Escape at POM, heading to Asia & Breakaway to Europe

[mking8288]

FYI - just read this on CLN - a very (over)crowded Norwegian Escape is indeed docked at POM (Miami) this evening as expected, said to be sailing at some point to repatriate crew members to Asia.  The Breakaway has crew members heading to Europe.  

 

FWIW, read for yourself about the crews and living arrangement onboard, social distancing measures, etc. as "leaked" out - https://www.cruiselawnews.com/2020/05/articles/disease/ridiculously-overcrowded-norwegian-escape-sails-to-miami/

 

It was mentioned that the crew transfer were done several days earlier while some of the ships were at GSC, using tenders to transfer them among ships.  As a matter of fact, I can confirm that as I noticed (on the Bliss/Encore's live shipcam then) small tenders from the ships were in use in the evening while their fleet of ships were anchored there.  

 

I am at a loss for words ... even if this is twisted and not entirely true.  Humanity.  

 

 

from my Google Pixel XL over Fios/T-Mo/Fi 4G.LTE 

Edited May 3, 2020 by mking8288

[All-ready2cruise]

Wow, that's terrible. I feel very badly for crew and can understand why they'd be upset.  No way is there any social distancing.  I sure hope they all get home safe and sound, otherwise, NCL may be looking at some pretty huge law suits, supported by CDC regulations too. 

[mugtech]

Escape headed to the Philippines means all 3,800 get a free trip through the Panama Canal, gonna cost NCL a few bucks.

[MJSailors]

Celebrity cruises are taking care of their crew members by giving them accommodations in passenger cabins including suites on those ships employed to get the crews home.

Apparently, NCL is using a different approach.

[cruiser4801]

The only people NCL cares less about than their customers is their crew members.

 

Crew members are being horribly treated by NCL and the other cruise companies.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, All-ready2cruise said:

Wow, that's terrible. I feel very badly for crew and can understand why they'd be upset.  No way is there any social distancing.  I sure hope they all get home safe and sound, otherwise, NCL may be looking at some pretty huge law suits, supported by CDC regulations too. 

If they transferred from one of the small ships, the cabin they have on the Escape is 2 times (or more) larger than their shared cabin on the ship they came from. Yeah, maybe a lot have got use to having a private guest cabin since the shutdown. 

 

I thought that a lot of this had to do with the fact that the United States requirements to disembark crew was so costly that none of the cruise lines agreed to them. Charter flights had been arranged until the United States stepped in with their "ransom demands" which no cruise lie could afford. So now, they are forced to physically transport crew home. 

 

[mugtech]

And once they get to the Philippines they will probably be forced to sit in the harbor and quarantine for 14 days just like RCI Voyager of the Seas is doing currently.  Good chance the only ones allowed off the ships in Manila will be Filipinos.  There are many hotels in Manila currently quarantining other returning overseas foreign workers, and once the crews are off the ship another 14 days quarantine could be required.  Manila is under full Luzon Lockdown until at least 5/15/20.

[mugtech]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

I thought that a lot of this had to do with the fact that the United States requirements to disembark crew was so costly that none of the cruise lines agreed to them. Charter flights had been arranged until the United States stepped in with their "ransom demands" which no cruise lie could afford. So now, they are forced to physically transport crew home. 

 

The US has been terrible in most all aspects of covid-19,  the treatment of the crews is just another humanitarian failure.

[Gershep]

I feel bad for the crew. Now they want to punish them because some one leaked the information. 

[njhorseman]

19 hours ago, MJSailors said:

Celebrity cruises are taking care of their crew members by giving them accommodations in passenger cabins including suites on those ships employed to get the crews home.

Apparently, NCL is using a different approach.

No...read the article. They are in guest cabins, but not one to a cabin:

“We were not assigned separate living quarters as expected . . .  Two individuals assigned to a small cramped  guest staterooms.

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by njhorseman

[zqvol]

The headline in the quoted newsletter is sensationalized. Read through it and you will discover that two crew members are housed in each cramped guest cabin.

 

When passengers sail in the cabins they are fine, when crew are in them they are cramped.

 

No story here, just a lot of fake news.

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, Gershep said:

I feel bad for the crew. Now they want to punish them because some one leaked the information. 

The crew all sign contracts which restricts what they may say publicly about their company. Many others in different companies have similar contracts or company codes of conduct. My certainly does. And failure to abide by contracts and/or codes of conduct can result in disciplinary actions up to termination (blacklisted forever). 

 

.... if you look at the article, they all seem to be perfectly o.k. with partying on deck with no social distancing. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by BirdTravels

[JayS]

On 5/2/2020 at 10:18 PM, mugtech said:

Escape headed to the Philippines means all 3,800 get a free trip through the Panama Canal, gonna cost NCL a few bucks.

I was told the Escape, Breakaway and Getaway can NOT go through the Panama Canal because the life boats hang outboard of the ship making it too wide even for the new locks.

The Bliss has its life boats inboard. It is most noticeable in the Local (the new O'Sheehan ) A smaller dining area.

[bluesea777]

3 hours ago, JayS said:

I was told the Escape, Breakaway and Getaway can NOT go through the Panama Canal because the life boats hang outboard of the ship making it too wide even for the new locks.

The Bliss has its life boats inboard. It is most noticeable in the Local (the new O'Sheehan ) A smaller dining area.

 

Maybe they'll now be able to - through the new locks.

 

HAL's Koningsdam was able to a few weeks ago and it was successful.

 

[mking8288]

As of this morning, looks like the Escape is going nowhere yet - still docked/berthed at POM (Epic is also there).  Encore has docked at Norfolk, VA (on live shipcam) and Bliss is coming into Norfolk to berth there - and, on MarineTraffic, it appeared that the Norwegian Spirit is joining them - already sailed under the beautiful Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

 

Perhaps, NCL will follow the lead set by Royal, and sail to other nearby ship friendly ports in the Caribbean countries and transfer their crews to charter flights to repatriate them to various countries, instead of sailing across the Pacific, that is a long very journey itself, via the PC. 

 

Footnote: some of the NCL ship's bridge cam has been turned off & not live. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by mking8288

[bluesea777]

Maybe Escape needs to load extra provisions in order to be able to feed 3800 crew on the extra long voyage home. When the ship reaches Manila she will need to quarantine in the anchorage for 14 days and have the crew tested twice during the period before the Filipinos can disembark to go home.

 

Cruisemapper.com:

 

 

And there are many more coming!! OMG!

 

The Captain on HAL's Amsterdam has a log http://captainjonathan.com/ and you can read his May 2nd entry explaining Manila. They are currently off Jakarta awaiting to off load the Indonesian crew.