This Is a Daily Compilation of Media Articles Concerning the Covid-19 Impact on the International Cruise Industry
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1 THIS IS A DAILY COMPILATION OF MEDIA ARTICLES CONCERNING THE COVID-19 IMPACT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CRUISE INDUSTRY. Please note this isn’t a complete listing of media articles but a snapshot only. 21 March, 2020: SCOTS HOLIDAYMAKERS TRAPPED ON CRUISE SHIP TELL OF CORONAVIRUS HORROR AS BOAT SETS SAIL FOR ITALY A Scots couple trapped on board a cruise ship have told of their horror after discovering the boat is now set to dock in coronavirus stricken Italy. Virginia and Bill Maclean, from Inverness, are passengers on the Costa Pacifica and fear they are being sent into the “eye of the storm” after the latest on board announcement. All passengers apart from French nationals have been stopped from leaving the ship, which docked in Marseille, France, on Friday morning. The decision reportedly nearly sparked a riot on board, with the couple's fellow passenger Ted Hills, from Lockerbie, revealing fights had broken out between a few people. Read more… https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-holidaymakers-trapped-cruise-ship-21726776 21 March, 2020: 21 LUCKY HAWAII RESIDENTS ALLOWED TO LEAVE 2 CRUISE SHIPS DOCKING IN HONOLULU Some 21 lucky Hawaii residents are being allowed to get off two cruise ships that are stopping in Honolulu for food and fuel but are not disembarking any other passengers due to the spread of the new coronavirus. The state Department of Transportation Harbors Division said six Hawaii residents and an injured passenger and her spouse were allowed to leave the cruise ship Maasdam docked at Pier 2 on Friday after some uncertainty whether they would be permitted to get off — and have to sail elsewhere. The ship has 850 passengers aboard. Another 15 Hawaii residents are expected to disembark the Norwegian Jewel, with 1,700 passengers, when it arrives Sunday. Read more…. https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/03/21/hawaii-news/hawaii-residents-allowed-to-leave-2-cruise- ships/ 21 March, 2020: AT LEAST 30 CRUISE SHIPS ARE AT SEA RIGHT NOW. HERE'S WHAT IT'S LIKE ON BOARD CLIA encompasses 38 cruise companies, making up more than 95% of global cruise capacity -- a total of 277 ships. "A handful of ships -- about 14% of the total CLIA fleet -- are currently at sea completing their journeys," the organization said in a statement to CNN. "Our members are focused on bringing these ships safely back to port as soon as they can." Among the 30 or so still at sea, Norwegian Jewel is heading toward Honolulu, Hawaii, but no one's quite sure whether it'll be allowed to dock there. Read more…. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ship-passengers-stranded-coronavirus/index.html 21 March, 2020: “SCARIER THAN THE CRUISE” EVACUATED AMERICANS DESCRIBE CHAOS, FEARS ON JOURNEY HOME "In the end, said passengers who fled a cruise ship (CostaLuminosa) because of a coronavirus outbreak at sea, the evacuation and journey back to the United States was more harrowing, chaotic and frightening Document prepared by A.L. Skinner Consulting Inc https://gusskinnerconsulting.com subject to changes / amendments pg. 1 2 than their ill-fated maritime voyage. Weak and sick from no food for nearly 24 hours, several passengers fainted. Two went into respiratory distress. Others had fevers so high that they had to be separated from the rest of the travelers aboard the chartered flight. Several had severe coughs." Read more… https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/us/coronavirus-cruise-ship-costa- luminosa.html?fbclid=IwAR3CKJ741fo1yqB4RhsVIT6NOckzCcByS_E4Z9MtWx3ftt5eLzW4J1R5Fhs 21 March, 2020: WILL MY UPCOMING ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISE BE CANCELED BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC? Perhaps no other question is on the lips of so many Royal Caribbean cruisers these days as if their upcoming cruise in the next few months will actually sail or not. In fact, the question is not relegated to sailings leaving in the next 30, 60 or even 90 days. Some of our readers are curious about cruises around Thanksgiving, Christmas and even into 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdowns, social distancing and month-long suspension of cruises has almost everyone contemplating what to expect next. The short answer to the question of if your cruise will sail or not is: no one knows, yet. If you have a Royal Caribbean cruise coming up, unfortunately the only thing we can do at this point is wait and see. The official word from Royal Caribbean is there, "goal is to resume operations on April 11th, 2020." Read more… https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/03/20/will-my-upcoming-royal-caribbean-cruise-be- canceled-because-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic 21 March, 2020: CANADA WATCHING 70 CRUISE SHIPS STILL SAILING WITH 4,000 CANADIANS ON BOARD The federal government is trying to keep tabs on as many as 4,000 Canadians still on-board