Thread: 80,000 cruise workers are still stuck aboard ships in US waters

80,000 cruise workers are still stuck aboard ships in US waters. Staff members say it's 'embarrassing' they're not allowed to disembark.

Kelly McLaughlin
4 hours ago



Two women sit on a bench at a promenade of the western seaside town of Loutraki as the 954 cabin, ten deck Oosterdam line cruise ship is seen at the background in 2003 (file photo). REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis

• Up to 80,000 crew members are stuck on 120 cruise ships on US waters, and it's unclear when they'll touch land again.
• Because of a no-sail order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, crew members need government permission to disembark.
• Crew members say the order has effectively trapped them on their ships. One compared it to prison, and others say it's "embarrassing" that the US wouldn't let them disembark.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thousands of cruise workers are still stuck aboard ships on US waters, and the government won't let many of them disembark.

According to a report from CBS News, up to 80,000 crew members are stuck on 120 cruise ships on US waters. The Guardian estimated that more than 100,000 crew members were stuck around the world.

The ships aren't allowed to let staff disembark in the US because of a no-sail order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which bans crews from touching land without government approval.

The order is designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but crew members say it's added practical challenges. Staff members who do receive permission to leave ships are banned from interacting with the public and using hotels, public transportation, or commercial airlines, which makes it practically difficult to disembark, according to CBS News.

"We're on a ship with 1,300 other crew members from 60 different nationalities, and our nation is the one that's not letting us back into the country," Sky Princess crew member and Broadway actor Dan Domenech told CBS News. "It's embarrassing."

The Oosterdam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, was also prevented from porting this week when it tried to let staff members disembark in Los Angeles.

The ship has been at sea since March, with no COVID-19 cases, USA Today reported.

"I'm not sick. I've offered to take a COVID test. I've offered to quarantine for 2 weeks ashore, but the CDC won't let us in, and our ship is trying everything they can to get us home," Crew member Melinda Mann told Fox 11.

Cruse performer on the Oosterdam Ryan Driscoll told CBS News that the ship feels like a "prison."

"The fact that they won't let us off is extremely frustrating, irritating, especially for ships that just have crew members that have been quarantined for much longer than 14 days and have no COVID-19 cases," he said. "I want to go home. I want to see my family."

The Coast Guard is currently monitoring the 120 cruise ships on US waters. It remains unclear how many Americans are on board, and how long they will have to be at sea.

https://www.insider.com/cruise-worke...-waters-2020-4

Unclear how many of the 80,000 are U.S. citizens?

Most likely "unclear" because the ship wants to DUMP all 80,000 of them off on our shores!

Let our Naval Hospital ship transfer the U.S. citizens off the ship, the rest can sail back home.

Quarantine them in the hospital tent cities that FEMA built in NYC never used them.

How convenient 120 ships are "stuck in US waters", but not off some other countries shores! Go to Italy, I am sick of the entire world showing up on our doorstep for us to pay for their problems.

Those ships should be docking where they are registered. Give them medical treatment there and then arrange for their transportation back to their home countries. We are not the "home" country for 80,000 of their employees.

Apr 30, 2020 - Health

American cruise ship workers denied disembarkation at Los Angeles

Rebecca Falconer


An undated image of the Holland American Lines cruise ship Oosterdam in San Diego Harbor. Photo: Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Americans are among thousands of cruise ship workers stuck at sea because of a CDC order issued in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. But the CDC says it's up to cruise liners to ensure they meet the legal safety requirements during the pandemic.

The big picture: The CDC said in its No Sail Order extension announcement on April 9 that the Coast Guard was monitoring some 120 cruise ships in U.S. waters with nearly 80,000 crew members on board and this is still the case, per CBS News, which reported Wednesday 132 Americans were "marooned on cruise ships owned by Carnival Cruise Line companies" — including nine aboard the Oosterdam who were denied disembarkation at Los Angeles Tuesday.

Details: The American crew on the Holland America Line ship appealed for help after they were prevented from going to L.A., according to USA Today, which notes the Oosterdam's passengers left the vessel in March and that there were no coronavirus cases on the ship.

• Some of the staff have been on the liner that docked at the Port of San Pedro since Feb. 21, crew member Melinda Mann, from Georgia, told Fox 11.
• "I'm not sick. I've offered to take a COVID test. I've offered to quarantine for 2 weeks ashore, but the CDC won't let us in, and our ship is trying everything they can to get us home," Mann told the news outlet.

