Crew members readied for a year of working at sea, and those at the helm of the cruise industry anticipated another successful year, with profits sure to continue on an upward trajectory and bigger and better ships ready for launch.
Then, in the space of a few disastrous weeks, everything changed. CNN reports the top 10 stories that shook the cruise industry.
February 4, 2020: Outbreak onboard
In early February, the coronavirus was making headlines around the world, but many viewed the infection as a regional problem mostly afflicting China, with a few other isolated cases.
One of those cases had been aboard the Diamond Princess — a 16-year-old British-registered cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises, a division of the Carnival Corporation.
When a passenger with suspected coronavirus disembarked the Diamond Princess, Covid-19 remained. By the time health authorities boarded in Japanese waters on February 4, 10 people on board were confirmed positive for coronavirus.
Amid fears many more among the 2,666 mostly Japanese passengers were exposed, the ship was quarantined in the Port of Yokohama. Guests were forbidden to disembark, told to wear masks, and confined to their cabins.
Later, over 700 passengers and crew onboard the Diamond Princess would test positive, with 331 of them asymptomatic at the time.
The besieged vessel also offered the first inkling of just how badly cruise ships were susceptible to the virility of Covid-19 — and how cruise companies would struggle to offload people from their vast floating palaces into panicked ports.
As the Diamond Princess remained in lockdown, other cruise ships continued their routes largely as planned.
March 13, 2020: The virus ships
As March rolled in, it was increasingly clear that the Diamond Princess disaster was no isolated incident.
A report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that between February 3 and March 13, about 200 Covid cases in the US were linked to cruise passengers, including cruisers from the Diamond Princess and the Grand Princess, where 21 people had tested positive while the ship was docked in California.
At the time of the CDC’s March report, cruise passengers accounted for about 17% of the reported US Covid cases.
On March 13, influential industry body Cruise Lines International Association, which represents 95% of the global cruise fleet, made the decision to suspend operations from US ports of call for a 30-day period.
A day later, the CDC issued a No Sail Order for cruise ships in the United States.
March 27, 2020: The scramble for safety
With the No Sail Order in place, some onboard wanted to disembark right away.
But with cruise ships being viewed with increasing suspicion by many of the ports that once welcomed them, many vessels were locked into an increasingly desperate hunt for somewhere to berth.
Christine Beehler, 72, from New Hampshire, was onboard the Coral Princess, a 2,000-passenger ship that was denied a port of call in Brazil, even for guests who had onward flight tickets home.
With no other option available, the ship headed to Miami.
“The four walls get a little tiring,” Beehler, isolated in her cabin, told CNN at the time. She said she was in regular communication with other passengers and they kept each other’s spirits, and she also praised the captain for being “very forthcoming with his transparency” and called the crew “phenomenal.”
There were 12 reported positive cases and three passenger deaths from Covid-19 onboard the Coral Princess. Owner Princess Cruises said it could not confirm how many contracted the virus on the ship or died after they left it
Meanwhile, Holland America’s Zaandam was sailing a South American voyage originally supposed to conclude in San Antonio, Chile, on March 21.
It was still at sea six days later, with four passengers dead and fears growing for the safety of the others, unable to find a safe port.
April 22, 2020: The final journeys
By early April, most major cruise ships had managed to make landfall. But a handful of vessels were still out on the oceans, determinedly steaming toward their final ports of call.
It wasn’t until the week of April 20 that the last three major cruise ships still carrying guests docked at port.
In Marseille, France, the MSC Magnifica disembarked its 1,769 passengers, ending a world voyage that began back in January and had, since March 10, only involved stops to take on fuel and provisions.
That same day, April 20, the Pacific Princess cruise ship arrived in Los Angeles. While most of its passengers had returned home after disembarking in Australia in March, 119 travelers had remained on board for medical reasons until the ship reached the United States.
And finally, on April 22, the Costa Deliziosa — which left Venice for a round world cruise all the way back on January 5 — made it home with 1,519 travelers in tow.
The fact there were no reported cases of Covid-19 on the Deliziosa, Magnifica, or the Pacific Princess was hailed as remarkable.
June 8, 2020: The last ship at sea
While the Deliziosa was the last ship to disembark scores of guests, there was one more passenger-carrying vessel still at sea.
On June 8, the MV Artania cruise ship ended its oceanic odyssey, delivering eight guests to a world vastly changed from the one it had left on December 21, 2019.
Coronavirus had caught up with the Artania back in March — 36 passengers tested positive for the virus following a check from health officials when the ship arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia.
It was a remarkable story, characterized by kindness as well as struggle. Before the MV Artania left Australia, its crew received postcards from Australian school children.
The idea was to forge a connection between the quarantined workers — marred by the cruise industry’s declining reputation — and a panicked city feeling increasingly threatened by cruise ships and the Covid threat.
