https://gusskinnerconsulting.com/ Volume 4 – Issue #75 https://www.gphsconsulting.com/

The cruise industry has long acknowledged the cumulative negative impact of illness outbreaks. COVID-19 presents a frightful situation. From a public health perspective, though, we shift from Distress to Redress and Address. Leader-SHIP is the newsletter that interweaves media articles and cruise industry responses to provide guidance on actions being taken against the novel coronavirus. It negates forces of disruption and decline with measures for steadfastness ultimately having you enhance the practice of public health in your own life and of those around you.

PLEASE NOTE THIS ISN’T A COMPLETE LISTING OF MEDIA ARTICLES BUT A SNAPSHOT ONLY.

In this Issue:

- Carnival Global CEO says Australia may be Among the First to Relaunch - Coming up with the new normal - Holland America and Princess Cruises cancel all 2020 itineraries in , Alaska and Canada - CDC Update - Crew Member Disembarkations - Stuck on cruise ships during pandemic, crews beg to go home - Carnival Cruises Bookings Surge - Coronavirus: Princess, Holland America extend cruise cancellations; lines expand cancellations, re-bookings - Cruise passengers have gone home, but the crews that looked after them are still stuck at sea - CMV Extends Cruise Suspension Date to June 30 - Leaked audio: Crew stuck for weeks on board ship threatened with 'prosecution by shoreside authorities' if they leak information - Despite masks, coronavirus fears, Norwegian CEO predicts cruising will 'bounce back very, very well' - Royal crew go on hunger strike until company proves it is sending them home. - Plus, more to read….

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10 May, 2020: Carnival Global CEO says Australia may be Among the First to Relaunch The Australian cruise market can’t reopen soon enough for the CEO of Carnival Corporation, the leisure travel giant with a nine-cruise line portfolio that includes Carnival, P&O and Princess. “Australia is one of the most thriving cruise markets in the world,” said Arnold Donald by phone in a rare one-on-one print media interview from his St. Louis residence. “It’s had double-digit growth in cruise for something like 10 years in a row – I’ve lost count. It’s a great market for cruise, certainly with our P&O and Princess brands.” When cruising returns from the months-long suspension of operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “we’ll be back and elated to sail all our ships that come into Australia because, like with every other market in the world, there’s a large population of people who are underpenetrated for cruise,” Mr Donald said.

Reasons for Carnival’s corporate captain sounding upbeat are not without merit. For one, even under the lingering dark cloud of the fatal Ruby Princess calamity, the end of an industry-wide shutdown appears to be within sight. Cruise lines worldwide are now setting specific dates for resuming service, most in time to salvage the Australian winter. Read more…. https://cruisepassenger.com.au/exclusive-carnivals-global-ceo-says-australia-may-be-among-the-first- to-relaunch/

10 May, 2020: Coming up with the new normal Like the rest of the travel industry, river cruise companies have spent much of the Covid-19 travel shutdown assessing not only when they might be able to resume sailing, but what their operations will look like. And like everything else, post-pandemic river sailings promise to be different. From smaller group tours to assigned dining room seating and crew etiquette, every aspect of operations is being assessed. Read more…. https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Insights/Coming-up-with-the-new- normal?utm_source=eNewsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=eltrriver&ct=river&oly_enc_id =7787J9262856C3B

10 May, 2020: Holland America and Princess Cruises cancel all 2020 itineraries in Europe, Alaska and Canada On May 6, two of the Carnival Corporation-owned companies - Princess Cruises and HAL- - cancelled all of their scheduled Summer itineraries and some of the Fall voyages. Both companies

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cancelled all their remaining cruises in Europe, Alaska and Canada-New England for the rest of 2020. Princess additionally cancelled all USA to Caribbean departures through November 4. HAL cancelled a 79- day world cruise (Grand Africa Voyage) scheduled to depart from MA on October 3 and end in (Fort Lauderdale, ) on December 4.

A third Carnival Corporation brand company - Seabourn, also cancelled departures for the rest of the summer 2020. Its 5-ship fleet paused operations until October-November 2020 (depending on vessel). HAL, Princess and Seabourn announced a worldwide suspension of passenger shipping services in mid- March due to the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Until now, these companies had only cancelled voyages through late June. Princess now plans to resume service in August with one of its 18 ships, Majestic Princess. The liner will offer a couple of short sailings to Japan from Taiwan aimed at the local market prior to repositioning to Australia. 9 more Princess ships are expected to resume operations in September, mostly in Australia and New Zealand as well as on the West Coast USA. Read more…. https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/7061-2-major-cruise-lines-cancel-most-sailings-through-the-end- of-2020-summer-season

