Empress of The Seas

[flyguyjake]

Malta could be a pit stop waiting for an open beach slot at Aliaga. She's 30 years old. How long does Royal typically keep their ships?

[Biker19]

30 minutes ago, flyguyjake said:

 How long does Royal typically keep their ships?

About 25.

[Merion_Mom]

7 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Grandma was suppised to go to Pullman 

Enchanted is supposed to replace her in Bal'more

 

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

Autocorrect can be hilarious.

 

GRANDEUR was supposed to go to Pullmantur.

 

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

That wasn't autocorrect😉😂😂

 

 

Really?

 

You meant to type "Grandma"?

 

You meant to type "suppised"?

 

You meant to type "Pullman"?

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Really?

 

You meant to type "Grandma"?

 

You meant to type "suppised"?

 

You meant to type "Pullman"?

 

Grandma and Pullman yes😁

Suppised was a typo, believe it or not u and i are next to each other on a qwerty keyboard

 

But you're ok with Enchanted and Bal'more🤔

[Cruise Wonderland]

19 hours ago, twangster said:

In the case of Sovereign and Monarch valuables weren't offloaded in Malta.  

 

Both ships went to anchorage in Malta but didn't port there.  Valuables were offloaded in Naples.  

 

Just saying'...

I am sure that Sovereign and Monarch DID berth at a pier in Malta for some time (seems to be at a commercial port) when I checked at Marine Traffic last time.

[twangster]

Just now, Cruise Wonderland said:

I am sure that Sovereign and Monarch DID berth at a pier in Malta for some time (seems to be at a commercial port) when I checked at Marine Traffic last time.

 

I only saw them at anchor every time I checked.  

 

 

At the sametime as above Monarch approached Sovereign at anchor, hung around briefly then left for Turkey.   It was suggested they transferred crew by tender taking her down to minimums to reach the scrap yard.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

13 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Tui (with Mein Schiff 1 & 2) and Genting Dream Explorer have 7 day sailings planned for August - they seem to have already gotten over the short sailing experiment. When MSC Grandiosa starts in two weeks, she plans to sail one week itineraries.

 

I forgot about Genting in Asia...

 

by the way, to add to Aida, Hrutigruten & Costa positive C19stories....

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2757229-positive-covid-case-on-paul-gauguins-1st-cruise/

 

How much would you like to bet that both MSC and Genting will get shut down with Covid cases as well?

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by Hoopster95

[twangster]

Another challenge for Empress during these times are the crew bunks with many at four per crew cabin.  Most common in newer ships are two per crew cabin.  

 

However they can overcome that by moving crew to guest cabins using the excess capacity created by reducing guest counts on board.

[Cruise Wonderland]

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

I only saw them at anchor every time I checked.

At the sametime as above Monarch approached Sovereign at anchor, hung around briefly then left for Turkey. It was suggested they transferred crew by tender taking her down to minimums to reach the scrap yard.

 

 

I found the pictures from Malta Ship Photos (you can have a look on their Facebook page) which was taken on 12th July. Monarch had berthed at Marsaxlokk port just before leaving for her last voyage to Aliaga. However we don't know whether any remaining items were offloaded there.

 

[Hoopster95]

6 minutes ago, twangster said:

Another challenge for Empress during these times are the crew bunks with many at four per crew cabin.  Most common in newer ships are two per crew cabin.  

 

However they can overcome that by moving crew to guest cabins using the excess capacity created by reducing guest counts on board.

 

Good points, however what cabins do the crew bunk in? The regular interior, non-air filtered cabins that passengers aren't allowed to use? Just pointing out again my above post regarding the utter failure thus far of the start up of these other cruise lines, there's no way a non balcony ship will sail anytime soon. Cruise lines may have to figure out how to put crew into balcony cabins to even try to attempt a start up at this rate. 

 

Looks like so far 100% success of contracting C19 on a few of the main stream lines that have even tried to start around the world. Anyways, Empress is at the bottom of the list as far as what Royal is selling to the public ("innovative ships", entertainment, family cruising, bells and whistles). She's a goner.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Hoopster95

[twangster]

1 minute ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

Good points, however what cabins do the crew bunk in? The regular interior, non-air filtered cabins that passengers aren't allowed to use? Just pointing out again my above post regarding the utter failure thus far of the start up of these other cruise lines, there's no way a non balcony ship will sail anytime soon. Cruise lines may have to figure out how to put crew into balcony cabins to even try to attempt a start up at this rate. 

