Vicki Freed, the senior vice president of sales and trade support and service for Royal Caribbean International, dismissed criticism that the lines need to be "stronger" with the CDC during a podcast recording with Travel Weekly editors.
During the Folo by Travel Weekly podcast, which was recorded March 8, a discussion about the wait for additional guidance from the CDC before cruise lines can schedule or operate test cruises -- a key part of any line's return-to-service requirements -- led to Freed's explanation of how the cruise industry was partnering with the federal agency.
She said that Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley and Royal Caribbean Group CEO Richard Fain and other leaders talk with the agency every week, sometimes multiple times per week. "There's so much conversation going on," she said.
"We're sharing what we've learned with how we're going to start up in Israel, with crew and passengers all being vaccinated. They are keenly interested in that, and we are partnering with them. This is a relationship where working together is going to get us more."
In the conversation, Signature Travel Network CEO Alex Sharpe said it was frustrating to travel advisors and consumers because it felt like "our cruise partners aren't getting enough direction, aren't getting the go-ahead to move forward."
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But he urged people to put the CDC's role in perspective. "They're not a business, they're a health organization," he said. "When you realize what their role is, you realize, they're going to do it when they feel it's safe."
Freed and Sharpe said the response to Royal Caribbean's call for volunteers for CDC-mandated test sailings was outsized: Freed said a quarter of a million people had signed up to volunteer within the first week.
During Royal Caribbean's fourth-quarter earnings call, Bayley told analysts that guidance from the CDC could come "any day." During the Folo recording, Vicki still didn't have a date for when those test sailings will resume, but she said she thought it would be "sooner than later."