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Princess cruise ships waiting of the coast of Australia told to go home


John99
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Princess cruise ships waiting of the coast of Australia told to go home.  Several Princess ships along with other cruise ships were told they cannot let their crews members off their ships.

 

International news services are reporting Australia authorities are telling cruise ships to go home pushing aside moral and legal obligations.  Some locals are calling they are death ships.  Why?  Attitudes of Australians hardened when the government allowed 2,700 passengers to walk off the Ruby Princess in Sydney in March.  More than 300 of the passengers later tested positive for COVID-19.

 

These cruise ships (over a dozen) are currently off Australia's coast, carrying around 15,000 crew members on board who are experiencing outbreaks of coronavirus.  Some local officials want the ships to leave Australian waters.  The cruise lines would arrange for charter flights for their crew and transport them to the airport, but workable arrangements with government are required to make this happen.

Some ships are already heeding the warning to leave but other ships have said they will do so after they refuel.   

Cruise ships off the coast of Brisbane, Australia:

Sea Princess, Sun Princess, Carnival Splendor, P&O Princess Explorer, Carnival Spirit, Azamara Journey, Queen Elizabeth, Wind Spirit, Pacific Dawn

 

Cruise ships waiting of the coast of Sidney, Australia:

Spectrum of the Seas, Radiance of the Sea, Voyager of the Sea, Ovation of the Sea, Celebrity Solstice, Ruby Princess

 

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8 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

The big question here is where is home for these ships? Most, if not all are registered in small Island nations in the Caribbean.  And these countries are not "home" for the crews.  What a mess!!!

 

I really feel for the crew members, perhaps more so than the pax.  The passengers were able to go home, the crew is stuck offshore with contracts that may be running out and thus no pay, the virus lurking, and no ability to go home to family and friends.  What a sad mess alright.  I hope that something can be done for them soon.

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I read an article this morning that outlined how the RCCL / Celebrity ships down there are re-positioning to Indonesia and Manila to offload their crew as seen here

 

http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-use-three-australia-based-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-members-home?fbclid=IwAR3yFz98mbXKa0RKTQ_fl7nd9gWzPwAOXuvL21QwERcOilKpg6WmKlu3Bzc

 

No doubt a lot of planning and negotiating went into this but its good to see they're doing something

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Glad that we did Celebrity from Sydney to Honolulu a couple years back.  Great cruise and wonderful memories.  It is certainly understandable why Australia is taking the position they are.  Just another great cruise market that will be slow to return

 

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Not just the ships are being thrown out.

 

"Australia's Prime Minister has told all foreign visitors and students to leave the country now amid fury at backpackers for failing to follow social distancing rules."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8184065/Australia-tells-foreign-visitors-make-way-home-coronavirus-crisis-intensifies.html

 

Mr Morrison said it was “lovely to have visitors to Australia in good times”. But now they should “make your way home” and “ensure that you can receive the supports that are available…in your home countries.

Edited by CruisingAlong4Now
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10 minutes ago, zonacruiser25 said:

It is certainly understandable why Australia is taking the position they are.  

 

Not to me.

 

Any humaritarian nation should allow uninfected individuals to disembark, be put on secure buses to the airport,

and immediately put on charter flights out of the country.

 

Although Australia is blocking all crew from doing this, ironically, this seems to be what the australians

who disembarked coral today in miami are asking for.

 

I think the USA should show the same humanitarian compassion as the australian government,

and invite them walk home.

 

If Australia wants to forever ban cruise ships ... given what's happened, sounds like a fine idea.

 

Edited by Roberto256
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5 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

 

Not to me.

 

Any humaritarian nation should allow uninfected individuals to disembark, be put on secure buses to the airport,

and immediately put on charter flights out of the country.

 

Although Australia is blocking all crew from doing this, ironically, this seems to be what the australians

who disembarked coral today in miami are asking for.

 

I think the USA should show the same humanitarian compassion as the australian government,

and invite them walk home.

 

If Australia wants to forever ban cruise ships ... given what's happened, sounds like a fine idea.

 

 

Even in times of crises - or maybe especially in times of crises - two wrongs don't make a right.

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58 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

 

Not to me.

 

Any humaritarian nation should allow uninfected individuals to disembark, be put on secure buses to the airport,

and immediately put on charter flights out of the country.

 

Although Australia is blocking all crew from doing this, ironically, this seems to be what the australians

who disembarked coral today in miami are asking for.

 

I think the USA should show the same humanitarian compassion as the australian government,

and invite them walk home.

 

If Australia wants to forever ban cruise ships ... given what's happened, sounds like a fine idea.