What they're saying: The CDC told Fox 11 under the No Sail Order, "cruise lines must develop and implement a comprehensive plan to prevent, detect, respond, and contain COVID-19 on cruise ships for both passengers and crew." It noted the disembarkations were approved for other cruise lines that met these requirements in the past two weeks.

• "The refusal of Holland America and Carnival executives to attest to safe disembarkation conditions is the reason why CDC did not approve disembarkation for the Oosterdam crew," the CDC said. "In conversations with CDC, an official of the companies complained that arranging nonpublic transportation for its disembarking crew was too expensive."

"Because Holland America and Carnival failed to provide the safety attestation, disembarkation would have violated the No Sail Order and federal laws. ... Rather than comply with the No Sail Order and disembark its American crew, the Oosterdam departed. CDC has an obligation to ensure that cruise disembarkations do not harm public health. CDC stands ready to fulfill that obligation and authorize disembarkation as soon as Holland America and Carnival assure local, State, and Federal health authorities that the companies have taken sufficient precautions."

— CDC statement to Fox 11The other side:

Holland America said in a statement to news outlets that "no crew were permitted to disembark from Oosterdam" on Tuesday and the firm was continuing to work with the CDC "to obtain approval to disembark crew in the U.S. for immediate return home under their current No Sail Order which does not allow us to do so at this time, including for U.S. citizens."

"We are working to repatriate thousands of crew who come from over 100 countries around the world. Our entire company remains focused on returning them safely home to their loved ones as soon as possible."

— Holland America statementGo deeper:

Carnival CEO defends coronavirus response

https://www.axios.com/american-cruise-ship-crew-disembark-los-angeles-9a5a244b-d6a3-4f9b-8b86-c0c5e1fdf516.html

Cruises have stopped, but ships with thousands of crew members still in San Diego waiting to return home

[With the downtown San Diego skyline as a backdrop, the cruise ship Disney Wonder docked at the B Street Pier on March 19, 2020. Passengers were allowed to disembark from the ship, which still remains in San Diego with crew members on board.
(Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


More than 80 crew members and nine passengers still on board are sick with COVID-19

By LORI WEISBERG
APRIL 30, 2020 4:20 PM

More than a month after cruising came to an abrupt halt due to the widening coronavirus pandemic, three ships remain docked in San Diego as the cruise lines scramble to return more than 2,200 crew members to their home countries.

The Disney Wonder and two Celebrity ships — the Eclipse and Millennium — have been in San Diego since late March following a no-sail order earlier in the month from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention halting all cruise ship operations from U.S. ports. While passengers, along with crew members whose contracts had ended, disembarked at the time of arrival, the vast majority of the crew have remained on board, including some sickened by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The CDC order has since been extended, remaining in place, at least for now, well into July.
Crew members in San Diego are barred from leaving the ships except for the purpose of taking privately chartered flights to return home. So far, more than 500 ship employees from the Eclipse, Millennium and Wonder have already headed home on flights to the United Kingdom, Brazil and Indonesia, according to the Port of San Diego.

The cruise lines are working to arrange more flights to the Philippines and India, although they have not been scheduled yet, port spokeswoman Brianne Page said Thursday.

On its website, the San Diego Unified Port District has an update on its maritime operations, seeking to reassure the public about the “strict health protocols” in place for disembarking crew still on board.

It points out that the port, U.S. Coast Guard, CDC, San Diego County Health & Human Services, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have been working with Celebrity and Disney to disembark asymptomatic crew members.

“The agencies are ensuring that strict health protocols are in place — each crew member is required to complete a health questionnaire and temperature checks are performed prior to disembarking; and each crew member is provided with and required to wear a mask,” states the port.

“Only crew members who don’t have fevers are being allowed to disembark.”


In all, 541 of the 830 crew members originally on board the Millennium remain, in addition to 977 of the initial 1,220 on the Eclipse, and 740 of the Wonder’s original 837, Page said.

A number of the cruise staff on board the Wonder and Eclipse ships are also being treated for COVID-19 by medical staff and are being isolated from the other crew members, Page said. On the Eclipse, there are 63 active cases of the virus, and on the Disney Wonder, there are 18 individuals still being treated out of the original 46 cases, according to reports made by the cruise lines to the port, Page said.

In addition, there are Eclipse passengers from South America who are still on board recovering from the virus, according to the port.

Arrangements are being made to fly seven of them to Argentina and two to Colombia via private, chartered air ambulance flights. The scheduled dates for those flights have yet to be determined.

