Holland America Line Group To Use 8 Cruise Ships To Repatriate Crew Home

[rjbean4]

More gong on to get crew home and now involving more HAL ships in addition to what Eurodam will be doing to take crew home from Maasdam & Westerdam. I'm Not surprised as it was only a matter of time. Mom and I don't have plans to cruise till December for the Holidays but as we get closer to our final payment we will have to really think more about going like we never have before depending on where cruising is at when we get to that time. Mom is also 89 and has underlying health problems. I have already said that we may not be going and have taken our last cruise. I hope not. Mom has also said that as far as the Holidays is concerned she has had the same feeling. Would be a massive disappointment because cruising for the Holidays for us has been a tradition since we started doing it back in December, 1988.  That's 32 years. We have done a lot of other cruising in between all those years at sea for the Holidays too. 

 

http://crew-center.com/holland-america-line-group-use-8-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-home

[VMax1700]

 

Interesting choice of vessels.  Nieuw Amsterdam and Veendam are both scheduled to be doing Mediterranean cruises this summer (from July) and Volendam was listed for Alaska and now has nothing until Fall, (October).  

I wonder are HAL signalling that there will be no Med cruises in 2020 even though they still have them on the website from July?

[puppycanducruise]

Interesting.  Thanks for posting the link.

I'm sure the crew members will be pleased to be home.

[frankc98376]

Eurodam is supposed to be heading toward Philippines and Indonesia. Crew person we know was moving to Eurodam to go home

Edited April 19, 2020 by frankc98376

[Himself]

11 hours ago, rjbean4 said:

More gong on to get crew home and now involving more HAL ships in addition to what Eurodam will be doing to take crew home from Maasdam & Westerdam. I'm Not surprised as it was only a matter of time. Mom and I don't have plans to cruise till December for the Holidays but as we get closer to our final payment we will have to really think more about going like we never have before depending on where cruising is at when we get to that time. Mom is also 89 and has underlying health problems. I have already said that we may not be going and have taken our last cruise. I hope not. Mom has also said that as far as the Holidays is concerned she has had the same feeling. Would be a massive disappointment because cruising for the Holidays for us has been a tradition since we started doing it back in December, 1988.  That's 32 years. We have done a lot of other cruising in between all those years at sea for the Holidays too. 

 

http://crew-center.com/holland-america-line-group-use-8-cruise-ships-repatriate-crew-home

Thanks for giving us this information

[Randyk47]

Would all the repatriating imply that the cruise lines don’t see cruising opening up anytime soon?  

[SilvertoGold]

17 minutes ago, Randyk47 said:

Would all the repatriating imply that the cruise lines don’t see cruising opening up anytime soon?  

 

Maybe a few ships back on in July, the rest....?

[1ANGELCAT]

The article also doesn’t mention the Eurodam and Amsterdam. Has their mission changed ?

[Randyk47]

48 minutes ago, SilvertoGold said:

 

Maybe a few ships back on in July, the rest....?

I agree.  This is not a light switch situation, no just flipping the lights back on.  There are a lot of pieces and parts that will have to be put back together.  Countries and ports opened.  Ships need to reposition for resumed itineraries.  Crews need to be rebuilt.   Ships provisioned.  And more than I haven’t mentioned or considered.  All of this in potentially a very different operating and regulatory environment.  It’s going to take months and months.   

Edited April 19, 2020 by Randyk47

[Tampa Girl]

4 hours ago, puppycanducruise said:

Interesting.  Thanks for posting the link.

I'm sure the crew members will be pleased to be home.

 

Most likely that will be tempered with the fact that they have lost their jobs, at least temporarily.

[rjbean4]

58 minutes ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

The article also doesn’t mention the Eurodam and Amsterdam. Has their mission changed ?

Eurodam has already gone into action involving this. She has now started across the Pacific and also has crew on board from the Maasdam and Westerdam. The transfer for crew of Maasdam and Westerdam to the Eurodam was done in the LaPaz, Mexico area. Amsterdam after ending the World Cruise went across the Indian Ocean to Durban, South Africa to refuel and load provisions. Was also able to Disembark a handful of South African crew. The plan was then to continue onward to Port Everglades but then had a change of plans dealing with the same challenge trying to get crew home. When they left Durban they started back east across the Indian Ocean to get crew home from the Indonesia - Philippines area. Amsterdam still also has all the luggage on board from the World Cruise passengers that everyone had packed up and left in their cabins to be shipped home once they reach the U.S. All the cruise lines have had to start doing this as it has become the only way they can get crew home. Airlines have cut way back in addition to some not flying any long haul flights. Equipment is being parked everywhere and at some airports runways have been closed to be used to park them. Atlanta for example which is the world headquarters for Delta has 5 runways and at least 2 of them are closed because Delta has parked equipment on them to store them. Other hubs for Delta are MSP and DTW and sure there is a lot of parked planes there too. MSP and DTW were hubs for NWA with MSP being the world headquarters for NWA till the merger with Delta. Just hope everyone gets home. Going to be a while till we all cruise again the way we were used to doing it.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/

Edited April 19, 2020 by rjbean4

[SilvertoGold]

1 hour ago, Randyk47 said:

I agree.  This is not a light switch situation, no just flipping the lights back on.  There are a lot of pieces and parts that will have to be put back together.  Countries and ports opened.  Ships need to reposition for resumed itineraries.  Crews need to be rebuilt.   Ships provisioned.  And more than I haven’t mentioned or considered.  All of this in potentially a very different operating and regulatory environment.  It’s going to take months and months.   

 

Looks like it.  Once the planes start flying in earnest, the cruise lines could actually get more than home-port pax onto the ships. That's a start, but as Arnold Donald mentioned, they will have a lot of rules and regulations to follow and they won't restart until social gatherings are OK.   He also mentioned they want to be successful with the restart.  I assume that means no one wants to be the next Zaandam.

 

I hope HAL will redo the FCCs so we all do not have to use them to make a booking by December.

[St Pete Cruiser]

I can't imagine the turmoil in corporate offices across all of the cruise lines with decisions as to what is being cancelled and what is to become of crew and ships.