If June 1 is now the target U.S. economy reopen, does that mean cruises too?

[strathcona]

Airline will soon have all passenger wear face mask during flight. There will be screening. They will not book middle seat. I love Southwest, wonder how they will be functioning going forward. I just cannot imagine walking around a ship with a mask on, but that may be the new normal. I am looking forward to cruising again, multiple booked, life must go on, just not sure I am ready for the new normal on a cruise ship. But then again, I ve been ok with the new normal formal nights. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

8 minutes ago, strathcona said:

Less passengers, more crew to service the few passengers.

I agree, less passengers. More crew???  How would you suggest keeping crew separated for social distancing?  I’ve seen videos of the average crew cabin. 

[strathcona]

There are only so many crew cabin unless you use the interior cabin which cruise line are discussing not booking. 

 

The restaurant industry, the new task force is discussing wait staff wear mask and gloves, distance between tables. They also need to open up quickly as it is a big part of the economy. 

 

I don't think any cruise line wants to have an infected ship, the PR will hurt even more. This is a tough problem to solve. 

[strathcona]

8 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I agree, less passengers. More crew???  How would you suggest keeping crew separated for social distancing?  I’ve seen videos of the average crew cabin. 

There used to be more service crew on the ship but to keep the cost down and their wage up, they have more cabins to service or more tables to serve. With no self serve buffets, more cleaning, it is only logical to have more crews. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 minutes ago, strathcona said:

There used to be more service crew on the ship but to keep the cost down and their wage up, they have more cabins to service or more tables to serve. With no self serve buffets, more cleaning, it is only logical to have more crews. 

Again, your plan was to keep social distancing for less passengers but how do you manage more crew?

Edited April 18, 2020 by Milwaukee Eight

[LXA350]

The other problem is the air conditioning, at least on planes you have filters that exchange the air every few minutes, on the cruise ship the systems don't work like that, hence there is also a risk to catch it from the air circulation. Social distancing will no help, mitigate the risk completely.

[bouhunter]

9 minutes ago, strathcona said:

 

 

The restaurant industry, the new task force is discussing wait staff wear mask and gloves, distance between tables. They also need to open up quickly as it is a big part of the economy. 

 

 

Sadly this is probably the future for a while.  First the restaurants are shut down, then when they re-open they can only serve half as many customers so their revenue is slashed.  And of course many customers won't even show up to be served by people in masks.  I fear a year from now a lot of restaurants will cease to exist,

[strathcona]

1 minute ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Again, your plan was to keep social distancing for less passengers but how do you manage more crew?

That is a tough issue, with current ship, there just isn't enough cabins to manage the crew. Just look at Queen Victoria, without passengers, there is an COVID outbreak among the crew. The crew not officers, cabins are like shoe boxes. With current at anchor situation, crew are one to a room. They may need to use all interior cabins for crew. What other choice would any cruise line have at this point to open cruising up by June. You are correct, it is not just about passengers, but crew as well. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

Sadly this is probably the future for a while.  First the restaurants are shut down, then when they re-open they can only serve half as many customers so their revenue is slashed.  And of course many customers won't even show up to be served by people in masks.  I fear a year from now a lot of restaurants will cease to exist,

I’m not sure they can even seat half. The key is social distancing. If they can maintain that, then maybe more than half, if not, it may be less. 
 

In my opinion 

[PhillyFan33579]

19 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I’m not sure they can even seat half. The key is social distancing. If they can maintain that, then maybe more than half, if not, it may be less. 
 

In my opinion 

I think the challenges restaurants will face with social distancing if/when they allow customers to eat inside again directly relates to cruise lines and how are they going to be able to handle serving people in the MDR, buffet and other locations (depending on the ship) and still maintain social distancing. In my opinion maintaining social distancing is one of the biggest challenges facing the cruise industry. If cruise lines decide to wait until social distancing is no longer an issue, you are talking about waiting a long time from now to resume operations, which most cruise lines can not afford to do. 

[bouhunter]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I’m not sure they can even seat half. The key is social distancing. If they can maintain that, then maybe more than half, if not, it may be less. 
 

In my opinion 

Yeah obviously half is just a number.  It will vary depending on the individual restaurants.

[astangenes]

2 hours ago, LXA350 said:

The other problem is the air conditioning, at least on planes you have filters that exchange the air every few minutes, on the cruise ship the systems don't work like that, hence there is also a risk to catch it from the air circulation. Social distancing will no help, mitigate the risk completely.

The air conditioning on board the ships is not a problem, as the air is not circulating. The ship take in fresh air form the outside, and directly to diffrent venues/cabins. Then the used air from this venue/cabin is blown out from the ship. 

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

3 hours ago, bouhunter said:

I think the simple answer to that is, if there are states with high virus rates, ships won't be sailing.