cruise ships sailing around the world amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Adam Austen, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, says the department is aware of about 70 ships still at sea with Canadian passengers on board. Cruise ships have been a major part of the COVID-19 story since the novel coronavirus began spreading in January, with multiple ships under quarantine or refused docking privileges after passengers tested positive for the disease. Read more… https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/03/20/canada-cruise-ships-coronavirus/ https://www.sootoday.com/around-ontario/covid-19-canada-watching-70-cruise-ships-still-sailing-with- 4000-canadians-on-board-2184664 21 March, 2020: FOUR CRUISE SHIPS HAVE NOW BEEN DRAGGED INTO THE PANDEMIC Four cruise ships have now been dragged into the pandemic, with the Australian - NSW Government admitting they should not have let almost 3000 passengers into the streets of Sydney. #9News. Four cruise ships tested positive for coronavirus in Sydney. 4 people tested positive for COVID-19 after the Ruby Princess disembarked over 3,000 guests in Sydney (one crew member who is still on the ship and 3 guests who left the ship); one person each on the Ovation of the Seas, the Celebrity Solstice and the Voyager of the Seas tested positive as well (another newspaper in Australia reports a second positive test of a guest from the Voyager). Link: https://www.facebook.com/136612489720349/posts/2831288066919431/?d=n Document prepared by A.L. Skinner Consulting Inc https://gusskinnerconsulting.com subject to changes / amendments pg. 2 3 21 March, 2020: CUNARD LINE ENDS 3 WORLD CRUISES Cunard temporarily suspended its operations and is currently accepting no new passengers or crew on its liners. According to the Carnival Corporation-owned company, its operations will stop through April 11. It comes following advice from CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) for cruise companies to voluntarily and temporarily suspend operations from U.S. ports for thirty days. This will also impact P&O Cruises which suspended operations until April 11 as well. Cunard president Simon Palethorpe said that having reviewed all of their ship operations and industry recommendations, they had decided no new passengers or crew would be joining their ships as they suspended operations until April 11, 2020. He added the pause in operations had been done "in an abundance of caution to support the global effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.” Read more… https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/6853-cunard-line-ends-3-world-cruises 21 March, 2020: CRUISE SHIP BOUND FOR ITALY HAD 36 CORONAVIRUS CASES DURING MARSEILLE STOP MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - An Italian cruise ship bound for the Italian harbour of Savona had 36 people on board infected with the coronavirus when tests were undertaken on passengers during a stop in the French port of Marseille, French authorities said on Friday. Read more… https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-france-marseille/cruise-ship-bound-for-italy-had- 36-coronavirus-cases-during-marseille-stop-idUKKBN2172W8 21 March, 2020: DIAMOND PRINCESS, GRAND PRINCESS CRUISE LINE HAD HIGH RATES OF ILLNESS EVEN BEFORE CORONAVIRUS Princess Cruises had a health problem long before back-to-back outbreaks of the new coronavirus on the Diamond and Grand Princess ships unmoored the entire cruise industry. Their passengers fell sick extraordinarily often. Nearly 5,000 people onboard Princess ships in the last decade have suffered from bouts of vomiting, diarrhea – or both – in numbers widespread enough that government health officials issued alerts on 26 outbreaks. Read more.. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/03/20/before-coronavirus-princess- cruises-saw-outbreaks-alarming-rates/5047508002/ 21 March, 2020: QUARANTINED CRUISE PASSENGERS ARRIVE FROM FRANCE IN ATLANTA ATLANTA (AP) — A jet carrying 359 people including hundreds of American and Canadian cruise ship passengers home from France landed at Atlanta's international airport on Friday as emergency responders prepared to screen them for the coronavirus, federal officials said. Three people on the flight have tested positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms, while 13 others are sick but haven't been tested, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Friday. At least some of the passengers — many of them from the cruise ship Costa Luminosa — were being taken a hangar for screening. Read more…. https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3901477 Document prepared by A.L. Skinner Consulting Inc https://gusskinnerconsulting.com subject to changes / amendments pg. 3 4 21 March, 2020: ITALIAN CRUISE SHIP HAD 36 CORONAVIRUS CASES: MARSEILLE PREFECTURE PARIS: An Italian cruise ship that disembarked 639 of its more than 1,420 passengers in the southern French port of Marseille on Thursday had 36 people on board infected with the coronavirus, the Marseille area prefecture said on Friday (Mar 20).