Americans are cruising once again, from homeports in the Caribbean, Europe, and – as of July 2 – the U.S. While many of these sailings will depart with fully vaccinated passengers and intensive health and safety protocols, the first cruises of Celebrity Millennium and Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas each had a pair of travelers test positive for Covid mid-cruise. 

With ships soon to depart with higher numbers of unvaccinated guests, cruisers are beginning to ask what will happen should someone test positive for Covid-19 on their cruise.

One week after Royal Caribbean completed a successful test cruise on Freedom of the Seas, Disney Cruise Line has been forced to cancel its test cruise on Disney Dream.

The reason? “Inconsistent” Covid test results.

Disney Dream was due to depart Port Canaveral on June 29 on a simulated voyage with crew members and 300 volunteers, recruited from Disney’s employees. A test cruise is currently required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before cruise ships may resume sailing from U.S. ports with unvaccinated passengers. 

Celebrity Apex was ready to make its big splash in spring 2020. The global pandemic put those plans in drydock for a while. 

Celebrity Cruises’ newest ship made its inaugural voyage in the Greek islands with a June 19 to 26 roundtrip sailing from Athens, and the newest cruise ship in the world proved to be well worth the delay – more than 15 months -- for the first batch of enthusiastic cruisers. 

Sailaway celebrations on the Lido Deck, pina coladas by the pool, room service on the balcony and everything else we love about cruising are once again within reach. With federal approval and cutting-edge safety measures building cruisers’ confidence in returning to the high seas, some still want to further distance themselves from other passengers when they’re onboard.

Cruise ships are officially sailing again from the United States.

After 15 months, Celebrity Edge departed Port Everglades on Saturday, after receiving approval by the CDC to be the first ship back in the water, having met all new standards for providing a healthy and safe cruise experience for its guests and crew.

Edge’s seven night cruise will sail for three days in the Western Caribbean waters before making stops in Costa Maya, Cozumel and Nassau. 

Not vaccinated? Not a problem if you want to sail on Celebrity Edge and Equinox out of Florida in 2021. Thanks to the State of Florida winning a court case against the CDC’s Conditional Sail Order, the agency can no longer require cruise ships departing from Florida to mandate vaccinations for guests, and Celebrity has changed its protocols accordingly. 

Carnival Cruise Line is stealing away ships from its sister cruise lines to expand its fleet by an additional two ships by 2023.

The first to join will be Costa Magica, currently sailing for sister line Costa Cruises. Carnival will refurb, rename, and rebrand that ship, with an eye toward a mid-2022 debut as a Carnival ship.

Holland America is ramping up its 2021 cruise schedule from U.S. homeports with newly announced cruises from San Diego and Ft. Lauderdale. The line previously opened bookings for summer Alaska cruises from Seattle, as well as Eastern Mediterranean cruises from Athens, Greece. It's another positive move as cruise lines slowly return to cruising from the U.S. and around the world.

Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas returns to Florida today after its first test cruise – part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) requirements to return to cruising from the U.S. – just days after Florida was granted an injunction against the Conditional Sail Order (CSO) that mandated the simulated voyage in the first place.