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NEWS RELEASE ON 5 SHIPS TAKING CREW HOME


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Royal Caribbean Details Massive Plan to Get Crew Home

 
May 03, 2020

Harmony of the Seas

Royal Caribbean International is prepping a major plan to get its crew home to 60 different countries using both ships and private charter flights. 

Crew from the Caribbean, Central and South American crew will be transferred to Vision, Rhapsody and Adventure of the Seas. All three ships will then sail to various ports.

The Vision will depart from Miami on May 15, and sail to St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and St. Vincent; the Rhapsody will depart from Miami on May 13, and sail to Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize; the Adventure will depart from the Bahamas on May 9 and set course for Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. 

The Harmony is heading to Barbados with Filipino crew from various company ships, where the company will have charter flights heading to Manila. There will also be charter flights to Manila from Miami, with the Liberty of the Seas heading to Miami.

The Anthem of the Seas will have a long trek, sailing to India for a port call on June 3. 

Meanwhile, Indonesian crew will be transferred to Explorer and Enchantment. Charter flights taking off from Bridgetown will be available for crew aboard the Explorer and from Miami for crew aboard the Enchantment. 

The Ukraine and Romanian crew aboard the company's fleet will be transferred to the Navigator of the Seas, which will then dock in Miami and crew will get charter flights home. 

European, Canadian and all other crew will be transferred to Freedom, Empress and Majesty. All three ships will sail to the UK where charter flights will be arranged. 

U.S. crew will also be disembarked with charter flights home. 

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14 minutes ago, jalves said:

Sounds like we are much further away from resuming cruises.  

It normally takes a minimum of 30 days to get crew to the ships and none of them will have active contracts before that point.  Not to mention entertainment staff (singers and dancers) that has to rehearse together for several weeks prior to boarding a ship.  Contractors like spa staff have to be hired.  So, yeah, I wouldn't expect anything to sail for a while.  I know Carnival is saying Aug, but we shall see if they can get that done.  The first few cruises may be really rough with teams that haven't been working together, etc.  We're booked again for Nov (just had May cruises cancelled) and are pretty sure they may not happen.  Also, there is the good chance that only a few cruises will go out at first.

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5 hours ago, villager70 said:

Royal Caribbean Details Massive Plan to Get Crew Home

 
May 03, 2020

Harmony of the Seas

Royal Caribbean International is prepping a major plan to get its crew home to 60 different countries using both ships and private charter flights. 

Crew from the Caribbean, Central and South American crew will be transferred to Vision, Rhapsody and Adventure of the Seas. All three ships will then sail to various ports.

The Vision will depart from Miami on May 15, and sail to St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad and St. Vincent; the Rhapsody will depart from Miami on May 13, and sail to Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize; the Adventure will depart from the Bahamas on May 9 and set course for Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. 

The Harmony is heading to Barbados with Filipino crew from various company ships, where the company will have charter flights heading to Manila. There will also be charter flights to Manila from Miami, with the Liberty of the Seas heading to Miami.

The Anthem of the Seas will have a long trek, sailing to India for a port call on June 3. 

Meanwhile, Indonesian crew will be transferred to Explorer and Enchantment. Charter flights taking off from Bridgetown will be available for crew aboard the Explorer and from Miami for crew aboard the Enchantment. 

The Ukraine and Romanian crew aboard the company's fleet will be transferred to the Navigator of the Seas, which will then dock in Miami and crew will get charter flights home. 

European, Canadian and all other crew will be transferred to Freedom, Empress and Majesty. All three ships will sail to the UK where charter flights will be arranged. 

U.S. crew will also be disembarked with charter flights home. 

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So media pressure finally got to the executives.

Fact that they signed exactly same documents after weeks of resisting doing so, proves that reasoning for the delay was mainly financial (along with huge logistics involved)

 

It seems at least some of the crew will be imprisoned for another two months based on the above post.

(while being paid bare minimum contractual pay)

But at least there is light at the end of the tunnel for them.

 

 

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1 minute ago, hal2008 said:

 

 

So media pressure finally got to the executives.

Fact that they signed exactly same documents after weeks of resisting doing so, proves that reasoning for the delay was mainly financial (along with huge logistics involved)

 

It seems at least some of the crew will be imprisoned for another two months based on the above post.

(while being paid bare minimum contractual pay)

But at least there is light at the end of the tunnel for them.

 

 

Where does it say they signed the exact same papers. There may have been a negotiation and the requirement for them to be responsible after the employees disembark for the 
EMPLOYEES behavior may have been dropped.

 

Hope so. That was pretty ridiculous. 

