Del Rio states it will take at least 60 days to get a ship ready

[BermudaBound2014]

I thought this article was interesting because I've read 30 days to be ready in other posts. It seems that RCL is calling back staff in Florida and will start with  3 day sailings to Cocoa Cay once they get the ok from CDC.  I'm wondering if anyone has heard whether or not NCL is calling back staff and crew yet? If they started readying a ship today it seems they could to very limited sailing in December, but if they aren't starting to bring back crew and install the technology needed, it's not looking good for 2020.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23616-del-rio-at-least-60-days-to-get-a-cruise-ship-ready.html

 

[Linda the Book Lover]

We do not sail on NCL until June of 2021 and I hope all of this is no longer an issue. 

[shof515]

With most of the ships in Europe, it will take at least 2-3 weeks for the ships to reposition back to the states

[BermudaBound2014]

Just now, shof515 said:

With most of the ships in Europe, it will take at least 2-3 weeks for the ships to reposition back to the states

 

I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying. Ships can sail from Europe to the USA in much less time than 2 weeks. Why would it take 2-3 weeks now? 

 

My original thought is that NCL won't be bringing ships back from Europe because the European marked is sailing and the USA market is going to have a very slow rolling start that could take months to implement. Ships are more likely to profit stationed in Europe. On the other hand, NCL could staff the ship while overseas and bring the ship back with a full crew.

 

Regardless, Del Rio is saying 60 days to get a ship ready to sail again. My question is, have they already started this process?

 

[oteixeira]

8 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying. Ships can sail from Europe to the USA in much less time than 2 weeks. Why would it take 2-3 weeks now? 

 

My original thought is that NCL won't be bringing ships back from Europe because the European marked is sailing and the USA market is going to have a very slow rolling start that could take months to implement. Ships are more likely to profit stationed in Europe. On the other hand, NCL could staff the ship while overseas and bring the ship back with a full crew.

 

Regardless, Del Rio is saying 60 days to get a ship ready to sail again. My question is, have they already started this process?

 

I think the ships are over there (Some are in asia, some europe) for exactly this reason.  Crew would have to quarantine for 14 days, no training, no interaction, nothing.  Why not take advantage of the sea days coming back this way for the quarantine days for new crew.  I don't think anyone asked him, nor has he said, anything is started or not.  My guess is they may have started, probably around the same day they put the Escape in dry dock, since it needs to recert to be able to sail at all.  So that was...Saturdayish?  Timing lines up when you consider that was the day after the CDC extended one month.  I think the earliest an NCL ship goes based on his words today is 2nd week of December.

[BermudaBound2014]

@oteixeira do you happen to know which ships are still off the Florida coast? I just checked ***** and didn't see any NCL ships. There are many CCL, RCL, Celebrity, and MSC ships in the channel, but if NCL ships are still this side of the pond I missed them.

[oteixeira]

NCL ships on this side of the globe?  

 

Sky & Pearl are in Curacao 
Jewel is west coast Mexico
Gem& Sun are  in Aruba
All of the newer bigger ships are not anywhere near here.  

 

[ColeThornton]

As a reminder the Star, Spirit and Dawn are out of commission through March, 2021.

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

I'm not sure I'm following what you are saying. Ships can sail from Europe to the USA in much less time than 2 weeks. Why would it take 2-3 weeks now? 

 

My original thought is that NCL won't be bringing ships back from Europe because the European marked is sailing and the USA market is going to have a very slow rolling start that could take months to implement. Ships are more likely to profit stationed in Europe. On the other hand, NCL could staff the ship while overseas and bring the ship back with a full crew.

 

Regardless, Del Rio is saying 60 days to get a ship ready to sail again. My question is, have they already started this process?

 

The answer is NO   An email went out Friday before the cancelation of the White House meeting to all officers and crew saying that they have not date at the moment when cruises can resume again.  Then it went on to say that so many countries are still restricting travel.  India for example is still in lockdown in many places.  My comment: if they can not go across the street to church, staff certainly is not going to be allowed to fly out of the country and will the country that they want to enter, accept them.  There still crew members who have NOT made it home yet because of the restrictions in their home countries.  Getting people back to work is not going to be an easy process no matter when the CDC "No Sail" is lifted.

