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Any reports on CMA-CGM Figaro and Centaurus?


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  • 3 weeks later...
I am booked onboard these ships for later this year and early next. Any reports on the cabins, nationality of officers, food, etc.?

 

This link shows the cabins, and has a further link to amenities:

 

http://www.freightercruises.com/seaworthy_news_1208.php

 

Since the ship is French flag, pretty sure the officers will be French.

 

As with most freighter services, you will eat what the officers eat, which should be good (being French), but not great. Entertainment will be up to you. I've been on freighters carrying passengers years ago, lots of reading on deck.

Edited by chengkp75
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This link shows the cabins, and has a further link to amenities:

 

http://www.freightercruises.com/seaworthy_news_1208.php

 

Since the ship is French flag, pretty sure the officers will be French.

 

As with most freighter services, you will eat what the officers eat, which should be good (being French), but not great. Entertainment will be up to you. I've been on freighters carrying passengers years ago, lots of reading on deck.

 

Thanks, I've seent hat report and the photos seem to have been lifted from a CMA CGM web page (I booked through the line and not through an agency).

 

FWIW, CMA CGM ships aren't necessarily crewed with officers from the flagging nation. The Alexander von Humboldt is flagged in London (as is the Centaurus and sister ship Marco Polo) but crewed by Croatians.

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Thanks, I've seent hat report and the photos seem to have been lifted from a CMA CGM web page (I booked through the line and not through an agency).

 

FWIW, CMA CGM ships aren't necessarily crewed with officers from the flagging nation. The Alexander von Humboldt is flagged in London (as is the Centaurus and sister ship Marco Polo) but crewed by Croatians.

 

This is true, but I think the French flag requires the use of French officers, though maybe only the Captain. Croatian officers are kind of the Walmart of European officers, not saying some are not good, though, they just work very cheap. Also, I'm not 100% sure, but I think to have foreign officers, the ship is actually registered in the Isle of Man, which is a "second" registry of the UK.

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I found out the Figaro is French flagged and has French officers so you may well be right about that requirement. FWIW, French officers seem to be on a 2-month rotation.

 

It'd seem that as cheap as Croatian officers may be, they're afraid of being replaced by Romanian and Ukrainian officers. Fortunately for them, only Romania is in the E.U.

 

I don't think that with EU rules, any ship flagged in an EU country can specify that officers can only come from certain countries; the position has to be open to any E.U. country (e.g., a French or U.K.-flagged vessel can have officers from France of the U.K. by statute - it has to be open to all citizens of E.U. member countries). It'd be something akin to NCL's Pride of America restricted to being officered by Hawaiians only.

Edited by cruising cockroach
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I found out the Figaro is French flagged and has French officers so you may well be right about that requirement. FWIW, French officers seem to be on a 2-month rotation.

 

It'd seem that as cheap as Croatian officers may be, they're afraid of being replaced by Romanian and Ukrainian officers. Fortunately for them, only Romania is in the E.U.

 

I don't think that with EU rules, any ship flagged in an EU country can specify that officers can only come from certain countries; the position has to be open to any E.U. country (e.g., a French or U.K.-flagged vessel can have officers from France of the U.K. by statute - it has to be open to all citizens of E.U. member countries). It'd be something akin to NCL's Pride of America restricted to being officered by Hawaiians only.

 

The EU is a strange animal, and I'm not entirely conversant with all their policies, but I did look at the UK Merchant Service website, and even if you are an EU citizen, you must live in the UK. Your analogy is not quite correct in that we fought a Civil War to determine that the individual states are not sovereign, while each EU member state is a sovereign state, and reserves the right to leave the union at any time.

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The EU is a strange animal, and I'm not entirely conversant with all their policies, but I did look at the UK Merchant Service website, and even if you are an EU citizen, you must live in the UK.

 

Do you mind posting that reference (not picking a fight but I want to stay informed)? I found and read something about a merchant marine academy where prospective entrants have to be U.K. residents but I don't know how enforceable that is. The EU constitution forbids restrictions of employment and (public) schooling discrimination when it involves citizens of E.U. member countries. There are no out-of-state tuition fees (or public transportation fares or (public) museum admissions) like you can have in the U.S. as that would be against the E.U. constitution.

 

As I said, the 24-month old London-registered Alexander von Humboldt only has and probably only had Croatian officers.

 

Your analogy is not quite correct in that we fought a Civil War to determine that the individual states are not sovereign, while each EU member state is a sovereign state, and reserves the right to leave the union at any time.

 

Th E.U. member nations may be sovereign when it comes to foreign policy, military and national voting among other things but for employment and schooling, there is no and cannot be any discrimination.

 

The U.S. still allows states to impose in and out of state tuition fees for publicly funded schools. As I mentioned above, that is forbidden in the E.U.

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  • 8 months later...

Sad to say. First one was the Figaro. Ships of the Columbus Line route are now, due to low fuel prices, sailing directly from Savannah to Port Klang bypassing Malta and the Suez canal transit all together despite the further distance (~2,400 km, I think).

 

2nd was the Centaurus whose schedule has been pushed back 2 weeks, possibly due to heavy maintenance/routine repair/refit near Magadan. Ships of the Pearl River Express which she sails on are all disappearing from schedule for ~2 weeks.

 

So now rebooked on the Libra which is Malta flagged but Romanian officered. Waiting in Hong Kong as the ship was late getting into and leaving Nansha.

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