Carnival Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, and Royal Caribbean have eased pre-embarkation testing for fully vaccinated passengers on shorter cruises.
The move to relax COVID testing requirements follows the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ending of its COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships as of July 18, 2022.
Effective August 4, Carnival will no longer require vaccinated guests to get tested for cruises that are five days or shorter. For trips six nights or longer, travelers still need to test, and those tests can be done within three days of their departure.
Carnival will continue to require unvaccinated passengers to get tested, with either a lab-administered or supervised self-administered rapid antigen test taken within three days of embarkation, but will be no longer subjected to in-terminal testing on the day of departure.
MSC will also drop pre-embarkation testing on August 8 for vaccinated travelers on cruises departing the U.S. that are five nights and shorter. Testing is no longer required but is highly encouraged.
Meanwhile Royal Caribbean will remove testing for vaccinated passengers on sailings that are 5 nights or shorter departing from U.S. ports beginning August 8. On cruises six nights or longer, Royal Caribbean will still require vaccinated passengers to get tested, with either a PCR or rapid antigen test taken within two days of embarkation.