Royal Caribbean

The Carnival Freedom, with an undisclosed number of cases, and Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas, with at least 60, returned to their Florida ports on Sunday.

It's the second outbreak for the cruise line in as many weeks. Odyssey of the Sea — the newest in Royal Caribbean's fleet — will stay at sea until it returns to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

The seven-night cruise ended in Miami on Saturday after making three stops in the Caribbean. More than 6,000 people were on the ship, which required testing and those 12 and over to be vaccinated.

The change aligns Celebrity with Florida law, which bans businesses from asking customers for proof of vaccination.

CEO Michael Bayley wrote on social media that the ship returned Tuesday morning to PortMiami after three days and two nights at sea testing CDC safety and health protocols put in place due to the COVID pandemic.

The Freedom of the Seas pulled away from PortMiami about 7 p.m. Sunday with a fully vaccinated crew and about 600 volunteer passengers.

Royal Caribbean is postponing for nearly a month one of the highly anticipated first sailings from the U.S. since the pandemic began because eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19.

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. says that while vaccines do not eliminate risks, not having them could be catastrophic, including to the people in the Caribbean that cruises visit.

Royal Caribbean says its Celebrity Millennium, sailing out of St. Marteen, had two passengers come up positive for COVID while undergoing the required end-of-cruise testing.

In a reversal, the cruise giant now says passengers are “strongly recommended” to receive the coronavirus vaccine on trips out of Florida ports.