 

Looks like so far 100% success of contracting C19 on a few of the main stream lines that have even tried to start around the world. Anyways, Empress is at the bottom of the list ass far as what Royal is selling to the public ("innovative ships", entertainment, family cruising, bells and whistles). She's a goner.

 

I never seen it stated that interior cabins are not allowed to be used.  

[livingonthebeach]

13 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Tui (with Mein Schiff 1 & 2) and Genting Dream Explorer have 7 day sailings planned for August - they seem to have already gotten over the short sailing experiment. When MSC Grandiosa starts in two weeks, she plans to sail one week itineraries.

 

Mein Schiff 1 first sailing is today out of Kiel.  She was delayed due to 5 crew members testing positive last month.  Mein Schiff 2 did sail without any incidents that we know of. 

[Hoopster95]

10 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

I never seen it stated that interior cabins are not allowed to be used.  

 

Me neither. I'm just using common sense

[HBE4]

On 8/2/2020 at 10:14 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

Did anyone really expect Royal to say anything other than the Empress is still in our fleet and we have no intentions of selling her when responding to inquiries about rumours.

 

Like Hoopster95 stated “it’s lip service”
 

Royal will continue to sell cruises on her up until the day that they announce that she is either being sold or scrapped which IMO will be before the fleet sails again. 

 

Wouldn't surprise me if they continue selling cruises on her while she is in process of being scrapped.

[livingonthebeach]

1 minute ago, HBE4 said:

 

Wouldn't surprise me if they continue selling cruises on her while she is in process of being scrapped.

 

They are selling an Oct 28, 2020 cruise out of Miami to Nassau.  Far as I know, the Bahamas is still closed to Americans. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffwhitmore/2020/07/21/bahamas-travel-ban-for-americans-to-begin-on-july-22-2020/#24f6bf413684

 

[WeMissSeaView]

Horizon is currently docked in Greece at the same dock area that Sovereign and Monarch spent many days at before sailing for Turkey.  Horizon must be unloading things of value before sailing to Turkey.

[LXA350]

2 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

They are selling an Oct 28, 2020 cruise out of Miami to Nassau.  Far as I know, the Bahamas is still closed to Americans. 

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffwhitmore/2020/07/21/bahamas-travel-ban-for-americans-to-begin-on-july-22-2020/#24f6bf413684

 

 

 

Most likely we will see no cruises depart by then of RCL and most other companies from North America. Should Empress ever get back into service, which I highly doubt, I guess she will be most the last ships to get back into active operations.

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, WeMissSeaView said:

Horizon must be unloading things of value before sailing to Turkey.

Horizon was docked there for quite a while in July already.

[Biker19]

14 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Are cruisers to leave doors open at all times?

That's the way @Thorben-Hendrik used to roll.

[Extra Kim]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That's the way @Thorben-Hendrik used to troll.

Fixed it for you. 😉

[ipeeinthepool]

7 hours ago, Heymarco said:

What does balcony have to do with air circulation? Are cruisers to leave doors open at all times?

 

When you're quarantined for weeks a time a balcony allows the passengers to get some fresh air and sunlight .  An inside cabin would be similar to solitary confinement.

[Biker19]

28 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

When you're quarantined for weeks a time a balcony allows the passengers to get some fresh air and sunlight

The Diamond Princess many like to point out as the example of how outbreaks will be handled is already an outlier and will likely become more so in terms of "large" ships. The cruise industry has learned its lesson to not confine folks on board the ship (regardless of cabin category) for any longer than needed. While it may not represent the norm on larger ships, the two most recent outbreaks had customers off the ship within about a day of a positive COVID test on board.

[ipeeinthepool]

2 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

The cruise industry has learned its lesson to not confine folks on board the ship (regardless of cabin category) for any longer than needed. While it may not represent the norm on larger ships, the two most recent outbreaks had customers off the ship within about a day of a positive COVID test on board.

 

I'm sure that the cruise lines would like to get infected crew and passengers off their ships, the local authorities may not allow it.  Most places can't accommodate a couple thousand potential cases of Covid. 

[ipeeinthepool]

17 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Multiple week passenger quarantines will not be the norm. If that’s the operating model, then the lines will not be allowed to resume. You stated reasons why someone would choose a ship with a balcony. To date, have not heard anything about it being mandatory other than those being preferred rooms to make available while ships sail with limited capacity. The decision seems more revenue/pr driven.

 

Can you tell me which cruise lines have published their post covid policy and procedures?

[ipeeinthepool]

8 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Yes, pulling from the same source as everyone else. 😉

 

I was hoping you would tell me.