Carnival Cruise Line successfully completes its pilot of the new VeriFLY embarkation enhancement for Mardi Gras’ January 22 departure from Port Canaveral, Florida. The cruise line will continue with the program before rolling out fleetwide.
VeriFLY Gets Off to a Successful Start with Mardi Gras
On January 22, Carnival Cruise Line started a pilot program for guests embarking on the Mardi Gras cruise ship at Port Canaveral. The new program is the VeriFLY solution already widely used for airlines, allowing guests to upload their health details for verification.
Carnival has now said that the first usage of the embarkation enhancement has been a success, with almost 2,000 guests opening the invite for the VeriFly solution and 85% of those downloading the app.
The cruise line said, “For those who successfully uploaded required info for confirmation, the health screening process time was cut in half, significantly speeding up the check-in process. We’ll be conducting several more voluntary pilots ahead of plans to incorporate other ships in our U.S. fleet over the coming weeks.”
Moving forward, the plan is for the pilot program to be expanded to more sailings and will then be rolled out across all Carnival cruise ships with U.S. departures. The app allows guests to upload their proof of vaccination and testing information, which results in a more streamlined embarkation process. Guests who used the app had their check-in process time reduced.
Carnival also said, “We’ll be conducting several more voluntary pilots ahead of plans to incorporate other ships in our U.S. fleet over the coming weeks.”
Viking Cruises is already using the VeriFLY app for its sailings. In instructions provided to passengers, sign-up can take place at least seven days before departure, and a pass with Viking must be created. After uploading vaccination status and testing details, it can take up to 24 hours to be verified. If VeriFLY has issues with a guest’s vaccination record, it will contact the person directly.
VeriFLY already has details for guests voluntarily taking part in the pilot program. Daon, the company which owns the app, says, “VeriFLY is a secure free digital health “wallet” application that helps vaccinated guests easily and securely submit negative COVID-19 test results, vaccination records, and required pre-cruise surveys – before you arrive at the port!”
Since Carnival Cruise Line resumed cruise operations in summer 2021, the embarkation process has been complex for many guests. Despite vaccinated guests still needing to arrange a pre-cruise test within two days before a cruise, the new solution from VeriFLY should help alleviate that pressure and get guests onboard faster.
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It could get even easier for pre-cruise testing for vaccinated guests as Carnival is also working on expanding its capability to at the terminal where guests can get tested. It would be for shorter three- and four-day voyages, and guests would need to pre-register due to capacity limits. There would also be a $10 charge per test. More details on the testing are to be announced soon.
