Frank J. Del Rio
President and Chief Executive Officer at Norwegian Cruise Line
Thank you, Andrea, and good morning, everyone. As always, I hope that all of you joining us today as well as your loved ones remain healthy and safe. Before I go into my prepared remarks and if you haven't already heard the good news, I would like to congratulate Andrea on her new appointment to Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of our luxury brand, Regent Seven Seas Cruises. After more than 30 earnings calls with our Company, we will all miss her but wish her the very best of luck in her new role. Jessica John, who many of you have already met, will assume the role of Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and ESG, beginning September 1. Congratulations, Andrea and Jessica.
I am pleased to say that we are taking this morning's call from Seattle, Washington, as we prepare for a very exciting day tomorrow, the relaunch of our first ship from the United States in over 16 months. And as Andrea mentioned, we also have a very special guest with us today, former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb. After over a year of working together remotely to reach his long-awaited milestone, it is truly a pleasure to finally meet Dr. Gottlieb and the other public health experts on our SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council in person. And for the first time today, as we kick off our Great Cruise Comeback.
Today, we will focus our commentary on the progress we have made on our return to cruising, our comprehensive plan for the phased resumption of operations for our entire 28-ship fleet, and the record-setting strength we continue to experience in consumer demand, which has translated into a record load and record pricing for calendar year 2022 and beyond.
As you can see on Slide 4, our return to service plan is centered around three key phases. First, we developed our multi-layered SailSAFE health and safety strategy, including mandatory FDA, WHO, or EMA authorized vaccinations for all guests and crew at its cornerstone. In addition, we test all guests at the terminal prior to embarkation and all crew undergo weekly routine testing. Next, we have now announced voyage resumption plans for all 28 ships in our fleet. And lastly, we are intently focused on the flawless execution of the phased relaunch of our fleet, which we expect to complete by April 1, 2022.
Against a still ever-changing COVID backdrop, we remain vigilant and ready to adapt as needed, keeping a close watch on port availability, travel restrictions, and any changes to the global public health environment which could affect our planned operations. Overall, we are encouraged to see some relaxation of travel restrictions and opening of borders in recent weeks, particularly for vaccinated travelers. Just a few weeks ago, Canada moved up its plans to allow the return of cruise ships in November, four months earlier than previously announced. Many countries in the EU are now allowing travelers from the U.S. and in the past few weeks, both Canada and the U.K. announced entry to back air [Phonetic] travelers without quarantine.
Travel restrictions and port closures do remain in place in other parts of the world, but we are ready to execute on our cruise assumption strategy and have backup plans ready to go, which we can implement and adapt to as needed. Slide 5 details our voyage resumption plans by brand and by vessel. After 500 days, the time has finally come and I could not be more pleased to say that our Great Cruise Comeback officially commenced last week with Norwegian Jade operating Greek Isle voyages out of Athens. The relaunch went off without a hitch and demonstrated that strict vaccination requirements, comprehensive pre-boarding testing, and a suite of other robust protocols are working as designed to help mitigate the introduction and transmission of COVID-19 aboard our vessels.
A special thank you goes out to the offices and crew of Norwegian Jade, who even after 16 months of not operating, seamlessly adapted our new protocols and delivered the same exceptional service and world-class cruise experience that our guests expect from our Company. As an indication of this top-notch service delivery, our onboard revenue on this first significantly exceeded our target which was focused on 2019 actual results by over 50%. All of our incredible team members around the world worked tirelessly to prepare for this critical moment, and I am truly grateful for the privilege to work day in and day out alongside such a dedicated, passionate, and talented team. I also want to express our sincere thanks to our loyal guests, valued travel partners, and all of our stakeholders for their patience and support during these challenging times as we ramp up our return to cruise plans.
Norwegian Jade's successful relaunch is just the first of many to come, including our much anticipated return to cruising in the United States. Tomorrow Norwegian Encore, the line's newest and most innovative ship will make her West Coast debut with a seven-night sailings to Alaska from Seattle. We are looking forward to once again bringing guests to explore the last frontier, one of the most popular destinations with our guests and providing some much needed economic relief to the communities, families, and small businesses throughout coastal Alaska, who have been devastated by the loss of cruise tourism revenue during this prolonged suspension.
The next step in our relaunch plan is our return to Miami, the cruise capital of the world. I'd like to address a request for a preliminary injunction that we filed last month which will allow us to confirm guests' vaccination status for sailings departing from the State of Florida that has been heard in [Indecipherable] Miami Federal Court today. Combating this virus is an unprecedented historic challenge that requires everyone, including governments at the local, state, and federal levels, plus private enterprise and society at large, to do their part. I have a tremendous empathy for our elected officials, business leaders, friends and families, neighbors, who are all doing the best they can under enormously difficult circumstances to beat back this virus.
Having had the pleasure to work in the cruise industry for nearly 30 years, I am confident that in the current global health environment and especially with the rise of the Delta variant, having a fully vaccinated and tested population onboard our vessels is the best path to keeping our guests, our dedicated crew members, and the people of the communities we visit, safe from COVID. In order to do that, we must be able to confirm vaccination status of our guests at every port we sail from, including those in the State of Florida. We owe it to all our stakeholders who do everything possible to make sure we deliver on this critical mission. We hope that the Federal Court will agree with our vision and our mission.
When we say the health and safety of our guests, crew, and communities we visit is a number one priority, we mean it. It is not a slogan nor a tagline. The legal actions we have taken in Florida reflect our deep commitment to resume sailing in accordance with our robust, science-backed SailSAFE health and safety protocols outlined on Slide 6. Our policy of 100% vaccinations coupled with pre-boarding testing of guests and routine testing of crew is in place without issue in the nearly 100 ports we sail to and from around the world except Florida ports. Nothing takes priority over health and safety, and we have gone to great lengths and expense to pursue this commitment to our guests, crew, and all stakeholders.
Again, this commitment is not a slogan nor a tagline. Health and safety is far and away the most important principle to guide how our Company operates at all levels, and this fundamental philosophy has never been more important than right now. We want to use every tool available to us that science and medicine have developed to prepare our ships to return to service and vaccines are the most powerful tool. Given that we have Dr. Gottlieb here today, who is not only a world-renowned expert but is also the Chairman of our SailSAFE Global Health and Wellness Council, I'd like to give him the floor for his thoughts on our health and safety program. Dr. Gottlieb?