Carnival Lags Behind Royal Caribbean in Making a Huge Change

Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) – Get Carnival Corporation Report and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCL) – Get Royal Caribbean Group Report battle for the same customers. Both cruise lines want families looking for a good value on a vacation and they attempt to win them over by using marketing that emphasizes how fun its cruise ships are.

Royal Caribbean leans in heavily on promoting its Coco Cay private island, which has a massive pool and an added-fee water park. Carnival has built its marketing around the phrase “Funderstruck,” to create a vague idea of all the excitement that awaits passengers who choose to go on its ships.

Both companies clearly want passengers and potential passengers to understand that this isn’t traditional cruising filled with older people having a genteel good time. Carnival and Royal Caribbean want customers to know that their ships offer a part — a family-appropriate party — where the good times include water slides, pools, and onboard amenities that range from laser tag to bumper cars and roller coasters.

In recent months, since the July return to operations after the pandemic-related shutdown, both companies also want passengers and potential passengers to know that Covid-related safety matters, but that it won’t overshadow the fun. Now, as the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Conditional Sail Order (CSO), the rules under which cruise ships could sail during the pandemic, has expired, but companies have new rules, but one is waiting a little longer to make the change.

Carnival Follows Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean has opted into the CDC’s updated program which requires that cruise ships sail with 95% vaccinated passengers and crew, Carnival has done the same but Royal Caribbean will begin sailing under the new rules as of Feb. 25 while Carnival will wait until March 1.

That’s only a difference of a few days, but it’s still a difference because the new CDC recommendations change masking rules onboard cruise ships.

“Effective with cruises departing Mar. 1, masks on board will be recommended but not required. There may, however, be certain venues and events where masks will be required,” Carnival wrote on its blog. “Carnival will continue to meet the standard of vaccinated cruises, but children under five years old will not be included in any vaccinated guest calculation, and thus will not be required to receive an exemption to sail.”

Essentially, since everyone except kids under 5 will be vaccinated (and have to prove that before boarding) this ends the policy requiring masks onboard. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean had recently loosened their mask rules, allowing vaccinated passengers to take them off in vaccinated-only venues, but this latest change essentially ends the need to wear a mask in most, if not all, onboard situations.

Masks are still required while boarding because cruise terminals are considered federal government transportation hubs, like airports, or bus stations which are still under a mask mandate.

Carnival and Royal Caribbean Passengers Should Expect More Changes 

Royal Caribbean promised in its Feb. 19 email to passengers that more changes are going to come. That could mean a change in the pre-boarding testing requirement.

“Effective with cruises departing Mar. 1, some additional flexibility in pre-cruise testing requirements will become available. Please visit the Carnival Have Fun. Be Safe. web page for more information,” Carnival wrote in its blog.

That could mean dropping the requirement altogether or doing so for shorter cruises. Carnival, like Royal Caribbean, made an effort to explain its actions and frame them around making safe choices for its customers.   

“We have had a very successful restart of guest operations thanks to the support of our guests, the commitment of our shipboard team, and the effective protocols we have put in place,” said Carnival President Christine Duffy. “The public health situation has continued to improve, providing confidence about these changes. Our protocols will evolve as we continue to remain dedicated to protecting the public health of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit.”

Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean must obey local laws when it comes to what passengers can and can’t do when in port. That includes whether they need to wear a mask or carry their proof of vaccination.