, to the people welcoming us to the destinations, were ready and waiting with a giant bottle of sanitizer to squirt in our hands!
And after all those changes, I’m happy to report that this cruise was a total success! Everyone tested to get on, and everyone tested to get off. And we all passed!
As I said above, cruising is back, friends! And I am one hundred percent here for it!
