Why the CREW stayed aboard the EMPTY cruise ships during the COVID-19 pandemic? скачать в хорошем качестве

Why the CREW stayed aboard the EMPTY cruise ships during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In March 2020, as the global spread of Coronavirus started to accelerate, the world’s cruise lines entered into an extended and never-before-seen cruise pause. Over the coming weeks, cruise ships across the world ended their respective cruises and farewelled their passengers – leaving only the officers and crew aboard. The officers and crew of a cruise ship perform a variety of tasks that allow for the safe operation of the ship, as well as all of the hotel services – such as the provision of food and beverages, entertainment, housekeeping and guest services such as reception teams. Although the world’s fleet of cruise ships were devoid of passengers, there were still large crews aboard each of these ships – and in some cases almost the entire crew are still on board even now. When the cruise pause was announced, a number of cruise ships were undertaking world cruises. These voyages often occur during the northern winter months, with cruise ships from a variety of lines heading to the southern hemisphere between December and April. This presented cruise lines and the crew of these ships with a unique challenge, as coinciding with the global cruise shut down, air travel was collapsing as airlines felt the pain of the coronavirus outbreak. Additionally, from March many nations closed their borders to international travellers, meaning in many cases, cruise ship crew were unable to easily leave their ships in foreign ports and fly home as they would normally do at the end of their contract. Another issue to consider is that cruise ships require a minimum number of people to enable to operation of the vessel. These essential personnel range from engineers, electricians, plumbers and maintenance teams – who are needed to keep the ship in a safe operational condition, to bridge officers to oversee the safe navigation of the ships, even during the pause in operations. Most ships that were undertaking world cruises started to return to their home ports in late March and early April. Once alongside, and after receiving government clearance… some of these ships were able to release their non-essential crew… mainly those involved in the hotel operation and guest services. A good example of this could be seen when the Queen Mary 2 returned to Southampton in April. Having unexpectedly ended her world cruise in Australia in mid-March, the ship sailed with just 264 passengers – who were unable to fly - and an almost full complement of crew back to Southampton. During the voyage, many of the crew were given access to passenger accommodation – allowing for a more comfortable voyage home as well as enabling those aboard to better practice social distancing. This situation is by no means unique to QM2, with ships such as P&O’s Arcadia and Fred Olsen’s Boudicca also returning to the UK from long-duration world cruises. Additionally ships of the P&O UK fleet, Marella’s UK based ships, Fred Olsen’s fleet and Cunard’s Queen Victoria have been able to return to home ports and discharge some of their crew. As the world’s largest cruise market, the United States is home to many cruise ships. As such, there have been various lines berthing at popular cruise ports such as Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and San Diego – to name just a few – to disembark passengers. But in many cases, most of the crew remain aboard, unable to leave the ship due to border closures and clearance restrictions. This includes ships of Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Lines & Norwegian. Various ships from the Australian cruise market are present in Manila Bay, following the cruise ban, which forced ships to depart Australian waters (see: https://bit.ly/2xUkHZj) This includes the fleet of P&O Australia, Carnival Sprit and Splendour and the Queen Elizabeth, which had been based in Aussie waters since December and still has the vast majority of her 900-strong crew aboard. It is important to note that while these ships have been relatively stationary during the cruising shut down, they have been undertaking occasional voyages out to sea, primarily to allow for the exchange of water for desalination purposes. During this time several ships have sailed unique courses – with the Sea Princess sailing a course that mapped out the Princess Logo & Queen Elizabeth recently writing “CUNARD” in its wake. Please keep comments kind & spare a thought for the thousands of crew aboard the hundreds of cruise ships who are working to keep their ship healthy and safe. Image References: Alison Morton (+ Thumbnail) Andrew Sassoli-Walker (https://bit.ly/2yNEZUH) Editing: Rachelle Cross Further information: Sea Princess Logo: https://bit.ly/3bmCR3C Micky Arison Instagram: https://bit.ly/3dDbALQ Cunard Line: http://www.cunard.couk Emma Cruises: https://bit.ly/3fJjIMr Big Cruise Podcast: https://bit.ly/2zx4ae4 MSN - Hunger Strike: https://bit.ly/2Ln9ZgR -- #cruiseline #cruisenews #cruiseship