At least 55 fully vaccinated crew and passengers onboard Royal Caribbean’s ship Odyssey of the Seas have contracted COVID, the cruise line confirmed late Wednesday, December 22.
The liner set sail on Saturday, December 18, from Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades, Florida). Odyssey OTS was denied entry to the island nations of Aruba and Curacao. She will remain at sea until her planned return on December 26 to Fort Lauderdale. The vessel had docked on Sunday, December 19, at Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, CocoCay. The remaining two calls on the 8-day voyage were supposed to be Curacao and Aruba.
Another Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, had docked on Saturday in PortMiami Florida with at least 48 COVID cases among passengers and crew members.
Royal Caribbean said in a statement that 95% of the guests and crew onboard Odyssey OTS were fully inoculated against COVID. According to cruise line officials, the 55 positive virus cases represented 1.1% of the people onboard, meaning that there were ~5500 passengers and crew onboard.
Royal Caribbean requires all crew to be fully vaccinated. And passengers 12+ also must be inoculated, with exceptions for medical and religious reasons.
For more Odyssey of the Seas incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.