Doug Gollan writes for Forbes to know what is happening in the cruise line industry at the present scenario. He elaborates on activities that is taking place based on his interaction with the three biggest operators of cruise ships.
So, where are all the cruise ships? Let us hear from Doug Gollan to know the whereabouts of the cruise ships.
Port of Miami
In the Port of Miami, months after the pause on cruising, ships continue to sail in and out on a daily basis. That sort of makes sense.
- One might guess they need to refuel and get more provisions.
- But clearly, unlike airliners, the over 300 cruise ships that are out there, aren’t just static, shutdown, mothballed, and tied up somewhere.
A look at the Cruisemapper.com
Looking at Cruisemapper.com , it’s apparent some of these vacation wonderlands anchor offshore for periods of time (below), they also seem to be on the move, in some cases on long voyages (above).
To find out what’s going on, I reached out to the three biggest operators of cruise ships.
They are the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Royal Caribbean Group and Hapag-Lloyd.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings
It operates the Oceania and Regent Seven Seas brands in addition to its namesake.
They responded first and politely declined to offer answers to my questions about what was going on just beyond the horizon.
Royal Caribbean Group
Royal Caribbean Group has Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Silversea, Azamara, TUI.
According to a spokesperson ships come in an out of port for fuel and provisions.
He noted that due to restrictions on repatriating crew, ports acted as hubs where members transferred from one ship to another, not necessarily to disembark.
Staff from various parts of the world
Since onboard staff come from a multitude of countries, and it was often impossible to get them home via scheduled airline flights, Royal Caribbean chartered full airliners to fly them there.
A vessel sailed to a country that had given Royal Caribbean permission to transfer the crew to charter flights that would fly them to their home nations.
Repatriation not completed before June
Describing the repatriation as “monumental,” the entire operation wasn’t completed until the end of June.
Ships that when sailing before COVID-19 carried over 8,000 passengers and crew now are staffed by around 100 team members.
There isn’t enough space in ports to dock all its ships, hence the cluster of ships anchored offshore.
Now that repatriations are done, why not just mothball the ships?
It turns out the remaining ships are in what Carnival calls a “warm layup,” positioned around the world, including the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and in the eastern Pacific.
Warm layup is where most of the ships major systems continue to operate to make sure they function normally over time and the ship can quickly be put back into service.
Warm layup are staffed with crew
According to Carnival, the ships in warm layup are staffed with crew members at what is called “safe-manning” levels.
There are approximately 12,000 crew members remain on Carnival Corp. ships for safe-manning duties.
It is for larger ships is an average of about 100 crew members.
It includes deck officers navigating the ship, engineers in charge of propulsion and power, a security team, and hotel and kitchen staff, along with medical professionals for any crew needs.
Carnival Corporation’s comprehensive picture
The most comprehensive picture of what’s taking place out at sea.
None of the company’s now 90 ships are currently in U.S. waters.
The industry’s largest player, its brands include Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Cunard, Seabourn, Aida, Costa, and P&O.
It utilized 49 ships that traveled over 400,000 nautical miles around the world, along with chartered aircraft, to repatriate over 80,000 crew members.
“The lockdown circumstances, restrictions, closures, various rules around the world and reductions in commercial air made it difficult to use normal means to repatriate crew members from over 130 countries,” A spokesperson said.
What’s life like on these ghost ships?
The Carnival rep said most crew members are staying alone, per protocol for disease mitigation, and in guest cabins with a window or balcony.
They have access to outdoor spaces, movies, Internet, and are able to stay in touch with family and friends.
If you want a closer look, several crew still aboard the ships are posting vlogs on Youtube.
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Source: Forbes
