Adventure of the Seas is a Voyager-class cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International. The vessel was launched and entered service in 2001. Registered in the Bahamas, Adventure of the Seas has cruised from ports in the United States and Europe to sites in the Caribbean Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Canada and Europe. The ship has a 138,193 GT and is 311.1 meters long with capacity for 3,807 guests.
Royal Caribbean International (RCI), also formerly known as Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line brand founded in 1968 in Norway and organised as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Florida, United States, it is the largest cruise line by revenue and second largest by passengers counts. In 2018, Royal Caribbean International controlled 19.2% of the worldwide cruise market by passengers and 14.0% by revenue. It operates the five largest passenger ships in the world. As of January 2022, the line operates twenty-six ships and has four additional ships on order.
Navigator of the Seas is the fourth Voyager-class cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International.
MS Monarch was the second of three Sovereign-class cruise ships owned by Royal Caribbean International. Beginning on April 1, 2013, Monarch was operated by RCCL's Pullmantur Cruises, before being sold for scrap in 2020 following the cruise line's closure. It was built in 1991 at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyards in Saint-Nazaire, France.
Grand Princess is a Grand-class cruise ship owned by Princess Cruises. It was built in 1998 by Fincantieri Cantieri Navali Italiani in Monfalcone, Italy, with yard number 5956, at a cost of approximately US$450 million. She was the largest and most expensive passenger ship ever built at the time. Grand Princess was the flagship in the Princess Cruises fleet until the new Royal Princess took that title in June 2013.
Costa Atlantica is a Spirit-class cruise ship owned and operated by CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping. She was built in 2000 by the Kvaerner Masa-Yards Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.
MS Marella Dream was a cruise ship previously owned by TUI UK Ltd. and operated under charter by Marella Cruises. She was built in 1986 at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, West Germany as MS Homeric for Home Lines. In 1988 she was sold to Holland America Line and renamed MS Westerdam. In 1990 she was lengthened by 36.9 m at Meyer Werft. In 2002 she was transferred to the fleet of Costa Cruises and renamed MS Costa Europa. In April 2010 she left the fleet of Costa Cruises on a ten-year charter to Thomson Cruises, under the name MS Thomson Dream. She was the last new build for Home Lines to remain in active service. She has been sold for scrap and will be beached in the following weeks
Rhapsody of the Seas is a Vision-class cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International.
Liberty of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean International Freedom-class cruise ship which entered regular service in May 2007. It was initially announced that she would be called Endeavour of the Seas, however this name was later changed. The 15-deck ship accommodates 3,634 passengers served by 1,360 crew. She was built in 18 months at the Aker Finnyards Turku Shipyard, Finland, where her sister ship, Freedom of the Seas, was also built. Initially built at 154,407 gross tonnage (GT), she joined her sister ship, Freedom of the Seas, as the largest cruise ships and passenger vessels then ever built. She is 1,111.9 ft (338.91 m) long, 184 ft (56.08 m) wide, and cruises at 21.6 knots (40 km/h).
The Celebrity Solstice is the lead ship of the Solstice-class of cruise ships operated by Celebrity Cruises. Built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, she was floated out on 10 August 2008, and christened by ocean scientist Professor Sharon L. Smith at a ceremony in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, on 14 November 2008. The first post-Panamax vessel in the Celebrity fleet, she features innovative interior design and onboard amenities, including an ocean-going live grass lawn, a glassblowing studio, and a 12 deck-high atrium.
Celebrity Eclipse is a Solstice-class cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group. After she was ordered with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft in July 2006, she saw her keel laid in February 2007 and she was formally delivered in April 2010. The 122,000 GT-vessel followed sister ships Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Equinox as the third Solstice-class ship in the fleet.
Oasis of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International. She is the first of her class, whose ships are the largest passenger ships in the world. Her hull was laid down in November 2007 and she was completed and delivered to Royal Caribbean in October 2009. At the time of construction, Oasis of the Seas set a new capacity record of carrying over 6,000 passengers. The first of her class, she was joined by sister ships Allure of the Seas in December 2010, Harmony of the Seas in May 2016, and Symphony of the Seas in April 2018. Oasis of the Seas conducts cruises of the Caribbean from her home port of PortMiami in Miami, Florida.
World Dream is a cruise ship operated by Dream Cruises. She was initially ordered under the same name for Star Cruises. The ship was designed for the Asian cruise market and has a large number of restaurants together with a casino and specially designed cabins. She was formally named on 17 November 2017 by Cecilia Lim, wife of Genting CEO Lim Kok Thay, who became godmother of the ship.
Celebrity Apex is an Edge-class cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France, she is the second vessel in the company's Edge class of ships, following the delivery of her sister ship, Celebrity Edge, in 2018. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her debut sailing was from Athens on June 19, 2021 to the Greek Islands.
Early in 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease spread to a number of cruise ships, with the nature of such ships – including crowded semi-enclosed areas, increased exposure to new environments, and limited medical resources – contributing to the heightened risk and rapid spread of the disease.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, was detected on the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in March 2020 while she was at sea. Affected crew members were evacuated and the ship was ordered to Guam. The captain, Brett Crozier, wanted most of the crew to be removed from the ship to prevent the spread of the disease, but his superiors were reluctant. After several days Crozier e-mailed three of his superior officers and seven other Navy Captains, outlining a plan for the ship to be largely evacuated because the virus could not be contained on board. The letter leaked to the press, and the next day the Navy ordered most of the crew to be taken ashore, but the captain was relieved of command by Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly. Modly's order was controversial, and his later speech to the crew aboard Theodore Roosevelt was criticized. Modly resigned a few days later. By mid-April hundreds of crew members including Crozier had tested positive for the virus, and one had died.
The COVID-19 pandemic spread to many military ships. The nature of these ships, which includes working with others in small enclosed areas and a lack of private quarters for the vast majority of crew, contributed to the rapid spread of the disease, even more so than on cruise ships.
The Diamond Princess is a British-registered luxury cruise ship that is operated by Princess Cruises, a holiday company based in the United States and Bermuda. In February 2020, during a cruise of the Western Pacific, cases of COVID-19 were detected on board. The vessel was quarantined off Japan for two weeks, after which all remaining passengers and crew were evacuated. Of the 3,711 people on board, 712 became infected with the virus – 567 of 2,666 passengers, and 145 of 1,045 crew. Figures for total deaths vary from early to later assessments, and because of difficulties in establishing causation. As many as 14 are reported to have died from the virus, all of them older passengers - an overall mortality rate for those infected of 2%.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, former passengers of the cruise ship Grand Princess who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were being linked to cruises they had taken on the ship while it traveled between California, Mexico, and Hawaii. After the first confirmed death on 4 March 2020, Grand Princess was rerouted to the San Francisco Bay Area, where it was anchored offshore while test kits were airlifted to the ship. Preliminary testing found 21 positive cases, and the ship later docked in Oakland on 9 March 2020, with over 3,000 people entering quarantine.
Julio Daniel Salinas Grecco is a Uruguayan neurologist and politician of Open Cabildo (CA), serving as Minister of Public Health of Uruguay since 1 March 2020.
