Cruise companies, whose U.S. operations have been suspended for more than a year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, are turning to technology to keep passengers safe when they finally leave U.S. ports this summer.

Royal Caribbean group,

MSC Cruises and Virgin Voyages are among the cruise companies looking for smartphone apps, wearable devices, artificial intelligence and other technologies to keep passengers at bay, reducing the chance of airborne virus transmission and contact tracing in the event an illness.

“All of this technology will contribute to health and safety when we come back up and running,” said Jay Schneider, senior vice president of the Royal Caribbean Group and chief product innovation officer.

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Large cruise lines that can accommodate 5,000 or more passengers turned out to be a suitable backdrop for the spread of Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic. Cruises now have the benefit of doing justice to a population with access to the vaccinealthough there is no guarantee that every passenger will be vaccinated.

Royal Caribbean, which owns and operates the brands Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises, recently developed a wrist device, the Tracelet, to aid in contact tracking. Embedded in a Bluetooth-enabled chip, the tracelet can record when a guest is less than 6 feet away from other people on a ship for 15 minutes, the company said. The Royal Caribbean website states that all passengers and crew are required to wear a tracelet.

If a passenger is diagnosed with Covid-19, the ship’s security team can access device data to display a list of people with whom the sick person has had contact. The reporting and data tools that process the contacts and generate reports for follow-up were developed by the company.

Last week the cruise line announced it was postponing the scheduled departure of its Odyssey of the Seas from July 3rd to July 31st after eight crew members tested positive for Covid-19.

Royal Caribbean developed the “Tracelet” to help with contact tracking.


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Royal Caribbean group

MSC Cruises and Virgin Voyages, which are also planning to set sail from the US in the coming months, are using some of their pre-pandemic technology to maintain social distance between passengers.

A wristband and app designed to help MSC Cruises passengers pay for items and book events now also serve as contact tracking and social distancing devices. Passengers looking for a bit more space can also use the app to view the approximate amount in a theater by seeing how many seats are still available to reserve a show.

“We have just improved the existing platform … with the aim of minimizing face-to-face contact,” said Bud Darr, Executive Vice President of Maritime Policy and Government Affairs at parent company MSC Group.

Virgin Voyages, which plans to start its first US cruises from Miami in the fall, will have around 3,000 WiFi readers on their ships that can track people’s whereabouts using Virgin’s Sailor app on their smartphones. Not only does the system help book activities, order food and chat with friends, it can also notify cleaning staff when guests leave their rooms, further reducing personal contact.

Jay Schneider, Senior Vice President of the Royal Caribbean Group and Chief Product Innovation Officer.


Photo:

Royal Caribbean group

Virgin Voyages was already looking for technology to improve the cruise experience, said Andy Schwalb, the line’s chief marine and technology officer. “As it turns out, [the technology] is also very good from a pandemic perspective, ”he said.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered his risk assessment cruise shipping to level three from level four for people who are not fully vaccinated. The CDC believes the likelihood of contracting the disease is high because the virus appears to spread more easily among people in confined spaces on ships.

Ramesh Raskar is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab focusing on AI and imaging for health and sustainability. Cruise ship contact tracing has its advantages, he said, but the technology is not perfect.

For one thing, it doesn’t differentiate between environments, he said. People on an open deck are likely to be less at risk than in a crowded casino, even if they distance themselves. “This information is not collected via Bluetooth,” said Dr. Raskar.

However, contact tracing technology has already been put to the test.

Earlier this month, according to two passengers share a room On a Celebrity Millennium ship from St. Maarten that tested positive for Covid-19, the crew used closed-circuit footage and AI-based pattern matching software to determine which other passengers had been within 6 feet of them for 15 minutes .

The cruise company has identified and tested these people. All tests were negative.

Write to John McCormick at john.mccormick@wsj.com

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