The first cruise ship to call on Bonaire since the onset of the pandemic will arrive on the Dutch Caribbean island on Sept. 2. 

The arrival of Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Equinox comes after nearly 17 months without cruise ships on the island. 

The ship, which is departing from Florida, will also be visiting The Bahamas, Aruba and Curacao. 

Bonaire has adapted its health protocols for cruise ship passengers. 

That means fully vaccinated travelers must show proof of vaccination and from their original pre-ship PCR test; unvaccinated or not-fully-vaccinated travelers must show a negative antigen test no older than 24 hours before visiting Bonaire. 

““We are happy with the restart of the cruise tourism; this will mean the restart of more economic activity on our island after the pandemic,” said Hennyson Thielman, Bonaire’s Commissioner of Tourism and Economic Affairs. “Our goal is to maintain the cruise industry but introducing a few changes in order to deal better with crowd management, and to attract the type of tourist who are able to spend more on our island. One of the changes is the one call a day protocol and to create a better balance in the number of cruise ships during the super high and low seasons.”

— CJ