Shore leave in US homeports is once again allowed for the Royal Caribbean International crew. The cruise line announced resumption of crew shore leave program in US homeports starting February 12.

The shore leave tours will start with 100 crew members per ship on week 1, 150 on week 2 and on week 3 onward the crew will only need to sign up to the respective division to sign a shore leave waiver. The crew who wishes to go out will need to sign up at the HR office and must wear KN95 masks when going out.

In November 2021, Royal Caribbean International started the free flow pilot program allowing independent shore leave for employees on five cruise ships sailing to U.S. ports. Back then the pilot program started with 50 crewmembers, from each ship, being granted shore leave. However due to the surge of Covid-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant the program was put on hold.

Other great news coming from RCI is that the crew pub, which was previously closed due to the health situation onboard, is now once again open from 7 p.m to 1 a.m. The Crew Gym is open 24 hours and the crew are allowed to use the guest gym from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Specialty Restaurants are open for crew with previous reservations

Royal Caribbean also organizes bubble shore excursion tours for crew in the Caribbean, and they are also allowed to go out at CocoCay.