RCI-Royal Caribbean has already moved COVID-positive crew to two of its out-of-service liners - Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the Seas, to quarantine as the crisis continues to surge. Now yet another RCI ship taken out of service will be used as a floating hospital to house infected crew members.
Serenade of the Seas was among the ships that recently had her sailings in January through April canceled. Instead of operating cruises, Serenade OTS will join the Rhapsody OTS and Vision OTS in a support role.
RCI confirmed the crew transfers and noted that the logic behind the move was to keep their crew and ships "as healthy as possible."
RCI transferred the crew from various liners in its Caribbean fleet and has been completing the transfers for ~3 weeks.
The number of the transferred has not been specified. Once they finish their quarantine period, the employees are moved back to their assigned boats.
On Wednesday, January 5, RCI transferred ~100 asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic crew to Rhapsody OTS.
An RCI spokesperson recently announced the idea was to keep the crew healthy and away from the sick ones while caring for all of them.
According to RCI, transferred crew, who are all fully vaccinated, are now in isolation and being monitored by the onboard medical team. After each crew completes the 10-day quarantine, they can return to their assigned cruise ships.