 

 

Please don’t disparage our friends the Australians. We don’t have any moral authority to criticize them when the governor of Florida said he did not want the people on the Zaandam “dumped” on him. These were people who were sick and needed help, but he did not consider the humanitarian issues until he suddenly realized Americans were on board  - something that should be no surprise to a governor of Florida. Ordinary people knew what was happening on the Zaandam. Fortunately it was worked out with the help of the Unified Command, but now the Australians are stranded on the West Coast because they could not continue on commercial flights. The passengers are caught up in this ordeal and are no more to blame than those that got off the Ruby in Sydney. The failure lies with those making the decisions.
 

You can be sure that if any ships were off the coast Florida with crew only, the US response would be the same as Australia’s. We can’t point our fingers and condemn others when we are no better.

 

At least the Aussies are asking the backpackers to leave because they aren’t following the rules. That is understandable. Too bad our government didn’t keep spring breakers off the beaches. 

 

 

 

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 The Florida Gov was very understanding and was protecting the senior citizens of his area at the ports where they already have handled many ships. The Governor was in discussion witht President Trump who requested they accommodate the ship and all others arriving like the Coral Princess today . The Coral was denied by 12 countries in South America and Latin America. Once Again it the  United states  is helping all countries and will continue as we have done since we have been the United States of America. You country  not allowing these ships to port when they have medical emergencies is a total disgrace no other way to see it.

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21 minutes ago, Babr said:

Fortunately it was worked out with the help of the Unified Command, but now the Australians are stranded on the West Coast because they could not continue on commercial flights.

uh, can't Australia send chartered flights to pick up its' people ?

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6 minutes ago, voljeep said:

uh, can't Australia send chartered flights to pick up its' people ?

Looks like they’ll have to now. Somebody dropped the ball by not arranging transportation all the way home.  Whoever let them off the ship didn’t account for this.

Edited by Babr
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4 minutes ago, Fat Albert said:

 The Florida Gov was very understanding and was protecting the senior citizens of his area at the ports where they already have handled many ships. The Governor was in discussion with President Trump who requested they accommodate the ship and all others arriving like the Coral Princess today . The Coral was denied by 12 countries in South America and Latin America. Once Again it the  United states  is helping all countries and will continue as we have done since we have been the United States of America. You country  not allowing these ships to port when they have medical emergencies is a total disgrace no other way to see it.

Lots of people, particularly in my country, love to disparage the Americans, and particularly any GOP POTUS, but who is there for the world when the chips are down?  Yes, the USA.  We are the closest ally and neighbor and rely on the US for so much in our lives, whether good or bad is another topic.  I think we should cut them some slack and appreciate that we have this great neighbor to the south.

 

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13 minutes ago, Fat Albert said:

 You country  not allowing these ships to port when they have medical emergencies is a total disgrace no other way to see it.


May I point out that the US has not taken in any ships that are occupied by crew only.

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2 minutes ago, Babr said:

May I point out that the US has not taken in any ships that are occupied by crew only.

 

But we have taken seriously ill crew members off the ships and taken care of them in the already burdened S. Florida hospitals.

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Due to the world wide pandemic countries and people are panicking trying to distance themselves and prepare for the worst.  We see it in the grocery stores buying all the toilet paper etc.  All the countries are closing their borders and wanting visitors to leave but at the same time blocking ways to leave or making it difficult.  We in the USA have no more right to criticize another country when we ourselves refuse humanitarian aid to the unfortunate.  Our president trying to block a ship in San Francisco from disembarking passengers to the Florida governor blocking ships off the southern Florida coast.  Luckily some common humanity has pushed through to allow the three ships in South Florida to offload their passengers.  Let us hope that aid to our fellow man is contagious.

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The responsibility and humanity treatment lie with the cruiselines themselves - they simply do NOT want to pay the costs to rescue their passengers and crews.

 

The Unified Command of Port Everglades gave Carnival a strict requirements to meet before the ships could be approved to dock, SINCE LAST WEEK.  Yet on Monday Apr 1st 5 hours meeting, Carnival only provided a, one county commission called it, "minimalist plan" without addressing any of the critical criteria on making sure the disembarking passengers would not be a walking spreader of virus.  Carnival has not done a single solid answer in that 5 hours meeting, even LIED to the council members about it has talked to Broward Health Dept.  Then one council member got the head of Broward Health Dept on a speaker phone and the message was loud and clear - Carnival has NOT contacted Broward Health Dept whatsoever.

 

Therefore the requests to dock on Tuesday were soundly denied.  Until Carnival finally came to term that it had to PAY FOR all the expenses, ensure the maximum safety to everyone, then the ships were allow to dock - AND even so, Broward county suddenly found out, instead of 10 critical ill patent on board,  it was told there were 14!   Last minute revelation or sudden change -Who knows? 

