Not only do we have a passion for delivering unforgettable holiday happiness at Carnival UK but we also do for acronyms as well – that’s why you’ve probably heard the term RTS being used everywhere, but how much do you know about what’s involved?
With only eight weeks to go until our first ship is back delivering unforgettable holiday happiness we thought we’d share more on the teams that have been involved in our Return to Service (RTS) programme. Although RTS itself involves everyone from around our business, as we work towards bringing our crew and Guests back on board, the RTS programme team was initially formed off the back of the COVID-19 Working Group. And how long ago does that feel?
How’s the programme managed?
Our RTS programme, like our business, has lots of key functions playing a vital role in supporting our fleet and people and getting them ready to sail once more. These functions include:
- People – from managing rotations to training our newly-joining crew.
- Guest Comms – we’re keeping our Guests in the loop on the latest decisions and requirements we’re putting in place to keep our ships, people, Guests and communities we visit as safe as possible.
- Embark / Debark – the safe transit of our crew, Guests and ship visitors is paramount and our Embark / Debark team are working on solutions to embark and debark people in the safest way possible.
- Destination Delivery – one of the reasons Guests enjoy cruising with us is our unique Shore Experiences we offer. The team has been planning how we can still give Guests a unique experiences in the safest way possible.
- Onboard Hotel – we’ve had to make a few changes to our on board offering to make sure Guests can enjoy a cruise in a COVID-19-secure environment. Our Guest Experience teams from across both brands have been working on Guest propositions which make our brands so unique.
- Onboard Asset – to keep our crew and Guests as safe as possible, we’ve had to make some changes on board, such as installing High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters in the air conditioning units on board.
- Contingency Support – so we can stay one step ahead and be prepared for any eventuality, we need to make sure we have plans in place to manage any situation, this is what our Contingency Support work stream has been leading on. Our ORCA function is leading on this as well as supporting our fleet 24/7.
- Medical and Public Health – our Medical teams ship and shore have been working tirelessly to not only keep COVID-19 off our ships but prepare our teams across the business for welcoming more crew and Guests back on board, which includes the writing of new policies and procedures designed to keep our ships, people, Guests and the communities we visit as safe as possible.
You can even see many of the smiling faces of the teams involved in the picture above!
As our cruising countdown continues, keep up to date with our return to service milestones here.