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

[Rob Lightbody]

Long suspensions announced for the Cunard ships, then very different cruises after that to start with - European ones from 3 to 14 nights.

25 March 2021 for Queen Elizabeth

18 April 2021 for Queen Mary 2

16 May 2021 for Queen Victoria

https://www.cunard.com/en-gb/contact-us/travel-health-advisories

[cunardqueen]

I had a quick look for old times sake, couldnt find any of the scenic voyage details for QE. Quite surprised to see fly cruises to Germany for a 2 night trip.  Cant think when l last saw any brochures but im clearly out of touch. None the less l still prefer the old Hard brochure.

The scenic cruising might just be a new way to go, or if your doing the ports then give the passengers longer time ashore. Some might prefer to dine ashore  Besides who doesnt love a late night sailing or better an overnight in port  Arrive at noon and depart late morning. Perhaps now is the time to think outside the ship and bring in new ideas. A short cruise , then carry your own luggage , it happens with airlines, bring in reservation meal times for breakfast lunch afternoon tea and Dinner , go formal meals in the restaurants or casual in the other bits. But by making reservations you can control the masses, we quite happily lined up at Asda at busy times, or had the wisdom to go when its was quietier.  Make the mask wearing compulsory, and who wouldnt love to wear a black branded Cunard mask !     
 

However i cant help but wonder how many people out there would love to spend a night onboard.  a lovely dinner, sleep over, and disembark after breakfast.   It might get a lot of newbies to try a ship out, bring a  lot of the old ones back and more importantly bring in revenue, or maybe right now thats not so important. The marketing department could get their arse into gear and drum up some ideas, ok you might need to limit numbers and stagger embarkation times but could this idea work..??

The past few weekends iv done some travelling, not much, but what is surprising is just how busy it all is, there are people out there willing to spend money, to travel safely and wear masks quite happily.  Most restaurants are doing what they can to abide by the rules, many have their one way of doing things, some good, some pretty bad and some quite innovative. But the secret is make the customer feel safe. A customer who feels safe will return.  There are places out there right now l will never set foot in again, and places iv never tried till recently that l would gladly go back. Right now iv never seen London hotels so cheap .
 
But a night or even two  aboard a ship while shes berthed , I would be up for that ! and if im honest lm surprised to be saying that. While Im not ready to eat humble pie just yet.

Might we now be seeing Cruising re-invented ?

But l must admit to see the cruises being suspended till March and beyond is a scary thought for everyone. 

[Bruce Nicholls]

Keeping them going till them is certainly going to knock the balance sheet about a bit!

[Chris]

A bit of a look into what happened to the food aboard all the empty cruise ships during Covid.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

A bit of a look into what happened to the food aboard all the empty cruise ships during Covid.

This is a really interesting contribution, Chris. I had frankly not thought about it before.

Apart from the food that was donated to charities, and other food that presumably went to waste, there must be a lot of food still on board the ships, such as wine and drinks as well as tinned and deep frozen food.

It is also quite possible that the lack of uptake from the cruise ships has had a devastating effect on the suppliers of the food in various ports. The way you present it, the food industry as a supplier to the cruise industry is quite a major sector, and it was good to have raised the topic here.

[Thomas Hypher]

It is also quite possible that the lack of uptake from the cruise ships has had a devastating effect on the suppliers of the food in various ports. The way you present it, the food industry as a supplier to the cruise industry is quite a major sector, and it was good to have raised the topic here.

Regarding the impact this pandemic can have on a port, I read that a port town in Canada (somewhere in BC) has lost either 50% or 75% of its income due to the pandemic. They would normally have about 6 cruise ships visiting a year. I wonder how many smaller ports have been devastated throughout the world, let alone the impact on the major ports not having passengers going through them and the profits made and the businesses involved with that alone, such as for looking after a car on a person's cruise. It seems that a lot of people including some of the authorities (CDC etc) have overlooked the dire secondary consequences of the cruise industry shutting down - which is bad enough alone. Hopefully things will start up again soon to mitigate the damage done and to start the long recovery process.

