Coronavirus : general discussion focussed on the impact on the cruise industry

[Rob Lightbody]

'A moral obligation': radical reform urged before cruise ships allowed to return to Australia

Unions oppose ‘business as usual’, where multinational companies earn billions from Australian passengers on ships registered in tax havens and crewed by migrant workers

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/31/a-moral-obligation-radical-reform-urged-before-cruise-ships-allowed-to-return-to-australia

[skilly56]

Australia was the country probably hardest hit by cruise ships when the virus started appearing. Queensland & West Australia still have their internal borders closed to other Australian states, but the authorities are getting everything under control.

Then, last week a livestock carrier arrived off Fremantle. The radio comms to the health authorities stated they had two cases of high temperature onboard. The health authorities approved them to enter port, and the captain told the harbour authorities they had been cleared by the health authorities.

Now, the ship is in Fremantle, tied up alongside, and there are 6 crew members on board who have Covid-19, with more confirmed cases expected among the 42 crew members. Is it any wonder the Australian authorities & unions want greater control, accountability, and elimination of Flags-of-Convenience vessels, where the flag state is incapable of doing anything when a ship carrying their flag, and registered in their country, is carrying a load of virus arrives in a foreign port.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/wa-premier-fears-more-covid-19-infections-after-six-test-positive-on-live-export-ship-in-fremantle

Skilly

[cunardqueen]

Consider that the deaths in Sydney are only in double figures.
They clearly have their act in order.
A friend was due to fly out via London the day quarantine was to start. He was told in no uncertain ways exactly how it was to operate. Suffice to say he canceled. And for what it's worth no shortage of any PPE equipment in the hospitals in Sydney.     

[Rob Lightbody]

There is a plan afoot by the owner of Greenock Ocean Terminal to layup up to 12 cruise ships on the Clyde.

This has met with opposition from the local government as per the article below.

The main issue is the landing of their crew at Greenock to be repatriated but I would have thought that they would be bussed to the nearest mainline rail station or to the airport etc?

All four of Fred Olsen's vessels are currently at anchor in the Forth and have visited port at least once during this period with no issues that I am aware of.
Surely this should be about getting the crew off the ships and home?

Cruise Ship Layups - River Clyde

Gav

Great photos here. You'd never normally see any sort of cruise ship this far up the Clyde.

https://twitter.com/Russardo1/status/1267435242895400963

[Rob Lightbody]

Coronavirus: Cunard cruises suspended until November

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52979123

The Southampton-based company, which is part of the Carnival group, had paused operations until the end of July.

But the firm's president Simon Palethorpe said the ability for people to move "freely and safely across borders remains seemingly some way in the distance".

[Olivia]

Although it is sad to see so many ships out of action, this video did make me chuckle just a little bit...

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Great find, Olivia! Ships dancing around their anchors, looking cheerful.

[Thomas Hypher]

Have just seen Aurora anchored in Bournemouth/Poole Bay, she sailed here from Dover, arriving this morning as far as the Marine Traffic app states. Marella Explorer (formerly a Celebrity ship - Galaxy I think) is anchored off the Needles which is very unusual for any ship to do. Marella Explorer is way too far from suitable land for crew repatriation compared to Aurora who's tenders will be able to easily go in and out of Poole Harbour if indeed that's why she's here at all?

Please excuse the not-ideal-as-always digital zoom on the phone camera and the overcast weather!

[Rod]

"Boris" sent me this:

["https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-zaandam-pariah-ship/?utm_medium=deeplink";]

[Rob Lightbody]

If this comes out as a duplicate post, I'm sorry!

Boris sent me this:

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-zaandam-pariah-ship/?utm_medium=deeplink

I just listened to this while having my twice-weekly session on my exercise bike.  Its a brilliant and well written piece, thanks for sharing. 

Amazing really, if you'd heard this just 7 months ago, you'd have thought it was a fictional story and couldn't possibly happen. 

Having said that, with all the background reading I'd done from good news sources, I wouldn't have gone on a cruise at the time the people in the story on the Zandam did - in fact it was the end of January when I decided that nobody should be going anywhere. 

I'm not saying the passengers were silly to go, but I am saying that the cruise companies totally failed them.  Worse than that, the cruise companies failed their crews too.  By continuing to deal with passengers, the crew also got infected, some died, and some are still to this day stuck on cruise ships all over the world and unable to get home.  Heads should roll, they really should.  Had the ships stopped and been laid up safely in February or even early March, things would have been so much better.  They did not do enough.

The information was out there and any government, or Bill Gates, could have told that everyone knew a pandemic was coming, they just didn't know when.

[skilly56]

Had to laugh the other day when Aurora departed Dover - her destination was GB-POO.
My first thought was, she is not the only ship that is really in it!

The Zaandam story - this was very interesting, and high-lighted how little realisation some cruise companies had with regard to coping with the situation. Or, was it, as always, a case of $$ first? My wife & I are still awaiting our refund from Carnival Australia (Cunard) for our cancelled Alaska cruise. We were very lucky we hadn't paid for the airfares or Canadian Rockies rail trip at that time.

[Rod]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article243398711.html

Thousands of crew members are still stuck at sea more than two months after the cruise industry shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Rob Lightbody]

CMV might actually be in trouble.

Cruise and Maritime Voyages in emergency talks after potential loan deal collapses

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/17/cruise-and-maritime-voyages-emergency-talks-loan-deal-collapses

[Thomas Hypher]

CMV might actually be in trouble.

Cruise and Maritime Voyages in emergency talks after potential loan deal collapses

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/17/cruise-and-maritime-voyages-emergency-talks-loan-deal-collapses

Very sad state of affairs regarding CMV's ship detentions and financial troubles. Things must be at breaking point and I don't think they'll be the last company either to go this way

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200622_03/

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, originally planned to take place just ahead of the start of the Summer Olympics, has been postponed, as the Olympics themselves also have. No cruise ships are expected in the foreseeable future.

A new opening date is tentatively envisaged for September, but will depend on circumstances at that time.

Personally, I wonder whether this will take away from Yokohama, which so far has been Tokyo's main port and which itself must be suffering from the absence of cruise ships.