St. Kitts Provides Safe Harbour for Royal Caribbean vessel Rhapsody of the Seas

Published 6 December 2020

Buckie Got It,

Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source

St. Kitts Provides Safe Harbour for
Royal Caribbean vessel Rhapsody of the Seas

The Royal Caribbean Group vessel Rhapsody of the Seas originating from St. Maarten arrived in St. Kitts for  “Safe Harbouring” today with adherence to the Federation’s COVID-19 regulations, including arrival travel requirements, and health and safety protocols for all international travelers.

Rhapsody of the Seas came alongside Port Zante, PZ1 at 8:10am local time with 78 crew members.

Upon arrival at Port Zante, the crew for Rhapsody of the Seas was required to do the following:

1. The Safe Harbour as been approved for 60 days.
2. Mandatory 14-day quarantine onboard the vessel or quarantine for the number of days as per their transition time from their last port.
3. Complete a RT-PCR test at the end of the 14 day-quarantine period or mandated quarantine period based on their transition time for their last port.
4. In the event a crew member tests positive for Covid 19 on entry into St.Kitts, the vessel will have to leave Port Zante for International waters.
5.  Very limited physical interaction with crew members of both vessels during the mandatory quarantine. 
6. SCASPA’s Pilots will not be required to provide any physical assistance to facilitate berthing for either vessel.
7. Coast Guard assistance will not be required, unless in the case of an emergency.
8. Royal Caribbean’s ship agent, Delisle Walwyn will be provisioning the cruise vessels.
9. Containers of supplies will be imported and delivered to both the Grandeur of the Seas and Rhapsody of the Seas.
10. The items will be dropped off on the Pier without any physical interaction between Delisle Walwyn staff and the crew.
11. Crew exchange will be done only via air and all crew embarking ships and disembarking must adhere to the Federation’s travel requirements for arrival and departure.
12. All crew members arriving by air must under the mandatory 14-day quarantine on the respective vessel.
13. Royal Caribbean Group has advised crew members are not allowed to integrate into the Federation post the 14 day mandatory quarantine and negative RT-PCR test on day 14.  This was done to keep both the Federation and the crew safe during Safe Harbouring.

Please note the link https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/crew-disembarkations-commercial-travel.html outlines the CDC criteria for all cruise vessels and vessels approved by the CDC to remain in operation with crew.  Both Rhapsody of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas are classified as “Green Ships”. 

The Green Ship Criteria is outlined below:

• No confirmed cases of COVID-19 or COVID-like illness for 28 days, as determined by a qualified medical professional.
• If the ship received ship-to-ship transfers within the past 28 days, crew must have come from a ship that had no confirmed COVID-19 or COVID-like illness within the 28 days before the transfer occurred.
• If land-based crew embarked, they were immediately quarantined for 14 days upon embarking the ship.

Note: To maintain Green status, ships must submit a weekly EDC form to the CDC. Failure to submit, changes ship status to Red. Green ship status means that CDC believes the ship is currently unaffected by COVID-19 based on information provided by the cruise ship operator.