10 May, 2020: CDC Update - Cruise Ship Crew Member Disembarkations CDC is allowing crew members to disembark from cruise ships in U.S. waters and return home if cruise lines submit a signed attestation stating that they have complied with requirements to safely disembark their crew members. CDC shared information with all cruise lines in US waters on April 23, 2020, to help crew members return home safely. Since then, several cruise lines have requested to disembark crew through this process, and CDC stands ready to approve these requests with same-day turnaround. The list on this page provides the latest information on signed attestations that CDC has received from cruise lines and approved to safely disembark crew. This list is updated daily. Read more…. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/cruise-ship/cruise-ship-member- disembarkations.html

10 May, 2020: Stuck on cruise ships during pandemic, crews beg to go home -- Carolina Vasquez lost track of days and nights, unable to see the sunlight while stuck for two weeks in a windowless cruise ship cabin as a fever took hold of her body. On the worst night of her encounter with COVID-19, the Chilean woman, a line cooks on the Greg Mortimer ship, summoned the strength to take a cold shower fearing the worst: losing consciousness while isolated from others.

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Vasquez, 36, and tens of thousands of other crew members have been trapped for weeks aboard dozens of cruise ships around the world -- long after governments and cruise lines negotiated their passengers' disembarkation. Some have gotten ill and died; others have survived but are no longer getting paid. Read more… https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/stuck-on-cruise-ships-during-pandemic-crews-beg-to-go- home-1.4932192

10 May, 2020: CARNIVAL CRUISES Bookings Surge ...TRAVELERS WANNA HIT THE SEAS ASAP!!! This is kinda shocking, but Carnival Cruise enthusiasts aren't letting the pandemic scare 'em away from boarding ships with hundreds of passengers. A rep with Cruise Planners, an American Express travel franchise, tells TMZ ... after Carnival announced this week it would resume some cruises in August, its clients immediately began reaching out to book their reservations first and nab the most premium deals. We're told in the 3 days after Carnival's announcement ... Cruise Planners' Carnival bookings shot up 600 percent compared to the previous 3 days before the news. That makes sense, but more interestingly, it's a 200 percent increase over the same time period in 2019 -- when folks traveled without fear of the novel coronavirus. Read more…. https://www.tmz.com/2020/05/09/carnival-bookings-spike-increase-cruises-resuming-august/

10 May, 2020: Coronavirus: Princess, Holland America extend cruise cancellations; lines expand cancellations, rebookings The COVID-19 pandemic is doing increasing damage to the cruise industry. Princess Cruises announced Wednesday that it is extending its pause in global ship operations, resulting in the cancellation of select cruises through the end of the 2020 summer season. Sister line Holland America is doing the same, pausing its Alaska, Europe and Canada/New England cruises for 2020, as is other sister line Seabourn. Seabourn is suspending through Oct. 13 sailings to Alaska; that extends throughout what is typically the cruise season there. Also Wednesday, Royal Caribbean Cruises announced an extension of its "Cruise with Confidence" cancellation policy through April 2022, with expanded rebooking options. On Tuesday, Carnival Cruise Line said it was canceling Alaska cruises through the summer but that eight ships would resume North American service on Aug. 1, a month later than the timeline announced in mid-April. Mike Tibbles, with Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, said by email that the state currently faces a loss of 479 voyages — or 80% of expected sailings — with a passenger capacity of more than 955,000 because of ship cancellations. Read more….

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/05/06/princess-cruises-extends-cancellations-during- coronavirus-pandemic/5179236002/

10 May, 2020: Cruise passengers have gone home, but the crews that looked after them are still stuck at sea Most cruise passengers have made their way back home, and the vast ships that once ferried them from port to port are moored up or back on the water, relocating for the next stage in their journeys. But what about the crews that kept these gigantic vessels going, and looked after guests as panic over the coronavirus swept across the oceans? For many of those working in the cruise industry, the nightmare of being aboard a ship that had carried people with coronavirus has continued -- sometimes without an end in sight.

Isolated, denied the swift repatriations offered to passengers and, in some cases, made to endure tough conditions without pay, some of those sequestered at sea have been describing the bureaucratic tangle that has trapped them, often within meters of shore. "I'm hoping we don't get forgotten about, to be honest," says MaShawn Morton, who works for Princess Cruises. "It seems like nobody cares what's happening to us out here." As of May 5, there were over 57,000 crew members still aboard 74 cruise ships in and around US ports and and the Caribbean, according to the US Coast Guard. Many more hundreds were stuck on vessels elsewhere across the world's oceans.

