Surrounding the topic of cruises resuming, Royal Caribbean Group did not indicate if guests would need to get a Covid vaccine in order to cruise.
Royal Caribbean Group held a conference call with investors on Monday to discuss their fourth quarter 2020 earnings, but they would not say if passengers would be required to get a Covid vaccine.
"We're really in an interim period where the vaccines are still relatively new. They're coming out amazingly quickly, but it still is going to take months to get huge numbers of people vaccinated."
"We don't have answers yet."
The hot question everyone is wondering is the role vaccines will play in cruises restarting, specifically if they will be required by the cruise lines once cruises begin.
Thus far, only a few smaller cruise lines have announced they will require it, but not any of the major lines.
Read more: Will Cruise Lines Require Covid Vaccines for Passengers?
Mr. Fain was very optimistic about the role vaccines will play.
"We think that the vaccine is, of course, the ultimate weapon and the fact that it is coming out and beginning to come out so quickly and that the pace of that is growing will be a basis for a new set of of approaches."
"Neither we, nor the governments around the world, nor the Healthy Sail Panel has yet been able to define exactly what that will look like."
Royal Caribbean Group has confirmed that its crew members will be fully vaccinated, which evidently has been well-received.
Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley shared an anecdote from an internal survey of employees and discovered 98% who responded indicated they're 'OK' with a COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
Mr. Bayley added that more than 4,000 crew have already been vaccinated at home.
Richard Fain also saw Israel as a shining beacon of what can happen through extensive vaccine rollout.
Israel is among the world leaders in vaccinating large portions of its populations, and the effects early have been very positive.
"One of the nice things we have is we can look at the example of Israel, where the vaccination level is one of the highest in the world, and therefore they're able to make some very significant statistical correlations," Mr. Fain added.
Matt Hochberg
Matt loves to cruise, and started Cruise.Blog as a place to share different cruise experiences, advice, and what to know before going on a cruise.
He lives in Florida with his wife and two daughters, where he can be found on any given day trying to convince his wife they "need" to book another cruise.