Over the last month, the Wonder, Eclipse and Millennium ships have been periodically moored about a mile off the coast of Silver Strand State Beach in between being docked at the B Street Pier.

Because the cruise lines have to pay an assortment of fees while in port, they can avoid those by going out to sea for days at a time, Page explained. They tend to come into port only when they need to get fuel and supplies. As more crew members leave, they will likely be at the pier much less frequently, she said. While it’s unknown how much longer they will be in San Diego, it’s expected they will be here for at least the next two weeks.

The three ships are among a number of ocean liners still at sea with tens of thousands of marooned crew members awaiting a return home.

Not all the lines are using chartered flights to get their personnel back home. Carnival Cruise Line said it has been working on returning its crew members to their home countries “using our ships as transport given the limited number of commercial flights and charters.”

Some 18 Carnival ships will rendezvous in the Bahamas over the next several days, the line said Wednesday, as part of a plan to use nine of those ships for returning more than 10,000 healthy crew members to their homes.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...to-return-home

Royal Caribbean CEO outlines plan to get crew members home, calling it 'incredibly complex'


David Oliver
USA TODAY


Royal Caribbean, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has made a plan to repatriate its crew members back to their respective home countries – including those from the U.S. – as the coronavirus pandemic lingers.


While the cruise industry has managed to disembark passengers from ships, it has struggled with how to remove thousands of crew members.


Across 26 cruise ships, 25,000 Royal Caribbean crew members have completed 14 days of in-room quarantine and are now practicing social distancing, according to an internal letter to crew from Michael Bayley, Royal Caribbean president and CEO, and obtained by USA TODAY. Five crew members are being treated in isolation with flu-like symptoms, which are similar to those of COVID-19.


Nearly 9,100 crew members have returned home, including 398 Americans, by commercial flights and private transport.


Royal Caribbean crew members come from 60 countries, and returning them home means following 60 sets of rules.


"What we’ve learned over the past month is that one simple question – how do we get you home? – turns out to be incredibly complex to answer," Bayley wrote in the letter.


Here's the breakdown of when remaining American crew members aboard the Royal Caribbean fleet can return home. Bayley noted that plans are subject to change:


Beginning May 6, American crew on ships near the U.S. will receive private transportation home.

American crew in Asia will fly home from the Philippines pending the reopening of the Manila airport.

Crew at Perfect Day, the line's private island in the Bahamas, and off the Barbados coast will sail to Miami and then be sent home via private transport. They should return home by May 14.

U.S. crew now in the Mediterranean should fly home by May 20.

The letter also indicated that one employee had died this month after being hospitalized for several weeks and that the company was mourning "the loss of several of our colleagues over the past two months." It did not say whether they had COVID-19. USA TODAY has reached out to Royal Caribbean for more information.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, friends and colleagues, including his two brothers, who also work for the Royal Caribbean family," Bayley wrote in the letter of the recently deceased employee "We have all been traumatized by this terrible time and it is our shared commitment to each other that will help us journey to better times."

The CDC will only allow the line to disembark crew if company executives guarantee crew members won't use public transportation, public airport terminals or interact with rental car companies or restaurants on their trips home, among other stipulations. The cruise line and company executives are subject to criminal penalties such as imprisonment if crew members break those rules. Still, Bayley said the line would agree to the terms to get crew off the ships.

"Over the past several days we have discussed our concern with the CDC on the criminal penalties associated with guaranteeing future events that we had little to no control over," Bayley wrote in the letter. "We remain hopeful that this language will eventually be adjusted."

The CDC is "pleased" the cruise line decided to take the steps to safely disembark crew and is ready to review the cruise line's submissions, spokesperson Scott Pauley told USA TODAY. "CDC is committed to helping crew members disembark and return home to their families as quickly and safely as possible while protecting their health and the health of the communities to which they will be returning," Pauley added.

Those who don't want to leave ships don't have to, Bayley wrote, and added that more than 1,000 have requested to remain aboard.

As for when the ships might cruise again? Royal Caribbean spokesperson Jonathon Fishman told USA TODAY: "We have not yet determined our return to service date. Right now, we are focused on developing additional measures to further protect our guests and crew. We look forward to providing great service to our guests when we return, we and can’t wait to set sail again."

Carnival Cruise Line announced Monday it plans to resume some of its North American cruise service this summer starting Aug. 1

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...me/3077911001/

The Koningsdam, on which more than 1,100 workers are stranded in Puerto Vallarta.

