As we all know, the cruise industry has gone through a very stormy time. So what has happened to the fleets?
Diamond Princess was the first to make headlines in this coronavirus world. She is still in Yokohama, but all the crew and guests have gone, most repatriated to their countries after a period of isolation. The ship has taken on a different kind of crew -- workers who are disinfecting the entire vessel, inside and out.
Grand Princess was the next in the news. The ship is still in San Francisco bay. The guests have all gone, but the crew remains on board, going through the last of a 14-day quarantine that began on March 21.
All Princess bridge cams are operational, and you can see where the ships are here.
Princess is part of the Carnival group, which on March 19 extended an offer for all ships to be used as auxiliary hospitals. Here is the actual news release, which was widely reported by the media:
MIAMI, March 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL;NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, today announced that select cruise ships from the company's global cruise line brands, including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia, will be made available to communities for use as temporary hospitals to help address the escalating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare systems around the world.
With the continued spread of COVID-19 expected to exert added pressure on land-based healthcare facilities, including a possible shortage of hospital beds, Carnival Corporation and its brands are calling on governments and health authorities to consider using cruise ships as temporary healthcare facilities to treat non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up additional space and expanding capacity in land-based hospitals to treat cases of COVID-19. As part of the offer, interested parties will be asked to cover only the essential costs of the ship's operations while in port.
Governments or health authorities with interest can contact Monica Puello by email at MPuello@Carnival.com or by phone at (305) 406-8656.
But the offer does not appear to have been taken up. As Bloomberg commented on March 20, though President Trump liked the idea, because cruise ships "have a lot of rooms," reservations were felt by other officials. As the finance reporter pointed out, "In 2018, Carnival drew criticism after public records -- obtained by Florida radio station WLRN -- revealed that the federal government paid the company the equivalent of $5,959 per passenger per week for lending a vessel to hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean, an amount that significantly exceeded what the ship typically charges leisure travelers." A spokesman for Carnival, Roger Frizzell, said there was no comparison to the 2018 situation, "because the company had to account for lost revenue from taking a ship out of operation, back then." But apparently doubts still linger.
So, instead, the ships are still in limbo -- either floating about on short, badly patronized voyages, or in port as unwelcome visitors. In Australia, according to Stuff, the New Zealand news outlet, New South Wales officialdom is trying to get rid of eight ships. You can see them for yourself on the marine traffic site.
In Auckland, two luxury ships linger. One, pictured above, is Le Laperouse, one of the Ponant fleet. It was in Wellington on March 16, when it abruptly discharged all passengers in the middle of a round-New Zealand cruise, somewhat to the mystification and alarm of locals, as well as the cruisers, who were forced to find a quick way home. After that, it returned to Auckland, where it anchored off Motutapu Island, spot where vessels often wait for a berth, and has remained there ever since.
The other ship, lying anchored off the island, too, is MS Bremen, which has also discharged all its guests, and has only its 83 crew members on board. What happens next belongs to guesswork -- the ship (pictured below) is supposed to be on the way to Russia.
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