Tag Archives: Bahamas

Passengers on Mediterranean cruise test positive for covid-19

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Two passengers tested positive for the coronavirus during routine checks aboard a Mediterranean cruise this week, MSC Cruises said.

The passengers, who were asymptomatic, got their positive test results on Monday, according to MSC Cruises spokesman Luca Biondolillo. They were not travelling together on the MSC Seaside. Biondolillo said the individuals and their travelling groups, as well as close contacts, were immediately isolated, and no one aside from the original two passengers tested positive.

According to the Times of Malta, the vessel was not allowed to make a regular call-in to Malta’s Valletta cruise port Monday. Instead, Biondolillo said, the ship made a “technical call” — where passengers don’t disembark — and then resumed its regular schedule with a stop in Sicily.

Both passengers and their parties left the ship in Siracusa, on the island of Sicily, and were taken home “by protected MSC Cruises transport” Tuesday, the cruise company said. The ship continued its normal schedule after the Siracusa stop.

“All of this took place in line with the protocol and in coordination with the local health authorities,” Biondolillo said in an email Wednesday.

Passengers on MSC ships are not required to be vaccinated, but they have to undergo several tests: two to three days before leaving for a cruise, just before getting on the ship and midway through the cruise, Biondolillo said.

“If anything, this is another demonstration that the protocol works,” he said.

The company started sailing in the Mediterranean in August 2020 and has seen “a handful such cases” since, Biondolillo said, adding that “many thousands” of passengers have sailed safely.

Cruise ships have slowly started service again around the world, but still have not resumed in the United States since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shut the industry down last March. The agency is not requiring cruise ships to sail with vaccinated passengers but will allow those with at least 95 per cent of vaccinated crew and guests to skip test cruises meant to show how they will deal with covid-19 risks.

The first cruise from U.S. shores with paying passengers is scheduled to set sail later this month. The Celebrity Cruises ship will require everyone 16 and older to be fully vaccinated — a condition that comes into conflict with a Florida law that says businesses can’t ask for proof of vaccination status.

MSC Cruises, which is headquartered in Geneva, announced this week that it plans to start short cruises on MSC Meraviglia from Miami to the Bahamas on Aug. 2. The company recently got approval from the CDC to conduct a test cruise on that vessel.

The company said it will “welcome both vaccinated and non-vaccinated guests,” with those who are not vaccinated subject to additional testing and restrictions. Rubén Rodriguez, president of MSC Cruises USA, said in a statement that he expects the majority of passengers will be vaccinated.

“The rapid distribution of vaccines in the U.S. has been a positive step toward helping vacationers get back to travelling, and we encourage our guests to take advantage of this added layer of protection when resuming travel this summer,” he said.

Royal Caribbean Relaunches Cruise Service in North America This June

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Royal Caribbean International will be the first major contemporary cruise line back in service in North America, relaunching cruises in June from Nassau with the Adventure of the Seas offering weeklong itineraries starting on June 12.

“We’ve been working on the return to service for well over a year for this market,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales and trade support and service, Royal Caribbean International. “We’ve been sailing successfully in Singapore and feel very confident about our strong protocols that are in place.”

The weeklong sailings will operate below 100 per cent occupancy to start on the 3,100-guest Adventure, and ramp up occupancy rates over time, said Freed.

All crew will be vaccinated and guests will be required to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination. Guests under 18 will need a negative PCR test.

Freed said Nassau was a great jumping-off point for people to cruise from with 24 daily flights from 13 major U.S. airports.

The cruise will call on Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island and its highest-rated port globally, where the ship will spend two days.

Other port stops include Grand Bahama and Cozumel, where the company will only allow guests off the ship on Royal Caribbean-organized shore excursions.

“With our own little bubble, we can really make sure the health and safety protocols are being followed,” Freed told Cruise Industry News via phone.

The Adventure will thus join the Quantum of the Seas, sailing from Singapore, and the Odyssey of the Seas, sailing from Haifa, as the Royal Caribbean ships back in service.

As for why the company decided on the 2001-built Adventure and Freed said the Voyager-class ship was the right ship for the deployment, with all the company’s bells and whistles, having come off a major refurbishment in 2018.

Itineraries are currently scheduled from June through August, and Freed said the next logical steps were getting more ships back in service in North America, as well as increasing occupancy on the Adventure over time.

Among major product changes, Freed pointed to the company’s e-mustering system, allowing guests to attend the muster drill from their stateroom or using a mobile device on an individual basis. She also noted a more digital cruise experience, using mobile phones to access restaurant menus, for example.

Many Governments Failing Cruise Crew Repatriation

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Crew Transfer Between Vessels

“The challenges in repatriating seafarers on cruise vessels around the world have highlighted the shortcomings of many governments in this worldwide crisis,” Lena Dyring, director of cruise operations for the Norwegian Seafarers Union, told Cruise Industry News. “These shortcomings have caused a toxic, compounding domino effect for seafarers who were and still are stuck on cruise ships around the world and caused a lot of human suffering.”

Dyring said that first of all she wanted to highlight how the Bahamas has acted.

“They have not allowed repatriation from their territory, thus failing their obligations under the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC). They boast that they have ‘allowed’ the ships to anchor in their waters and have crew members transferring between vessels so they can sail them home. They also boast that storing and provisions have been done in the Bahamas. But to my knowledge, most of these vessels still sail to Miami or Port Everglades for storing and provisions.”

According to Dyring, had the Bahamas allowed charter flights out of their territory from day one, there would not have been so many seafarers stuck at sea and a lot of human suffering and uncertainty could have been avoided. To her knowledge, she said, the Bahamas has even denied medical evacuations from vessels registered there.

There are many governments that have failed both their own citizens and their obligations under the MLC, according to Dyring. She said there is a pattern of “overreactions” caused by what she called fear and not facts.

“I also have to highlight the situation in the Philippines where thousands of seafarers have been stuck either on a ship in Manila Bay or in some kind of quarantine situation in Manila for weeks and sometimes months for no apparent reason.

“The Philippine union AMOSUP has done a great job in the middle of all of this, but it is difficult when you have to work against all of these other forces.”

Some governments have stepped up and taken responsibility. Dyring mentioned that Barbados, for instance, has taken a vastly different approach to the challenges and have invited the cruise lines to operate charter flights out of their country.

Some countries in Europe have also taken their obligations seriously. Dyring said that the UK has stepped up, as well as Germany, Spain and Norway.

Read the full article in the Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine Summer 2020 edition, due out at the end of June.