YES!: Royal Caribbean Updates Drone Policy
The biggest complaint we hear about travel with drones is that their not welcome on cruise ships. In 2016, over 20 million people took cruises, almost the same number of tourists who flew into Cancun airport.
With that many passengers all over the world, you know a growing number of them are planning (or hoping) to bring along a aerial camera.
Until now, manycruise lines have been completely off limits for drones. They won’t even let you bring them on board, or the rules for doing so have been cumbersome.
Effective immediately, “guests may bring drones on their cruise to be used on land only, and outsde the port area. Drones may not be operated onboard the ship at any time, nor on Royal Caribbean’s private destinations: CocoCay, Bahamas or Habadee, Haiti.”
Prior to this policy change, Royal Caribbean would store the drone for guests and then allow them to take the drones off the ship while in port.
Cruising is an extremely competitive business, so we should expect other lines to follow suit.
Currently only Carnival allows guests to bring drones on board the ships, also permitting them to be stored in the guest cabin.
Cruise lines that currenlty prohibit drones on board include:
- Holland America
- Norwegian
- Celebrity Cruises
- Princess Cruises
- Disney Cruise Line
Just like your home country, each port of call will have different rules and restrictions on the use of drones. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules, even printing out paper copies should you run into ‘human interferenc’ while flying.
We rely on the UAV Systems International site for the most up to date international drone rules, but encourage you to check the air transport website of your destination(s).
