Will staffing be an issue for cruise lines?

[flyguyjake]

Is anyone concerned ships will have a hard time getting staff? Covid in India is a huge problem. They are experiencing the fastest growing number of infections. Estimates they will surpass the US in a matter of weeks if things don't turn around. If cruise lines had a hard time getting staff home, how will they get staff to the ships? Will travel restrictions be a problem for staff trying to get to ships?

[yogimax]

1 minute ago, flyguyjake said:

Is anyone concerned ships will have a hard time getting staff? Covid in India is a huge problem. They are experiencing the fastest growing number of infections. Estimates they will surpass the US in a matter of weeks if things don't turn around. If cruise lines had a hard time getting staff home, how will they get staff to the ships? Will travel restrictions be a problem for staff trying to get to ships?

This will indeed be a problem.  Many countries are showing a spike or a second wave.

 

In addition to India, the Philippines sends many crew members.  the CDC has a warning out for those traveling to the Philippines... "CDC recommends travelers avoid all nonessential international travel to the Philippines. Travelers at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should consider postponing all travel, including essential travel, to the Philippines."  I would think this warning would also apply to those coming from the Philippines.

[spunks]

Wow!....I had guessed that things were very bad in India due to Covid  because I have not gotten a phone call in weeks informing me that my car warranty had run out...

 

Doug

[pcur]

If I had been laid off for 9 months, I would be jumping to go back to work, especially in a place that has spent millions of dollars to make it covid-free and healthy.

[flyguyjake]

29 minutes ago, pcur said:

If I had been laid off for 9 months, I would be jumping to go back to work, especially in a place that has spent millions of dollars to make it covid-free and healthy.

But many Indian families live together. What if you have sick family and are caring for them? I'm sure there are many scenarios and I agree with your point but many live quite differently in India than we do in America. And travel restrictions may prevent their return?

[JT1962]

This is one of the reasons the cruise lines have indicated they will take several months to get back to sailing a full schedule on all ships once cruises do start sailing again. NCL said they expected it to take 4-5 months to have all ships sailing again. This means there will still be many cancellations even once some ships begin sailing again.

[cruisegirl1]

1 hour ago, JT1962 said:

This is one of the reasons the cruise lines have indicated they will take several months to get back to sailing a full schedule on all ships once cruises do start sailing again. NCL said they expected it to take 4-5 months to have all ships sailing again. This means there will still be many cancellations even once some ships begin sailing again.

agreed -

I have NO  real knowledge of ship staffing but I can only imagine the logistic issue.  NO way RCCL can resume sailing in just over 30 days, with (as far as we know) no extensive crew call back. 

M

[reallyitsmema]

2 hours ago, flyguyjake said:

Is anyone concerned ships will have a hard time getting staff? Covid in India is a huge problem. They are experiencing the fastest growing number of infections. Estimates they will surpass the US in a matter of weeks if things don't turn around. If cruise lines had a hard time getting staff home, how will they get staff to the ships? Will travel restrictions be a problem for staff trying to get to ships?

 

I have seen multiple posts from crew that have been told to keep their papers in order but no real call back of crew.  They will likely have crew fly to ports that will allow the ships in and load on crew there.  They will then be able to quarantine on the way back to the states.

[LXA350]

People willing to work you have more than enough. But it will be a logistic challenge to bring employees back, have them go through quarnatine etc. Hence, from the point RCL will decide to staff ships again 2-3 months at least per ship before it can welcome guests.

 

Once the time comes to staff it's first ships they will lmaybe charter a few planes to fly staff from India, Indonesia and or Philippines.

[Sunshine3601]

3 hours ago, flyguyjake said:

Is anyone concerned ships will have a hard time getting staff? Covid in India is a huge problem. They are experiencing the fastest growing number of infections. Estimates they will surpass the US in a matter of weeks if things don't turn around. If cruise lines had a hard time getting staff home, how will they get staff to the ships? Will travel restrictions be a problem for staff trying to get to ships?

I expressed concern about this the last couple of weeks as Phillipines has been in the 2nd lockdown as well as indonesia.  Sure I understand they would be tested and put in quarantine before they are truly working again but I doubt these countries want cruise ships docking or sending chartered planes.

[twangster]

5 hours ago, spunks said:

Wow!....I had guessed that things were very bad in India due to Covid  because I have not gotten a phone call in weeks informing me that my car warranty had run out...

 

Doug

 

No worries, they've blitzed me recently.  I'll let them know you miss them and need a car warranty.

[livingonthebeach]

Aren’t US embassies worldwide closed for visa services?  If so, it will be impossible for crew from Philippines and other countries to come to the US at this time.  

[twangster]

Some crew remain current on their visas although that number is dwindling as time goes on.  

 

I suspect they may use a ship or two to transport crew from areas where it's easier to fly.  The voyage to America will constitute a bubble and quarantine period to satisfy the CDC gods with lots of testing for crew at various stages.  

[Sunshine3601]

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

Some crew remain current on their visas although that number is dwindling as time goes on.  

 

I suspect they may use a ship or two to transport crew from areas where it's easier to fly.  The voyage to America will constitute a bubble and quarantine period to satisfy the CDC gods with lots of testing for crew at various stages.  

Hey there are plenty of americans collecting unemployment !!!  imagine that

[yogimax]

5 hours ago, LXA350 said:

People willing to work you have more than enough. But it will be a logistic challenge to bring employees back, have them go through quarnatine etc. Hence, from the point RCL will decide to staff ships again 2-3 months at least per ship before it can welcome guests.

