Ah, the days of booking a tropical cruise vacation…you probably haven’t done that since the COVID-19 pandemic began back in the beginning of 2020. However, the CEO of  Royal Caribbean recently announced that they need volunteers to take trial cruises.

Sign us up!

Well, there are some stipulations of course. The point of the trial cruises is to see how newly placed health regulations will go. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that cruise lines run these trials to ensure they have the ability to lower the risk of spreading COVID-19 among their passengers.

That doesn’t seem to matter to the 100,000 people who have signed up to volunteer. That’s right, in just a short period of time 100,000 people have signed up to take a trial cruise.

“And just like that…100,000 people have volunteered. We can’t wait to start this next phase with you all!” Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean’s CEO, and President shared in a Facebook post this week.

“It has been so gratifying to receive literally thousands of emails and calls offering to volunteer,” he wrote in an earlier message.

Since there was so much interest, Bayley directed people to a Volunteers of the Seas Facebook group, where people can join to learn the next steps and how to sign up. The group already has nearly 50,000 members and is growing every day.

While there are still few details about what the cruise trials will entail, the company is truly humbled to have so much support.

“Royal Caribbean has some of the most loyal guests in the cruise industry, and we have been overjoyed with their interest to take part in our simulated trial sailings,” a spokesperson told Fox News earlier in the week. “This week alone, we have received more than 5,000 emails, not including the tweets, comments, and messages across social media.”

What can we say? We think people really miss traveling!

Royal Caribbean hopes to resume their services as early as next year. The first cruises next year may include short trips to CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, with a reduced capacity on the ship. The health precautions to be implemented will likely come out of these cruise trials.

What do you think—would you be interested in taking a trial cruise? When do you think you’d feel safe going on a real cruise?