A post on the visit of a Norwegian Navy Auxiliary (a variant of the RFA's Tide Class Fleet Tankers) on the port of Flam's official Instagram account, perhaps illustrates quite how bad the impact of the pandemic has been with them thanking the ship's crew for buying local food etc (click on the photo for it to load Instagram's website and show the caption). It is sad to see places like Flam suffering the consequences - my favourite Norwegian port to have visited so far.

https://instagram.com/p/CFzpS8Xnnc9?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

[Thomas Hypher]

Further to this topic, one wonders what impact this pandemic has had on countries such as the Philippines given the lack of media coverage on the matter (at least here in the UK) and how many 1000s of Filipinos work in the industry. Is their government helping where it can or are they being left to fend for themselves, having had their contracts cut short or indefinitely delayed by this pandemic. It is deeply troubling that they could be in a dire situation.

When things really start getting going again in the industry, how will the logistics of starting up again be organised given this unprecedented situation including the 1000s of redundancies made? Not even WW2 caused this problem given the passenger liners being pressed into trooping, hospital, or AMC roles for the most part, if not interned.

[Douglas Carmichael]

When things really start getting going again in the industry, how will the logistics of starting up again be organised given this unprecedented situation including the 1000s of redundancies made? Not even WW2 caused this problem given the passenger liners being pressed into trooping, hospital, or AMC roles for the most part, if not interned.

Hospital ships... that brings up an idea. Could the cruise companies work with the health authorities (World Health Organization?) to create "quick-build" hospital kits so that excess cruise ships could be used as field hospitals in case of a future threat?
 

[Olivia]

That idea was raised when the virus was at its peak. I saw a clip somewhere of Donald Trump saying that Micky Arison has offered to send cruise ships to New York to be used as hospital ships.

[Rob Lightbody]

I'm not sure a cruise ship hospital is a great idea during a pandemic, until they figure out how to stop it spreading like crazy on board cruise ships! 

[Thomas Hypher]

Not particularly surprisingly given the sale of her sisters Black Watch and Boudicca for further use but not in cruising, Phoenix Reisen have just announced the sale of their Albatros to the Pick Albatros (coincidence and pun not intended or what?!) hotel group for use as a floating hotel in the Middle East (specifically in the Red Sea area so I've read).

https://www.pickalbatros.com/

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23643-another-cruise-ship-sold-albatros-to-leave-phoenix-reisen.html

https://cruisemarsh.wordpress.com/2020/10/08/phoenix-reisen-sells-albatros/

Hopefully she doesn't share the same fate as Vistafjord/Caronia/Saga Ruby/Oasia, or the last Kungsholm, or MV Augustus, nor have the troubled times our QE2 has had in Dubai. Hopefully she isn't a stop gap solution for accommodation that Kungsholm was either, pending the completion of a shore based hotel, and hopefully she gets the traffic to be sustainable.

Fingers crossed she follows in Rotterdam's and the handful of other passenger ships that have become static hotel ships in becoming successful, but I'm not overly optimistic about such ventures given the challenges and large costs involved at the best of times not to mention in the middle of a pandemic and turbulent world.

[Thomas Hypher]

Yet another development...

https://maritime-executive.com/article/former-p-o-cruise-ship-slated-to-become-floating-community-off-panama

Not sure this will work out for a few reasons, but I wish them the best.

Things do seem to be happening even more thick and fast now in the cruise industry. CMV's fleet are being auctioned off individually as we speak.

[Rob Lightbody]

From where I'm sitting, i can't really see cruise ships resuming sailing in 2021 at all, especially not big ones.

Could they all survive another year in warm layup?

There's no guarantee of a vaccine yet...

[Alex Tarry]

From what I hear the CDC and CLIA have met with the US Govt at the White House (Mike Pence?) and its all systems go to start sailing from 1 Dec under a safe sailing code the industry has proposed.  Crews are being recalled I believe...

[Rob Lightbody]

From what I hear the CDC and CLIA have met with the US Govt at the White House (Mike Pence?) and its all systems go to start sailing from 1 Dec under a safe sailing code the industry has proposed.  Crews are being recalled I believe...

Hmm... That'll be the same white House that's currently got a fairly high number of cases amongst it's own staff!

If they do, it'll be a disaster and actually set things back.