Perception & reality with the cruise industry and Omicron
Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast
Matt Hochberg
4.9 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Omicron variant and CDC updates have all generated plenty of headlines about going on a cruise ship, but lost in the shuffle is what it's actually like to go on a cruise.
What you don't necessarily read about is the hard work cruise lines are engaged in behind the scenes to care for passengers and crew members, as well as work with government stakeholders on how to lead the entire travel sector with unparalleled protocols.
Matt talked with Bari Golin-Blaugrund from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) this week about what the cruise industry is doing right now during the Omicron variant in order to not only keep everyone onboard healthy, but talk about the double standard media attention cruise ships are getting.
"In the in the news, what you're seeing on the headlines are that this that passengers are having such negative experiences and it's just not a totally accurate picture or complete picture of what's going on," Ms. Golin-Blaugrund pointed out during our talk.
"I really think that we need to, as an industry, need to do a better job of getting those positive stories out there."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Royal Caribbean blog podcast here. |
| 0:19.6 | We can look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising. |
| 0:21.7 | I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 437. |
| 0:26.5 | Boy, over the last couple of weeks, there sure has been a lot of news about the cruise industry, |
| 0:30.0 | and unfortunately, it all hasn't been great. |
| 0:31.9 | The Omicron variant has dominated the new cycles, and certainly the cruise industry has had a lot of changes as a result of it. |
| 0:38.0 | But I thought this week would be a good time to talk about some of these changes and what it |
| 0:43.4 | means for the cruise industry. |
| 0:44.8 | What does the CDC warning that happened recently mean and really dig into everything |
| 0:50.3 | happening with cruises right now and talk to the cruise line industry association |
| 0:54.5 | to get a sense of what the industry is doing to combat all this. Here we go. |
| 1:02.5 | The ups and downs of the cruise industry since 2020 have been well documented, but with the |
| 1:07.2 | Omicron variant driving up COVID numbers everywhere, it's broader renewed focus |
| 1:11.3 | to cruise ships. |
| 1:12.0 | And unfortunately, COVID cases on cruise ships have become an almost daily report, thanks in |
| 1:16.3 | part to the fact that cruise lines test passengers regularly and are obliged to share their |
| 1:21.5 | results with the U.S. |
| 1:22.2 | government. |
| 1:22.7 | Like many cruise fans, I was more frustrated at the, frankly frankly unfair and negative light the cruise industry was |
| 1:28.3 | painted in when compared to other forms of leisure travel. And so I thought this week it might |
| 1:32.7 | make some sense to bring some context to all this. And to help me talk about what the cruise |
| 1:37.1 | industry is doing to protect crew members and their passengers and also break down what the |
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