With no passengers to look after and their quarantines completed, the employees are left wondering why they haven't been allowed home. In American waters, cruise ships have been mired in regulations imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US health protection agency. The CDC's official line is that crew members can only be permitted to disembark for repatriation or transfer between ships provided they'll be transported by specially chartered aircraft or personal vehicles. Read more…. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cruise-ship-crew-stuck-at-sea/index.html

10 May, 2020: CMV Extends Cruise Suspension Date to June 30 Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) has further extend the suspension of all worldwide cruises from May 25 through June 30, according to a press release citing the COVID-19 pandemic. There were no reported cases of COVID-19 on any of CMV’s ships, the company said. "CMV continue at present to employ shipboard officers and crew members throughout this suspension period and they are looking forward to

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welcoming back on board all their passengers just as soon as this pandemic is over," the company said. All affected passengers are being offered a future cruise credit of 125 percent of the amount paid for the cruising holiday valid until March 31 2021.

CEO, Christian Verhounig said: “Due to the continued global pandemic, we are still unable to perform our scheduled itineraries and to deliver the travel experience normally enjoyed by our valued passengers. We have therefore taken the decision to temporarily further suspend all cruises until 30th June 2020, when we very much hope to be able to resume service. We are extremely proud to see that nearly 80% of our passengers affected by the cancellation of their cruise have re-booked onto future 2020 and 2021 cruises. This is a great sign and we know that passengers are looking forward to travelling with us in the near future.” CMV has also extended their flexi-cancellation transfer policy for sailings departing up to August 31, 2020. Source:…. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/22909-cmv-extends-cruise- suspension-date-to-june-30.html

10 May, 2020: Leaked audio: Crew stuck for weeks on board Norwegian Cruise Line ship threatened with 'prosecution by shoreside authorities' if they leak information Crew stuck on the Norwegian Epic have been warned against leaking information from the ship, according to leaked audio Business Insider obtained from a crew member on board. In an "important announcement" broadcast ship wide on Wednesday, a member of the Epic's leadership team told crew that "the communication of written, verbal, photographic, video, or computer material regarding company, guest, employees' activities, operations, or business without permission of the company is prohibited."

The member of the ship's leadership team said "such offenses might lead to dismissal from the ship or even prosecution by shoreside authorities." The person who made the announcement added that the policy was both "effective immediately" and had "always been in place" for "the protection of our crew." He also said that anyone taking pictures should always "ask permission" of their fellow crew beforehand. The announcement came weeks into what has been a month’s long ordeal for many cruise-line crew members around the world. Because they cannot disembark over coronavirus fears around the world, thousands of cruise-line crew members have remained stuck on vessels for months. Many have had their pay slashed or their contracts terminated altogether.

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At first, some crew members took to social platforms like Tik Tok to create more lighthearted content about their situations. But now Norwegian appears to be attempting to plug the flow of information from and between its vessels. When two crew members died on board the in April, news spread through informal employee whisper networks, rather than official cruise-line channels. Norwegian Cruise Line did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. A different crew member on the Epic told Business Insider the company "started to give warnings to anyone who posts anything on social media."

"They don't want any communication with the outside world," the crew member said. On the , a ship moored in Dubai's Port Rashid, a member of the crew said that a similar announcement had gone out. However, they said that it was "nothing more than a polite warning to stop posting stuff" and a request to avoid "posting anything you shouldn't" about the ship's operations. "The captain mentioned in his announcement yesterday that when we signed a contract, we signed up for the social-media policy," the crew member said. A crew member on board the Epic, which is off the coast of Miami, told Business Insider that employees on the ship were still permitted to have their phones in public areas, but photos and videos have been discouraged. The crew member said they have also been asked to stop bringing portable speakers and projectors to the crew bar area "to eliminate large groups congregating around tables." In the Wednesday announcement regarding Norwegian's policy on dealing with leaks, the member of Epic's ship leadership team signed off with a film quote of the day for crew members: "May the odds be ever in your favor." Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/norwegian-cruise-line-ship-leaking-audio-stranded-warning- 2020-5

10 May, 2020: Thousands of stranded cruise ship crew finally allowed to disembark in the USA Thousands of cruise ship employees are soon expected to disembark for the first time in months, after agreements between major cruise companies and the CDC. Since Monday, May 4, the CDC has agreed to let a total of 2352 cruise ship crew members disembark from liners in the USA after the shipowners agreed to strict transfer guidelines that prevent the crews from interacting with any public members, staying in hotels or taking commercial flights. The rules hold corporate executives criminally liable in case any of the employees don't follow the requirements. NCLH-Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings employees (from the fleets of NCL-Norwegian, Oceania and RSSC-Regent) make up the majority of the approved this week with a total of 1308, followed by DCL-Disney Cruise Line (1031 employees), according to CDC. The