 

[Laszlo]

Exactly! It won't matter if CDC has lifted the no sail if lots of other countries still have restrictions in place. I can guarantee restrictions won't be lifted in many countries for 2-3 months AFTER they start to vaccinate people and only after they get to a certain %. I don't think most cruise lines will get back on tract for another 12 months. 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Laszlo

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

@oteixeira do you happen to know which ships are still off the Florida coast? I just checked ***** and didn't see any NCL ships. There are many CCL, RCL, Celebrity, and MSC ships in the channel, but if NCL ships are still this side of the pond I missed them.

The Bliss, Encore and Star are in Europe now.

[BermudaBound2014]

50 minutes ago, oteixeira said:

NCL ships on this side of the globe?  

 

Sky & Pearl are in Curacao 
Jewel is west coast Mexico
Gem& Sun are  in Aruba
All of the newer bigger ships are not anywhere near here.  

 

 

Thank you! 

 

If you follow RCL, Fain indicated today that the first cruises will be shortened with stops only in CocoCay. I would expect the same (or similar) from NCL. 

 

"Royal Caribbean is said to be calling employees back to work in South Florida, and is also rumored to be planning test cruises with crew posing as passengers.

Early sailings open to guests may see the Navigator and Mariner of the Seas, two of the company’s recently-refurbished ships, sail short cruises from South Florida to the line’s private island, CocoCay."

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23617-fain-optimism-level-is-very-high-to-sail-in-2020.html

 

[HowardK]

I am going to wait a couple of years regardless. I wouldn't want to worry about being stuck on a ship that no one lets back in.

However, I am fully supportive of anyone on here who would go beforehand. 

[roger001]

Which again reinforces my previous "opinion":

 

And Del Rio just said today, "It will take at least 60 days to get an NCL ship ready to said".   And that would only be after the CDC go ahead.  Again, to be selling cruises that they know can't go (Nov 2nd selling on Oct 1st)....jerks.  They just flat out know they're not going to sail some of the cruises they sell.  

 

[oteixeira]

15 minutes ago, HowardK said:

I am going to wait a couple of years regardless. I wouldn't want to worry about being stuck on a ship that no one lets back in.

However, I am fully supportive of anyone on here who would go beforehand. 

This was when no one knew what to do.  This is not happening/going to happen any more.  Look at the people who go sick in Norway, they were let off.  Alaska (false positive), let off to quarantine, Italy, never even made it on board (so they were sick in Italy somewhere).  Any port that opens has to have plans in place to take on sick passengers and crew should the need arise.  It is in the plan from the joint panel NCL/RCL as well as CLIA's recommendations.

 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

10 minutes ago, roger001 said:

And Del Rio just said today, "It will take at least 60 days to get an NCL ship ready to said".   And that would only be after the CDC go ahead.  Again, to be selling cruises that they know can't go (Nov 2nd selling on Oct 1st)....jerks.  They just flat out know they're not going to sail some of the cruises they sell.  

 

 

Are you sure? RCL has reported that they are already bringing crew back and are going to do a test run with crew only. I think NCL will posture itself for return to sailing before the official CDC approval. Maybe not full scale, but cruise lines certainly want to be ready for the VERY profitable holiday sailings.

 

PS: I do totally agree with you that cruise lines are selling cruises they know will not sail. 

[oteixeira]

28 minutes ago, roger001 said:

Which again reinforces my previous "opinion":

 

And Del Rio just said today, "It will take at least 60 days to get an NCL ship ready to said".   And that would only be after the CDC go ahead.  Again, to be selling cruises that they know can't go (Nov 2nd selling on Oct 1st)....jerks.  They just flat out know they're not going to sail some of the cruises they sell.  

 

Obviously the highlighted is your opinion since you didn't quote it, kind of misleading to put it like that, since it makes a causal reader think Del Rio said it.  I think they are already starting to reach out, why else would you also send a ship to dry dock to get it's recert if they were going to wait on the CDC before doing anything (crew, ship enhancements for Covid, etc).  Seems they are starting already, but I do agree that 60 days is the second week of December, as I said earlier.