En route from Australia to Europe, the Artania took a detour around Southeast Asia in order to repatriate its remaining crew. A small number of workers accompanied the remaining passengers back to Germany.
June 23, 2020: The rise of the ghost ships
By the end of June, cruising had ground to a halt and the world’s cruise fleet was largely out of action, laid up in ports across the world.
In the UK, vessels dotted along England’s southwest coast haunted the horizon, with only a skeletal crew on board, becoming an unlikely tourist attraction.
Over the uncharacteristically hot British summer, ships spotted off the coast of Derham’s home town of Mudeford included Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, and Allure of the Seas — gigantic floating cities that normally carry thousands of people.
The tours have halted for now due to wintery weather, but with the cruise industry still in flux, and vessels still parked in ports across the world, Derham plans to reinstate his now world-famous tours in Spring 2021.
August 16, 2020: The return
As European travel restrictions loosened and lockdowns lifted in light of fewer Covid cases, some European cruise companies tentatively recommenced cruising.
On August 16, the MSC Grandiosa departed the port of Genoa, Italy for a seven-day Mediterranean cruise characterized by Covid testing, social distancing, hand sanitizing, and temperature checks. There were some 3,000 Italian cruisers onboard, with the Grandiosa operating at about 60% of its 6,300 passenger capacity.
The ship, which remained virus-free, was held up as proof regulations could help protect cruisers.
“I think cruises could be the safest holiday, right now,” passenger Valeria Belardi, a travel agent, told CNN.
“We know that for every 1% drop in cruising that occurs worldwide, up to 9,100 jobs can be lost,” Bari Golin-Blaugrund, a spokeswoman for industry body Cruise Lines International Association, told CNN in the summer.
October 2, 2020: The end of the line
Although a handful of Europe-based cruise ships cautiously returned to the seas, most big vessels remained out of action. Laid up in ports across the world, some, such as Richard Branson’s Scarlet Lady Virgin Voyages vessel, had yet to even have their inaugural voyage.
Meanwhile, cruise ships were still being built, the soaring growth of the industry over the past 10 years resulting in a backlog of requests for vessels.
The result? Many cruise lines found themselves with an excess of ships. These same companies also reported severe financial losses after months of canceled trips.
So ships started to be offloaded. Holland America had already announced plans to sell four of its 14 ships, including virus-hit Rotterdam.
Other sold cruise ships were earmarked for demolition, ending up in breaking yards such as Gadani, near the Pakistan port of Karachi, or Alang, India, where they were systematically torn apart.
November 17, 2020: The Caribbean Covid return
In the fall, new regulations were announced for cruising’s return to US waters, right as the CDC’s ban on cruising was lifted at the end of October.
The Framework for Conditional Sailing Order for Cruise Ships championed universal mask-wearing, physical distancing, and Covid-19 testing.
Cruise companies were also told they must run “simulated voyages” designed “to replicate real-world onboard conditions of cruising” if they wanted to get permission to restart operations.
But on November 17, hopes of salvaging something of the US cruise industry’s 2020 season appeared to be scuppered further when seven passengers tested positive for Covid-19 aboard the 112-guest SeaDream 1 cruise ship, the first vessel to sail in the Caribbean since the pandemic began.
The idea was that testing passengers in advance of travel and before boarding would shut out any risk of Covid on board and passengers were initially not required to wear masks, passenger Gene Sloan, a reporter for The Points Guy, told CNN from his locked-down cabin.
On November 24, the CDC upped its warning on cruise ships, advising that “all people” should avoid traveling on them.
December 9, 2020: The cruise to nowhere
By the end of 2020, any hope for restarting cruising in the near future had been dashed. The CDC’s ban might have lifted, but the SeaDream 1 crisis had reverberated through the industry.
And in Europe, Covid cases were on the rise, impacting the Mediterranean cruises that seemed so promising months earlier.
Countries returned to strict lockdowns, borders closed. Costa and MSC’s upcoming Mediterranean voyages were canceled in light of the new Italian lockdown set to last until early 2021.
In Singapore, the city-state’s tourism board partnered with Genting Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean to organize a series of pleasure cruises to nowhere.
The cruises were only for Singaporeans, who have been unable to leave the city-state for months. Travelers needed to show a negative Covid-19 test prior to boarding. Masks were enforced, as was social distancing, and the ships operated at 50% capacity.
But onboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas in December, an 83-year-old passenger tested positive for Covid on December 9, halting the voyage and causing his close contacts to be quarantined.
Although he later tested negative, with the first test result characterized as a false positive, the ship had been forced to return to port and its passengers disembarked.
Looking ahead to 2021, the promise of vaccines seems to be the only key that could safely unlock the industry. It remains to be seen whether a tourism sector that was once so buoyant will ever reclaim the seas with confidence it once had.
Did you subscribe to our daily newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe!
Source: CNN