1,100 cruise ship crew stuck in Vallarta awaiting government permission to leave

After 80 days in isolation they want to go home


Published on Tuesday, May 19, 2020

• 
  

After more than two months at sea, Dr. Marco Antonio Espinosa Andaluz and 19 other Mexican crew members were finally able to disembark from the Holland America cruise ship Koningsdam in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday after he posted a Twitter message asking the government for permission to leave the ship.

However, more than 1,100 other crew members from eight different ships, representing some 70 nationalities, remain aboard the vessel.

Despite no reported cases of the coronavirus, no country wants to allow them to leave the ship to return home to their families.


Among those trapped on the Koningsdam is Joana Abreu Ferreira, a young Portuguese woman who says that she has been adhering to all directives from her captain, including using a mask, social distancing, having her temperature taken twice daily, and other isolation measures for the past 80 days.

“Our company has been doing everything in their power to keep us safe and healthy, and to send us back home to our families,” Abreu says, but the crew has yet to receive government clearance to leave the ship.

“I personally don’t understand what harm can we cause to the country considering we don’t have a single case of Covid-19 on our ship,” she wrote. “After all, we are just human beings trying to get home to our families and loved ones.”

The extended period of isolation at sea and uncertain future has taken its toll among crew members, Abreu wrote on her Facebook page. Four people from other ships have committed suicide, she says.

And there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight for those awaiting repatriation. Many of the crew members are from countries whose borders remain closed due to the pandemic.


The Miami Herald newspaper estimated Sunday that there are more than 100,000 crew members stranded on cruise ships around the world.

“We should be the ones afraid to go into the world, considering we are living in a place with zero cases and going to a place with millions,” argues Abreu, “but instead it’s the world that is afraid of us.”

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cor...k-in-vallarta/

Cruise ship crew members disembarking in San Diego to fly to Barbados

[Passing a pair of kayaking fishermen, the cruise ship Celebrity Millennium pulls into San Diego Bay. The ship was returning to the B Street Pier on Friday, May 1, 2020, and before that was anchored just off the coast of San Diego.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda/Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


Disney and Celebrity ships remain in San Diego, with hundreds of crew members still on board

By LORI WEISBERG
MAY 20, 2020 5:40 PM

The Celebrity Millennium and Eclipse cruise ships, which have been in San Diego since late March, were to disembark more than 340 crew members Wednesday so that they can take private chartered flights to the Caribbean as part of an effort to return them to their homes.

While the two ocean liners departed San Diego nearly two weeks ago for Puerto Vallarta where they had planned to disembark some crew members, that never happened and the ships have since returned, according to the Port of San Diego. Even with the departure of 62 crew members on the Millennium and 284 on the Eclipse, hundreds more remain, confined to the ships ever since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order in mid-March.

None of the departing crew members were reported to have COVID-19 symptoms.

Also still in San Diego is the Disney Wonder, also with hundreds of crew aboard. The three ships, over the last couple of months, have been alternatively docked at the B Street Pier alongside the Embarcadero or in the outer anchorage area off the San Diego coastline. While several hundred crew members had previously headed home on flights to the United Kingdom, Brazil and Indonesia, efforts to return many more have stalled in recent weeks.

The two Celebrity ships on May 8 had set out to Puerto Vallarta where the cruise line had made arrangements to disembark some of the crew, said port spokeswoman Brianne Page. Celebrity did not inform the port as to why it was unable to get crew members off the ships, she said.

The plan for Wednesday was to have Eclipse crew members leave the ship from the B Street Pier, while the Millennium, which was anchored off the coastline, was to have its departing personnel leave via shore boats to the Harbor Police Dock at Shelter Island. All were then to be taken by private buses to the San Diego International Airport to board private charter flights to Barbados, Page explained.

Once in Barbados, all of the crew members will be taken by private vehicles, while maintaining social distancing, to Celebrity sister ships, Serenade of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas, where they will await chartered flights to take them back to their home countries, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Once the men and women are flown home, there will still be 480 crew members on the Millennium and 695 on the Eclipse. On the Wonder, there are still more than 700 personnel on board.

Crew members have been stranded on ships around the world amid the abrupt halt of sailings in March. The CDC no-sail order remains in place until well into July, and many cruise lines have canceled sailings to certain destinations through the end of the year.