NY/NJ, Florida, Washington, California, Texas, Maryland, Louisiana ... they're all problematic.

 

This is of the many reasons you know cruising won't be back soon: Ships

don't sail our of sparsely populated inland states like Wyoming, North Dakota or Arkansas. Just GETTING to and from a cruise means at least one city, plus for many of us the air travel, rental car or hotel van, a hotel, a cab .... it's not practical in a time of social distancing.

[bluesea321]

6 hours ago, astangenes said:

The air conditioning on board the ships is not a problem, as the air is not circulating. The ship take in fresh air form the outside, and directly to diffrent venues/cabins. Then the used air from this venue/cabin is blown out from the ship. 

 

Not true.  Air in all the common areas of ships, theaters, restaurants, bars, etc., is indeed recirculated to save on HVAC costs.  Here is RCL's statement:

https://www.rclcorporate.com/a-chill-in-the-air/

[nemesees]

RCL is cancelling all cruises until June 11 of this year.

As for the other cruise lines, they set their own dates.

But it would be irresponsible for the cruise industry to begin anew without first having some kind of protection against infectious passengers on the ship And being stranded out to sea.

So I would think cruises will start up again much later than when the economy reboots.

[Shipof6Fools]

This doesn't have to be an all or none game. Take precautions and follow social distancing guidelines. I for one think that cruise lines could reopen with the proper rules in place. No one with any sign of flu like symptoms allowed to board, etc. The world is always a dangerous place. Not allowing cruise lines to do business (or alot of other businesses for that matter) for 12-18 months would bankrupt them. At some point people have to live their lives, take for example the protests against stay at home orders.

[GeroWA]

With all the pain you guys are going through I wouldn't want to be sailing until there was absolutely no risk of getting Covid19. In other words a total clearance of the virus in USA or a proven vaccine.

I am booked for a Caribbean B2B in March 2021 and am not sure there will even be an all clear by then - fingers crossed that I am being overly pessimistic! Only time will tell

[astangenes]

9 hours ago, bluesea321 said:

 

Not true.  Air in all the common areas of ships, theaters, restaurants, bars, etc., is indeed recirculated to save on HVAC costs.  Here is RCL's statement:

https://www.rclcorporate.com/a-chill-in-the-air/

 

Ok, then RCL have done it different on their ships I can see. I work on a cruise ship here in Scandinavia, and on all the ships I have been working on the air have never been reused. Thank you for correcting me.

[twins_to_alaska]

14 hours ago, bluesea321 said:

 

Not true.  Air in all the common areas of ships, theaters, restaurants, bars, etc., is indeed recirculated to save on HVAC costs.  Here is RCL's statement:

https://www.rclcorporate.com/a-chill-in-the-air/

 

I think they're going to have to change that for the future despite the loss of energy efficiency/shareholder profit/increase in cost.

 

From Genting Cruise Lines plan before returning to service:

HVAC

Genting said 100% external fresh air will be filtered and supplied to passenger cabins and public areas. Air filters and cooling coils will be thoroughly checked, cleaned and replaced to ensure healthy air quality.

[20165]

6 hours ago, GeroWA said:

With all the pain you guys are going through I wouldn't want to be sailing until there was absolutely no risk of getting Covid19. In other words a total clearance of the virus in USA or a proven vaccine.

I am booked for a Caribbean B2B in March 2021 and am not sure there will even be an all clear by then - fingers crossed that I am being overly pessimistic! Only time will tell

Unfortunately, i think you are correct.  you are contagious 1-3 days before you even start showing symptoms so testing people at the port before the board will not solve the problem.  Not to mention the people that never show symptoms and still have the virus.  

I do believe there will be a treatment in the next couple of months similar to Tamaflu for the common flu, but that still wont stop the spread on a cruiseship.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at these cruise line meetings where they discuss this.  will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[LXA350]

12 hours ago, nemesees said:

RCL is cancelling all cruises until June 11 of this year.

As for the other cruise lines, they set their own dates.

But it would be irresponsible for the cruise industry to begin anew without first having some kind of protection against infectious passengers on the ship And being stranded out to sea.

So I would think cruises will start up again much later than when the economy reboots.

 

At some point even the cruise lines will need to start up again as it might take at least up to a year until a vacination will be available. However they will need to wait at least until borders reopen and traveling freely is even possible, otherwise most clients that even are willning to cruise can't reach the ships. Hence based on this, crusing can restart anywhere between July and September. Then again, there is a likelyhood we will see a 2nd wave of the virus to break out once measures are being loosened up what will happen then. One option cruising will be fully suspended until 2021 or we might even see cruises resume until outbreaks on ships will occur again. This could even cause the indusry in much more trouble as it will take even longer until the trust of existing and even more difficult, new cruisers would come on board. All such questions the cruise lines are facing at the moment in creating a concept on how and when to resume with operations.