[disneykins]

Could the cruise lines get around the CDC ban by sailing out of another port, lets say Nassau? Do 3 and 4 day cruises to other Bahamas islands and return to Nassau. I know its not convenient for Florida dwellers but the rest of us have to fly to the departure port all the time so this would be no problem. Maybe Nassau cant handle the crowds for embarkation, but only a few ships, half full, with restrictions, might be able to do it. What about another island? I think P&O cruises the Caribbean without going to a US port, why cant NCL? It might light a fire under Florida government that they could lose business? I just want to cruise in spring but if they don't get going soon, it ain't gonna happen, lol.

Tony

[hallux]

14 minutes ago, disneykins said:

Maybe Nassau cant handle the crowds for embarkation, but only a few ships, half full, with restrictions, might be able to do it. What about another island? I think P&O cruises the Caribbean without going to a US port, why cant NCL?

 

I don't think Nassau has the infrastructure to support this.  While the airport has the facility for immigration and customs (for Atlantis), the port just didn't seem like it could handle boarding or disembarking a ship.  There is quite a bit of infrastructure at the US ports for this - forklifts, boom lifts, baggage cages, the longshoremen (and women) in general, the terminal building, etc.

 

One issue with sailing without any US port stops would be provisioning.  If the cruise line has been sailing with provisioning ports only in the US, they would need to set up a supply line at one of the port stops.  This poses an additional problem if the ports are not set up for provisioning (the aforementioned forklifts and boom lifts).

[shof515]

 the last time i was at Nassau about 2 years ago, they do have equipment like forklifts and garbage services. I was on a ship that was offloading garbage into a dumpster

 

Forklift is a common machine that i noticed most ports is using to help the longshoremen move the heavy ships ropes.

[hallux]

OK, they have one.  When I sailed out of San Pedro they had at least a dozen machines in use either shuffling material around on the the quay (forklifts) or loading that material onto the ship (boom lifts).  In addition - in Nassau all that "stuff" has to travel down the same access path that passengers will (which itself isn't really passable by large trucks, look at those turns!), and passengers board at the same level as all that activity since there are no elevated gangways.  That port is not conducive to provisioning and embarkation/disembarkation of passengers simultaneously, even at reduced passenger load, unless the ship docks at the spot closest to land.

[zqvol]

2 hours ago, oteixeira said:

Obviously the highlighted is your opinion since you didn't quote it, kind of misleading to put it like that, since it makes a causal reader think Del Rio said it.  I think they are already starting to reach out, why else would you also send a ship to dry dock to get it's recert if they were going to wait on the CDC before doing anything (crew, ship enhancements for Covid, etc).  Seems they are starting already, but I do agree that 60 days is the second week of December, as I said earlier.

and what happens if the CDC extends their ban for another 6 months? What happens to your 60 days? Does the time frame start over?

 

Until the CDC gives are firm date that they are lifting the restrictions no one is going to start bringing crew back on board ships in the US.

[Trimone]

You are all in cuckoo land, think about April/May before anything...

Covid-19 isn’t over yet.

The dynamic of a certain person makes no sense? 
Minimum of 10 days before oxygen levels drop? Work it out

[BermudaBound2014]

6 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Until the CDC gives are firm date that they are lifting the restrictions no one is going to start bringing crew back on board ships in the US.

 

This statement is inaccurate according to an article published in Cruise Industry News:

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23617-fain-optimism-level-is-very-high-to-sail-in-2020.html

"Royal Caribbean is said to be calling employees back to work in South Florida, and is also rumored to be planning test cruises with crew posing as passengers."

 

 

[oteixeira]

6 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

 

This statement is inaccurate according to an article published in Cruise Industry News:

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23617-fain-optimism-level-is-very-high-to-sail-in-2020.html

"Royal Caribbean is said to be calling employees back to work in South Florida, and is also rumored to be planning test cruises with crew posing as passengers."

 

 

NCL Joy also sailing towards Philippines reportedly to pick up crew.  Riley Trench (RCL employee in Asia) reported he will be back to work "Very soon" on twitter today.  Basically, the calls are going out, there are multiple reports of it.