San Diego’s cruise season is scheduled to resume in the fall and so far, most of those scheduled sailings have not been canceled.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...me-to-barbados

After months at sea, the final cruise ship carrying passengers makes it home

Francesca Street, CNN • Published 8th June 2020




(CNN) — After a six-month odyssey around the world, during which it was hit by coronavirus and saw the oceans dramatically empty of other vessels, the last cruise liner still carrying passengers has made its final port of call, delivering its eight guests to a world vastly changed from the one they set sail in.

The MV Artania cruise ship tied up in the Germany port of Bremerhaven on Monday, operator Phoenix Reisen confirmed to CNN Travel, bringing an end an epic return voyage from Australia that saw the ship make numerous diversions en route to drop off crew members.

All eight passengers still on board were due to disembark by midday local time.

Artania's arrival comes more than two months after the last major leisure ships carrying significant numbers of passengers were taken out of commission, as the cruise industry slammed the brakes on sailing amid the global pandemic.

While the Costa Deliziosa, the MSC Magnifica and the Pacific Princess -- the final significant vessels overseen by industry group Cruise Lines International Association -- docked in April, Artania kept on sailing, the end of its journey still weeks away.

The ship, which can carry up to 1,200 passengers, set sail on an 140-day world cruise from Hamburg, Germany on December 21, 2019.

In March, coronavirus caught up with the cruise when 36 passengers tested positive for the virus following a check from Australian health officials when the ship arrived in in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Those affected were quarantined in local hospitals, according to Phoenix Reisen.

Three people who were on the ship have since died -- two male passengers, one aged 69 and one aged 71, and one 42-year-old male crew member.

The Artania's healthy guests stayed quarantined on the Artania until their repatriation flights at the end of March. Hundreds of Artania passengers, the majority of whom were German, flew back from Western Australia to Frankfurt, a handful stayed in hospital in Australia to recover.

And eight passengers decided to travel back home via ocean, rather than via airplane. These travelers were subsequently granted the surreal status of becoming the last cruise ship passengers at sea.

They watched the world change, countries lock down and reopen again, all while they remained at sea, the last cruisers of the world's oceans.

But while the journey home to Europe after Artania left Australia on April 18 should've taken a few weeks, it was extended by stop offs in Southeast Asia in order to repatriate many of its remaining crew members.

Some European crew had been able to fly home from Perth to Frankfurt alongside passengers. The rest of the crew remained on the ship, with the Artania making calls in Bali and Manila to allow workers to return home.

Around 75 crew members stayed on board until Bremerhaven to help ensure smooth operation of the ship.

Related content
Cruise passengers have gone home, but the crews that looked after them are still stuck at sea

A wedding, several postcards and messages home



Local residents sent messages of postivitivty to crew and passengers on board the Artania when it was quarantined in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Paul Kane/Getty Images

Along the way, Captain Morten Hansen kept passengers, coworkers, cruise fans and loved ones in the loop via his Facebook page.

Norwegian-born Hansen has been commanding cruise ships since 2001 and will be recognizable to some as the star of the TV series "Crazy for the Sea," a German reality show that documents cruise ship life.

During the Artania's long journey, Hansen posted videos in which he spoke candidly from the cabin and published photographs of the sights spotted from the ship.

When the ship was quarantined in Perth, crew members received postcards from school children in the city.

The idea was to forge a connection between the quarantined crew -- caught up in the pandemic and marred by the cruise industry's declining reputation -- and a panicked city that was feeling increasingly threatened by cruise ships and the Covid threat.

"The cards are written lovingly, sensitively and individually for everyone. It was just heart warming and moving," wrote Hansen on Facebook, holding up his card.

There were other special moments -- on Mother's Day, Hansen took a little detour from his planned route in order to map out the shape of a heart.

And right before the ship left Perth, two crew members brought together by these extraordinary circumstances, decided to tie the knot and were married in a ceremony officiated by Dr Gabriele Maluga, the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Western Australia.

Related content
Last ship belonging to a major cruise line finally reaches port

Future of cruising

Phoenix Reisen said passengers were due to finish disembarking the Artania by midday local time.

But while most cruise ship travelers are now back home, many cruise ship crews remain stuck on ships across the world, awaiting return amid reports of struggling mental health and difficult conditions.

On Monday, in recognition of World Ocean Day, activists across the world were hosting a virtual "Rally to Clean Up Cruising" today, which focuses on how the industry could change its environmental impact when cruising restarts.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/a...cks/index.html