Bahamas Gives Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Key Covid News

 Cruise lines face regulation not just from the country where their ships sail from, but also from the countries where they make port stops. That has led to a challenging array of covid protocols based on which ports of call a ship visits.

That makes communication with passengers a challenge. In the early days of Royal Caribbean International (RCL) - Get Royal Caribbean Group Report, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) - Get Carnival Corporation Report, Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) - Get Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Report, and other cruise lines returning from their pandemic shutdown rules were constantly shifting. Mask requirements when onboard kept shifting and vaccination rules took a while to settle down.

That was made more complicated by the fact that many of the countries the cruise lines visited had varying rules. Some ports required families with unvaccinated kids to only take cruise line sponsored excursions while others had mask rules that were more strict than the ones on the ship. In addition, some ports required an actual health visa for anyone hoping to get off.

Adding the requirement created an added level of confusion for passengers. There was one set of rules and protocols to get on the ship and another (maybe more than one other) set for certain ports. In some cases, this involved filing paperwork before leaving home and there was often an added cost.

Now, one frequent cruise destination has dropped a key covid rule.

Daniel Kline/TheStreet

Bahamas Ends a Key Covid Rule 

In the early days of the pandemic, Royal Caribbean used Nassau, Bahamas as the home port for Adventure of the Seas. That allowed people from the United States to fly to the island nation and board the ship for a sailing similar to the ones that usually left from Florida home ports.

Taking that trip required not just producing a negative covid test but also applying for a Bahamas health visa. The health visa was not a requirement once ships started sailing from the U.S. again for people planning to get off for a port day in the Bahamas. Pre-visit covid testing was still required, but as long as cruise ship passengers were vaccinated, they did not need the health visa.

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