Cruise ship fans that have been longing to get back on the water had a chance at participating in Royal Caribbean’s test cruise online signup, that saw over 350,000 applicants, according to a post on the cruise line’s Facebook page.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time for the cruise industry, but it’s been working hard at getting their ships back in ports and back on the water by working through current CDC guidelines and state laws. One of those CDC guidelines is that cruise lines must conduct volunteer test cruises to ensure safety policies in place are keeping the public healthy.
Royal Caribbean’s sign-up to be a volunteer on one of its planned test cruises closed at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, so if you missed the chance you’ll have to wait to see if Royal Caribbean opens up the opportunity again.
Now that Royal Caribbean’s portal has closed, the cruise line behemoth said it will start randomly selecting cruisers from its list. The cruise line says it received more than 350,000 registrations from people eager to climb aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, according to a Facebook post.
Those selected to volunteer cruise will help test out new health protocols during a complimentary cruise, according to Royal Caribbean. Cruise line leaders said they will pick lucky vacationers this week.
Royal Caribbean said those who have already signed up for Volunteer of the Seas should be patient and continue checking their email in the coming days for an exclusive invite.
The cruise line has already conducted two test sailings with its ships Freedom of the Season and Serenade of the Seas. At least five more test sailings are scheduled through August.