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remaining 13 are from RCI-Royal Caribbean. According to Jonathon Fishman, a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean, the company had already disembarked over 12,000 crew through direct sailings, charter flights, and commercial flights, and "thousands more" were going home in the coming weeks. According to Roger Frizzell, a spokesperson for Carnival Corporation, the company had recently submitted their proposal into the CDC and had been "awaiting its feedback and response." Frizzell added they had already repatriated thousands of crews via air charter and on their ships, to their respective home countries. Thousands of workers have been stuck on cruise ships since at least mid-March when the Coronavirus (COVID-19) brought travel to a halt. On March 14, the CDC announced its first No Sail order, preventing new passengers from getting on cruise liners in the USA. The order was expanded on April 15 to prevent the crew from disembarking at US ports. Many of the crew have stopped working and are not being paid. There is little official information about which cruise vessels have been overtaken by the virus. Source: https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/7063-thousands-stranded-cruise-ship-crew- finally-allowed-disembark-us

10 May, 2020: Despite masks, coronavirus fears, Norwegian CEO predicts cruising will 'bounce back very, very well' Cruise ship passengers may have to don masks, see fewer tables in the dining room and, frankly, fewer fellow guests aboard when they eventually return to sea. And as for that old cruise-ship standard, the self-serve buffet? "Likely not," said Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, in an interview. But make no mistake, he said. Even with changes still under development to make sure the coronavirus doesn't show up on cruise ships again, guests will have as great a time as ever, Del Rio pledges. "All the basic elements if cruising will always be there – the great value, the multiple destinations, the great dining," Del Rio said. Most of the changes will be similar to those they are already encountering in daily life to cope with COVID-19. Del Rio spoke to USA TODAY during a tumultuous week in which the company warned it could face bankruptcy reorganization, then a day later announced it could stay solvent for at least a year by reeling in $2.2 billion in new capital. On Thursday, it announced stock deals that boosted its capital to 18 months' worth, according to Del Rio. Read more…. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/05/08/norwegian-cruise-line-ceo-cruisers-come- back-after-coronavirus/3091845001/

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10 May, 2020: Ruby Princess cruise ship, tied to US and Australia coronavirus deaths, waits to disembark more crew CAVITE, Philippines — A cruise ship being investigated in Australia for sparking coronavirus infections anchored in Manila Bay on Thursday to bring Filipino crew members home. The Ruby Princess joins at least 16 other cruise ships at anchor waiting for their more than 5,000 Filipino crew members to be tested for the coronavirus before disembarking. Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 214 Filipino crew members on the Ruby Princess will be tested but may have to wait behind those from other ships. The Ruby Princess has been linked to 19 deaths in Australia and two in the United States. The Australian investigation is trying to determine why 2,700 passengers and crew were allowed to disembark in Sydney on March 19 before the test results of sick passengers were known. Many passengers flew from Sydney overseas. Two died at home in the United States, including Los Angeles resident Chung Chen, whose family is suing Princess Cruises for more than $1 million in a lawsuit alleging it failed to alert passengers to the risk. Read more…. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/05/07/coronavirus-us-deaths-ruby-princess- cruise-ship-waits-disembark-crew/3088555001/

10 May, 2020: Marella Announces Itinerary Update for 2020, 2021 has announced changes to its itinerary program across the next three seasons. Summer 2020 Should it be safe to set sail, Marella Cruises will commence its summer 2020 program in July 2020, with three of its five ships sailing. The will set sail from Corfu, the from the UK and the from Palma all as originally planned. The will start sailings in winter 2020 and will no longer operate from Naples for the summer 2020 season. The Marella Dream will no longer sail from Palma this season as she will resume sailing in summer 2021. The Marella Celebration will be retired from the fleet, as previously announced.

Winter 2020 The Marella Discovery 2 will homeport in Cyprus, setting sail from March 24, 2021 and replacing the itineraries that Marella Celebration was due to sail. This itinerary change means that the cruise line will no longer offer its Asia and the Middle East sailings. Customers that were due to sail from Cyprus on the Marella Celebration during March and April will be automatically upgraded to Marella Discovery 2 at no additional cost. The Marella Discovery will no longer sail her December and January sailings from Jamaica

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and will officially set sail on Feb. 3, 2021 with a repositioning cruise from Malaga to Jamaica before continuing her Caribbean program from Jamaica as planned on Feb. 16, 2021. There will be no changes to the Marella Explorer 2 and Marella Explorer. The Marella Explorer 2 will still homeport in Barbados and Marella Explorer will still homeport in the Canaries, offering customers their cruises as planned.