 

Coast Guards put up a memo on Mar 29, saying Coast Guards would NO LONGER provide unpaid services on MedEvec, specifically pointed out that Carnival has requested MedEvec recently.  Coast Guards said for ships registered at Bahamas (many are), that are out on Florida water, they should seek help from Bahamas first,  Does it make sense to anyone here?   The cruise lines dont want to domicile in US, therefore not pay US taxes - yet when they are in need, especially expensive helps,  they all use US free resources without shame...  No wonder the US economy rescue package does not give cruise lines a dime. 

 

The humanity mission is easily to carry out,  so long the cruise lines are HONEST, SINCERE, AND WILLING TO PAY FOR THE EXPENSES, NOT TO BURDEN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS on something the cruise lines made wrong (stupid) business decision to get everyone into such mess.

 

I dont think anyone should blame any local government on not doing enough - all local governments have their OWN people to protect, first and utmost.  Resources cannot be taken by freeloaders.  Cruise lines should and can pay for all these, ESPECIALLY for the crews for they have no choice but sail with the itinerary when the passengers ALL have choices to cancel, although may incur financial loss - but if you put $ ahead of your health or life,  you pretty much get what you bargain for.  I have a lot of sympathy to the crews but very little to the passengers who still insisted to sail as late at in late Feb / early March - just because they did not want to lose their cruise payments.... so their own lives only worth a few thousands bucks which they did not want to lose... 

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42 minutes ago, Babr said:


May I point out that the US has not taken in any ships that are occupied by crew only.

"All passengers and more than half the crew members from the beleaguered Grand Princess cruise ship have now gotten off the ship, Princess Cruises announced early Tuesday."

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/03/16/coronavirus-grand-princess-departs-oakland-lets-off-crew/5058788002/

 

Additionally, small batchs of royal caribbean crew have been disembarking, and flying out of miami.

I understand that this is primarily limited by air access to their home countries.

 

Edited by Roberto256
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27 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

Due to the world wide pandemic countries and people are panicking trying to distance themselves and prepare for the worst.  We see it in the grocery stores buying all the toilet paper etc.  All the countries are closing their borders and wanting visitors to leave but at the same time blocking ways to leave or making it difficult.  We in the USA have no more right to criticize another country when we ourselves refuse humanitarian aid to the unfortunate.  Our president trying to block a ship in San Francisco from disembarking passengers to the Florida governor blocking ships off the southern Florida coast.  Luckily some common humanity has pushed through to allow the three ships in South Florida to offload their passengers.  Let us hope that aid to our fellow man is contagious.

 

It is the cruise lines themselves jeopardizing the rescue efforts!   They dont want to pay and to ensure the safety to their passengers, their crews and the communities they disembark their passengers to.

 

Local governments, especially Florida governor and Broward county, the Coast Guards, all allow Carnival to dock the 2 Holland America ships PROVIDED they meet the requirements the Unified Command set out - Yet, it took Carnival 5 days trying to bargain out of such.  Thankfully, our local government and coast guards would not allow that to happen.  I am very grateful to them for putting us, the local people's safety to the top of the priority and not using our tax dollars to aid the cruise lines.

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4 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

The responsibility and humanity treatment lie with the cruiselines themselves - they simply do NOT want to pay the costs to rescue their passengers and crews.

 

"Royal Caribbean to use three Australia based cruise ships to repatriate crew members home"

 

http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-use-three-australia-based-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-members-home?fbclid=IwAR3yFz98mbXKa0RKTQ_fl7nd9gWzPwAOXuvL21QwERcOilKpg6WmKlu3Bzc

 

Looks to me like Royal Carribbean is  'paying' the costs.

 

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1 minute ago, Roberto256 said:

"All passengers and more than half the crew members from the beleaguered Grand Princess cruise ship have now gotten off the ship, Princess Cruises announced early Tuesday."

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/03/16/coronavirus-grand-princess-departs-oakland-lets-off-crew/5058788002/

 


Yep, just not crew only as is the case in Australia. See the original post.

 

And this after the president said he did’t want those people off the ship because it would mess up his numbers. Sounds like self interest not humanitarianism.

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1 hour ago, Babr said:

 

Please don’t disparage our friends the Australians. We don’t have any moral authority to criticize them when the governor of Florida said he did not want the people on the Zaandam “dumped” on him.

Sure we do.  Desantis was trumped by trump.   The result being that the zaandam passengers were allowed entry into the united states,

and to board charter planes...

 

Or driven for floridians.

 

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7 minutes ago, Babr said:

And this after the president said he did’t want those people off the ship because it would mess up his numbers. Sounds like self interest not humanitarianism.

 

The president has said a lot of things.  I don't think in general we're allowed to discuss them here.

 

Regardless, his posturing along the way doesn't matter, as the passenger and crew WERE let off the ship.

 

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