For guests on Royal Caribbean, the popular All Access Tour has made a comeback. Several guests have reported in the last week that the tours are available for booking in the cruise planner, while others have already been lucky enough to participate in tours onboard.
The behind-the-scenes tour, as it is also called, gives guests the chance to explore what it takes to run a massive cruise ship with thousands of guests and crew members.
Royal Caribbean’s All Access Tour Is Back
If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you’ll have wondered how it’s possible to feed this many people onboard and how the crew seems to do it so effortlessly.
And with thousands of pounds of laundry to be done every day and a ship that has to be brought from A to B, the logistics are certainly something that is interesting to find out more about.
Luckily for guests onboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ships, the All Access Tour has made a comeback. The tour disappeared during the pandemic to keep guests and crew protected under the cruise line’s protocols.
With measures becoming less intrusive onboard and protocols easing, Royal Caribbean has decided to bring back the popular tour, with guests now being able to make bookings.
During the All Access Tour, guests set off behind the scenes in those “Crew-Only” areas. From the main crew corridor known as I-95, guests will be able to take a look at these areas by following their guide, including the main dining room, galley, provisions, engine control, laundry and the bridge.
Highlights include the Main Dining Room and Main Galley, where guests can learn more about how the crew prepares thousands of meals daily with unbelievable precision.
One area that not many people ever get to see is the Provision area, where all the necessary food items, drinks, and everything else are loaded onboard and distributed around the ship.
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For those with an engineering background, perhaps the most spectacular areas are the Engine Control Room, where everything from air conditioning to propulsion is controlled, and, at the Captain’s discretion, the Bridge, where guests get to see the officers steering the ship.
The tour can be reserved in the Royal Caribbean cruise planner, or while onboard, at the shore excursions desk and at guest relations.
With the popularity of the tour, booking in advance is recommended. If pre-purchased, the cost for the All Access tour onboard Royal Caribbean’s ships is usually cheaper, although prices vary per ship.
What About Other Cruise Lines?
With Royal Caribbean bringing back the all-access tours, the question arises of what the other cruise lines are doing. Carnival Cruise Line’s ‘Behind the Fun Ultimate Tour’ is not yet available.
Carnival states on the website: “Given our focus on returning to service and executing our health and safety protocols, we will not be able to offer this tour until further notice. Our goal is to ensure we can continue to deliver that exceptional value and experience we have always provided.”
As with Royal Caribbean, this tour is limited to just a few passengers who sign up early. It takes the select group into crew areas as well as other restricted areas of the ship, including the galley, theater backstage areas, laundry services, engine room, and the bridge.
When Carnival is bringing back the Behind the Fun tour is therefore uncertain. As for Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises, both cruise lines offer no information if or when the tours are available again.
As cruise lines continue to evolve their health and safety requirements onboard, we can be sure that more and more will start offering the behind the scene tours again. And if they do, we highly recommend taking the opportunity, as it will provide an excellent background on all the fun you’ll have onboard.