 

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36 minutes ago, hazence said:

Where does it say they signed the exact same papers. There may have been a negotiation and the requirement for them to be responsible after the employees disembark for the 
EMPLOYEES behavior may have been dropped.

 

Hope so. That was pretty ridiculous. 

 

 

Have been searching for publicly available link that I can share here.

 

I believe there is a Knightridder/Trubune syndicate story. Might be able to see in Miami Helad.

 

Here is some statements from that (publicly available source - I am not going to share anything non-public on this board) article which quotes WRITTEN statements by Bayley to the staff.

 

While Bayley said he hopes the threat of criminal prosecution will be removed, he said, "we have decided that the importance of getting you home is so great that we will sign these documents as they are written today to help get you off the ships."

Similarly, Lutoff-Perlo, Celebrity Cruises CEO, said in her letter to crew, "In the spirit of doing everything we possibly can to get you home, I have decided to sign this letter."

 

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39 minutes ago, hazence said:

Where does it say they signed the exact same papers. There may have been a negotiation and the requirement for them to be responsible after the employees disembark for the 
EMPLOYEES behavior may have been dropped.

 

Hope so. That was pretty ridiculous. 

 

 

They were NOT ridiculous.

 

CDC considers crew of cruise line very high risk and do not want them to spread possible infection to US population.

But once crew is outside jurisdiction of USA, why on earth would CDC care?

 

Just pause for a second and think.

 

To think that, that piece of reporting could be true IS ridiculous.

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2 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

 

They were NOT ridiculous.

 

CDC considers crew of cruise line very high risk and do not want them to spread possible infection to US population.

But once crew is outside jurisdiction of USA, why on earth would CDC care?

 

Just pause for a second and think.

 

To think that, that piece of reporting could be true IS ridiculous.

 

Yeah they were. 

 

These crew have been in isolation for weeks. No one on, no one off, (and the majority of ships)  no cases on board. They have not set foot on land since March!

 

For ships that have had cases onboard they could enforce things. But for the most, the CDC were just being ridiculous.

 

 

If anything, the crew are way more at risk setting foot in the US, than the US is from these crew members. It's not like the US has zero spread of the virus is it...

 

But you keep believing whatever makes you happy...

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There was a very good reason why CDC included criminal penalty clause. In fact, it was not something CDC lawyers came up with. DHS was heavily involved. Various US Govt agency may turn a blind eye towards cruise industry (huge lobbying budget) time to time, but that does not mean DHS/CDC and other agencies are unaware of how cruise industry operate.

 

Safeguarding interest of US citizens was the primary objective here.

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Well, then your issue is with the journalist and not with me. Actually I have almost no faith in today’s+media and my “hobby” is researching to demonstrate just how unreliable they are.  It’s quite a fun and rewarding pastime.

 

If you can refute the quote in the article, I would applaud you for posting your links and outing another unreliable journalist. 
 

But if there’s one lie in the article as you claim...then it should be considered unreliable altogether. One cannot cherry pick just the part that supports your own point of view.

 

 

 

 

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Just now, GarlicBread said:

 

Yeah they were. 

 

These crew have been in isolation for weeks. No one on, no one off, (and the majority of ships)  no cases on board. They have not set foot on land since March!

For ships that have had cases onboard they could enforce things. But for the most, the CDC were just being ridiculous.

 

 

If anything, the crew are way more at risk setting foot in the US, than the US is from these crew members. It's not like the US has zero spread of the virus is it...

 

But you keep believing whatever makes you happy...

 

"No cases on board".   No guarantee of that.

 

"If anything, the crew are way more at risk setting foot in the US, than the US is from these crew members."

You are totally right.

 

CDC/DHS were not thinking for the benefits of crew members, though.

After the Australian case, no one wanted to take any chance.

 

There was no question of crew mingling with US population if three steps of escorted transfer via

ship to bus

bus to charter flight on tarmac

out of USA

 

was to take place.

 

Issue was financial. Cost was too much.

 

I have not been able to get any confirmation on part of logistics cost picked up by Philippines government.

But have heard about it.

 

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7 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

There was a very good reason why CDC included criminal penalty clause. In fact, it was not something CDC lawyers came up with. DHS was heavily involved. Various US Govt agency may turn a blind eye towards cruise industry (huge lobbying budget) time to time, but that does not mean DHS/CDC and other agencies are unaware of how cruise industry operate.

 

Safeguarding interest of US citizens was the primary objective here.

Earlier you denied there was such a clause.  You even denied the quote was in the article.

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1 minute ago, hazence said:

Well, then your issue is with the journalist and not with me. Actually I have almost no faith in today’s+media and my “hobby” is researching to demonstrate just how unreliable they are.  It’s quite a fun and rewarding pastime.

