The key to laying up a cruise ship may be in the preparation to quickly enter revenue service again, according to Per Bjornsen, director, V.Ships Leisure.

“The only option right now is a hot lay-up,” he told Cruise Industry News. “That means the ship runs on its own power, its own systems and there is a crew; a proper crew onboard maintaining the vessel.”

That is a full deck and engine crew and some hotel crew to cater, clean and run various hotel systems.

The ship will thus be ready to resume regular passenger service on short notice.

“You need to make sure the systems are running, going into cabins every day and running the water for example,” said Bjornsen.

Overseeing multiple cruise ships for various brands, Bjornsen said the company was ready to support industry players with a wide network of offices.

“If you want to support your vessel from a shore-based organization, the vessel should be laid up where you have an office,” he said, noting most borders in Europe were closed. “We have the offices, the network and our operation are more resilient.”

V. Ships Leisure is also looking at synergies among its clients and talking to other cruise lines he said, considering putting ships in one place or port, for best practices.

“We are discussing these synergies as they relate to operating costs to see how we can be looking after ships together in the best possible way.”