Summer 2021 The Marella Explorer 2 will no longer homeport in Naples for summer 2021 as the cruise line will no longer operate sailings from Naples; this means Marella Explorer 2 will replace Marella Celebration’s itineraries from Dubrovnik. Customers that were due to sail on Celebration from Dubrovnik will be automatically upgraded at no additional cost. The Marella Explorer, Marella Dream, Marella Discovery and Marella Discovery 2 will all sail their itineraries as planned. Including the cruise lines new USA itineraries on the Marella Discovery. Source:…. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/22895-marella-announces-itinerary-update-for- 2020-2021.html

10 May, 2020: Only 8 Carnival Cruise Ships Will Begin Sailing in August Carnival Cruise Line has announced its plan to phase in cruise operations starting with eight cruise ships in August. As the world continues to deal with the pandemic Carnival Cruise Line has announced its plans on how cruises will resume and it won’t be all at once. The Miami-based cruise line previously announced that operations would commence again on June 27 but now that date has been extended and only on some vessel. Eight Carnival cruise ships will resume sailings on August 1, 2020, with three cruise ships out pf Galveston, three cruise ships out of Miami, and two cruise ships out of . Here is the list of vessels… Read more…. https://www.cruisehive.com/only-8-carnival-cruise-ships-will-begin-sailing-in-august/39466

10 May, 2020: Royal Caribbean crew go on hunger strike until company proves it is sending them home. Fifteen crew members on Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship say they are on a hunger strike until the company agrees to send them home. After nearly two months stranded at sea since the industry halted operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, the crew members, who have not eaten since Thursday afternoon, told the Miami Herald they are desperate. The group of 15 from Romania does not want their names used for fear of retaliation from the company, which they say has threatened

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to punish workers if they talk to journalists. “My mental health is degrading,” one said. “We do not have any more hope.”

Fifteen crew members on Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas cruise ship say they are on a hunger strike until the company agrees to send them home. After nearly two months stranded at sea since the industry halted operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, the crew members, who have not eaten since Thursday afternoon, told the Miami Herald they are desperate. The group of 15 from Romania does not want their names used for fear of retaliation from the company, which they say has threatened to punish workers if they talk to journalists. “My mental health is degrading,” one said. “We do not have any more hope.” But fasting crew members told the Herald they have no plans to stop their hunger strike until the company provides proof that they are going home.

After telling crew members for weeks that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had banned crew repatriation flights, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley reversed course on Sunday, saying the company would sign the required agreements with the agency to repatriate crew as soon as possible. The CDC requires the company’s executives to sign a legal agreement holding them accountable for following the agency’s rules, including providing disembarking crew members with masks and using only private transportation to send them home.

Royal Caribbean has allowed 16 people, all U.S. citizens, to go home using the CDC process. The Navigator of the Seas, where the fasting crew members are now, is scheduled to dock in Port Miami on May 10 and stay until May 11. The workers are asking to be flown home from Miami then.

Carnival Corporation has signed the required CDC form to repatriate 582 people to the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has signed the form to repatriate 2,463 people to the U.S., Philippines, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Greece and Honduras.

Royal Caribbean transferred the Romanians, who originally worked on the ship, to the Navigator ship at the company’s private island in the Bahamas on Wednesday ahead of a planned charter flight from Miami to Romania on May 16. But on Thursday, Bayley announced in a letter to employees obtained by the Herald that the Romanians would be transferred to a different ship, the , and flown from Barbados to Romania on May 21. The crew members said the company did not

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provide an explanation for the delay, the most recent of several since they were first told they would be going home on March 30. Fishman said Royal Caribbean Cruises has repatriated 14,000 of its 70,000 ship employees (around 100 per ship are needed for operations with no passengers). The decision to go on a hunger strike did not come easily, the crew members said. “We started this hunger strike because someone needs to do something,” one said. “The point is our mental health. The mental health is dropping down.”

Last week, a Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard from the ship near Greece; his body was never found. In a letter to employees this week, Bayley said the company has counseling services available. “Crew life has unique stresses and pressures,” he wrote. “Just recently, we suffered the tragic loss of a colleague aboard Jewel, and our hearts go out to his family, friends and colleagues.“ One of the fasting crew members said his father in Romania is ill, and his concerns for his father are wearing on him as he remains stuck in the Caribbean. “Only thinking about something happening to him, I can barely get out of bed in the morning,” he said. “This ship will be for two days in Miami. Why can’t they send us in an airplane?” Source: www.miamiherald.com

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