 

If you can refute the quote in the article, I would applaud you for posting your links and outing another unreliable journalist. 
 

But if there’s one lie in the article as you claim...then it should be considered unreliable altogether. One cannot cherry pick just the part that supports your own point of view.

 

 

 

 

 

Troubling aspect is not journalism.

But tendency to cherry pick most ridiculous item and then argue what some may consider not plausible.

You really believed CDC was arguing for weeks for enforcement beyond US borders? Really?

By the way, the Guardian article does not say that CDC was looking for beyond border enforcement.

You chose to interpret that way.

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Here’s your quote from another thread..  Now you say there’s a “good reason to include penalty clause.”

 

   1 hour ago,  hal2008 said: 

 

What nonsense is this?

When did CDC say (and why would they) cruise lines are responsible for the crew once they exited charter flight in their home country (or actually once outside of US)

 

Quite preposterous to assume that CDC will enforce anything once staff are outside USA.

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1 minute ago, hazence said:

Earlier you denied there was such a clause.  You even denied the quote was in the article.

 

OMG.

Penalty clause has been the main point of argument.

(real reason was financial)

But your interpretation that CDC was looking for enforcement beyond US borders is the part I have been challenging.

 

 

I think we have already taken up too much of space on this board on this topic.

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1 minute ago, hazence said:

Here’s your quote from another thread..

 

   1 hour ago,  hal2008 said: 

 

What nonsense is this?

When did CDC say (and why would they) cruise lines are responsible for the crew once they exited charter flight in their home country (or actually once outside of US)

 

Quite preposterous to assume that CDC will enforce anything once staff are outside USA.

 

Exactly.

CDC has NEVER asked for enforcement outside USA from cruise lines executives.

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No, the response from the Cruise Industry was that there objection was to language that held them responsible for crew actions AFTER they disembarked.

 

First you claimed the article didn’t say that.

 

Then you claimed it was untrue.  That there was no penalty clause.

 

Now you say there was a penalty clause and for a good reason.

 

Its confusing to follow exactly what you DO believe.

 

 

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But Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the largest trade association for the cruise industry, said some of the CDC’s requirements were “impractical”.

“To require employers to guarantee that every employee outside the workplace will fulfil all of the CDC’s stated requirements, including not having any interaction with the public whatsoever, with criminal sanctions at stake, is both unprecedented and impractical,” it said in a statement.
 

This is a direct quote from the Guardian article posted in the other thread.

 

See “outside the workplace.”  Now if your...return someone to their own country...what does “outside their workplace” in that country mean to you?

 

And check out...”criminal sanctions” phrase.

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15 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

"No cases on board".   No guarantee of that.

 

 

For the majority of ships, actually yes you can guarentee it. 

As I said, many have been in isolation since March, have temperature checks twice a day and no cases onboard! Unless the virus apparates onto the ship...

 

 

I would understand the CDC a little bit more  if the US had been successful like Aus or NZ, but clearly they're not and a lot of Americans dont care either...

 

 

Keep reading the Miami Herald and Jim Walker 😂

 

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On 5/5/2020 at 4:20 PM, hazence said:

No, the response from the Cruise Industry was that there objection was to language that held them responsible for crew actions AFTER they disembarked.

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER they disembarked in U-S-A.

CDC doesn't give a damn what happens to crew for example when they get off board in Barbados to take a charter flight home from there.

 

But they do care when disembarkation takes place in Port of Miami for charter flight home from Miami.

 

There is no confusion within any cruise line at any level (low level legal staff to CEO) about this.

Everyone in these three companies have enough common sense to understand that much.

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On 5/5/2020 at 1:04 PM, GarlicBread said:

 

Yeah they were. 

 

These crew have been in isolation for weeks. No one on, no one off, (and the majority of ships)  no cases on board. They have not set foot on land since March!

 

For ships that have had cases onboard they could enforce things. But for the most, the CDC were just being ridiculous.

 

 

If anything, the crew are way more at risk setting foot in the US, than the US is from these crew members. It's not like the US has zero spread of the virus is it...

 

But you keep believing whatever makes you happy...

Though many or most(not 100% sure totals) the ships have been in Ports, one I know alone has spent 5+ days last 3 weeks sitting in a US Port picking up and dropping off supplies... Contagious, prob not but possible... One of the most significant studies is of the US Aircraft Carrier, out of 900+ on the Aircraft Carrier that were positive for CV, 65%+ never had or ever did any symptoms. All mostly young similar to Cruise Ship's... 

Edited by ONECRUISER
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