 

Once the time comes to staff it's first ships they will lmaybe charter a few planes to fly staff from India, Indonesia and or Philippines.

But at least two of those three countries are suffering from spikes in coronavirus.  I don't see them bringing back hundreds or thousands at this time.

[John&LaLa]

31 minutes ago, yogimax said:

But at least two of those three countries are suffering from spikes in coronavirus.  I don't see them bringing back hundreds or thousands at this time.

 

Just quarantine them there

[yogimax]

22 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Just quarantine them there

But suppose they test positive while being quarantined?  Then the whole ship has to shut down.

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, yogimax said:

But suppose they test positive while being quarantined?  Then the whole ship has to shut down.

 

No, there, refers to their home country.

 

Once they clear that, they enter the cruise bubble for a second quarantine on their way to destinations 

[flyguyjake]

3 minutes ago, yogimax said:

Then the whole ship has to shut down.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I read that they will remove passengers who test positive? I do not believe they will be quarantining them onboard?

[John&LaLa]

1 minute ago, flyguyjake said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I read that they will remove passengers who test positive? I do not believe they will be quarantining them onboard?

 

Yogi is discussing the repatriation to Royal cruises

Edited September 28, 2020 by John&LaLa

[Arizona Wildcat]

6 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

agreed -

I have NO  real knowledge of ship staffing but I can only imagine the logistic issue.  NO way RCCL can resume sailing in just over 30 days, with (as far as we know) no extensive crew call back. 

M

The estimate discussed on our local radio was 6 weeks to assemble crews.  For several countries RCCL will need to actually send ships.  Another couple weeks to shuffle crews from ship to ship.  A month to train the new crew members.  Thus probably private island journeys with a few ships in early 2021.  Followed AFTER A VACCINE with shorter cruises.  Gonna take a while.

[GarlicBread]

3 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The estimate discussed on our local radio was 6 weeks to assemble crews.  For several countries RCCL will need to actually send ships.  Another couple weeks to shuffle crews from ship to ship.  A month to train the new crew members.  Thus probably private island journeys with a few ships in early 2021.  Followed AFTER A VACCINE with shorter cruises.  Gonna take a while.

 

Just curious, why would it take a month to train crew? 

When you first join and you're brand new, all that training (fire safety, crowd management, evacuation, drills wet and dry, usph, environmental, plus on the job training, etc.) takes less than a week (and not all day every day) and that's with guests onboard....

Would they really need 3 weeks of Corona virus training? 

[bigrednole]

Not really. I know cruise workers get paid very low. However, in their home country they would make less. I doubt there will be a shortage of people to fill the positions.

[chengkp75]

There will likely be no shortage of people wanting to return to jobs on cruise ships.  The logistics of the problem can be handled, though it may take the application of lots of money.  The problem is that most countries still do not allow crew changes for ships.  While everyone here remembers the "100,000 crew stuck on cruise ships" from a couple months ago, that problem has gone away, but the problem no one seems to know about, or care about, is the growing number of other merchant mariners on ships who have not been allowed to go home at their designated time, or who have not been allowed to return to work.  The IMO estimates that there are now, about 300,000 crew on ships overdue to go home, and about the same number who are at home and cannot return to work. And that number increases by about 100,000 every month (there are about 1.8 million merchant mariners worldwide).  This is due to various countries' policy on foreign travel, and most do not allow vessels to crew change. Until this changes, getting crew back to work on cruise ships will be difficult, and the cruise lines may be able to take advantage of things that cargo ships, which are still working and still bringing goods to the world, cannot do, like moving an empty cruise ship to Gibraltar, which allows unrestricted crew changes, and flying crew from home countries there to join a ship, and then using that ship to relocate crew to other ships, in reverse of how they repatriated crew.

 

Until nations agree that merchant mariners are "essential workers", and exempt from travel restrictions, getting those essential workers changed out will not happen quickly, and this will push back the movement of "non-essential" (heresy!!) cruise ship crew even further.

[LXA350]

4 hours ago, GarlicBread said:

 

Just curious, why would it take a month to train crew? 

When you first join and you're brand new, all that training (fire safety, crowd management, evacuation, drills wet and dry, usph, environmental, plus on the job training, etc.) takes less than a week (and not all day every day) and that's with guests onboard....

Would they really need 3 weeks of Corona virus training? 

 

The situation is new for everybody, ranging from the most senior offiers to the lowest ranks. Even experienced employees will need to get used to new workflows etc and inorder to harmonize this it will take a lot of training and possibly even practice with employee / their families from landside to simulate a cruise etc.  No cruisline will want a uncontrolable outbreak, hence this is not the simple beginners course you can give to people from learning by doing.

 

The whole logistics behind it will be quite difficult, I would not trust quarantine in India for instance as reliable, hence you woul need to start from scratch with the 2 weeks quarantine once crew members arrive, idealy first landside before brining them on a ship, hence a very slow restart.

 

7 hours ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The estimate discussed on our local radio was 6 weeks to assemble crews.  For several countries RCCL will need to actually send ships.  Another couple weeks to shuffle crews from ship to ship.  A month to train the new crew members.  Thus probably private island journeys with a few ships in early 2021.  Followed AFTER A VACCINE with shorter cruises.  Gonna take a while.

 

The vaccination will not solve the issue, it will take a while until something effective will be found. What can speed things up to get back to a certain normal in the Travel industy will be instant testing, before every flight, boarding a cruise ship, during the cruise (random testing), upon return to embarkation port, home country etc.