Star Princess to take Philipino workers back to Philippines

[Pushka]

Here is one - Simon Birmingham is a Federal Government minister. The warning is for us to be allowed to travel overseas. That's a first step. Second step will be letting non Australians into the country. That hasn't even been mentioned yet. 

We have a trip to Bali planned for December that was deferred from late March because of Covid. We know deep down we won't be allowed to go  even though that's not stated yet. We haven't started Winter yet and while we acted quickly and fast and seemed to be ahead of Covid so far, the medical people are dreading winter - June - August. 
 

We aren't even allowing people to enter our state at the moment. And no mention of when that will stop. 

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/borders-to-stay-closed-travellers-urged-to-see-australia-first-once-curbs-ease-20200410-p54iw4.html

 

"Australians will have to wait until the end of this year or beyond to restart overseas travel amid estimates the coronavirus crisis has wiped out inbound and domestic tourism worth $9 billion a month.

Travel restrictions could be eased within states if efforts to slow the spread of the virus succeed in the months ahead, but travel across state borders and outside Australia will face tough bans for the longer term."

 

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by Pushka

[Pushka]

6 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

And, while this is very good news for the Princess crew, realize that the estimated 80,000 crew docked or anchored on cruise ships near the US represents only about 5% of the active merchant mariners on ships today.  The 1.6 million mariners currently onboard ships are historically doing 100,000 crew changes a month, or 3300 per day.  Nearly all of these mariners are currently under crew change freezes, either because the ports don't allow crew changes, or there are flight restrictions to/from their home countries.  This will eventually lead to an even greater slowdown/shutdown of the world's economy, since 80% of the world's trade travels by sea.

And then there are our men and women in Naval Service. We must keep them safe. It's not just about the cruise and merchant industry. 

[chengkp75]

30 minutes ago, Pushka said:

And then there are our men and women in Naval Service. We must keep them safe. It's not just about the cruise and merchant industry. 

I'm not talking about keeping mariners safe, I'm talking about placing them in lock-down.  I salute and support our uniformed services, but at least my experience in the Navy (many moons ago), is that personnel are assigned to ships for long tours, and typically don't join/leave the ship in foreign ports, and also live onboard the ships when in home ports in the home country, which is different from merchant mariners who expect to work for fixed periods, and go home for fixed periods.  Freezing crew changes for merchant mariners has nothing to do with keeping the mariners safe, it is about keeping the port cities safe.

 

And, yes, restricting naval personnel to their ships for longer than usual deployment periods will result in the same thing, a degradation of their mission.  For the navies, this is defense of the home nation, while for merchant mariners it is delivering the world's trade.

[Pushka]

1 minute ago, chengkp75 said:

I'm not talking about keeping mariners safe, I'm talking about placing them in lock-down.  I salute and support our uniformed services, but at least my experience in the Navy (many moons ago), is that personnel are assigned to ships for long tours, and typically don't join/leave the ship in foreign ports, and also live onboard the ships when in home ports in the home country, which is different from merchant mariners who expect to work for fixed periods, and go home for fixed periods.  Freezing crew changes for merchant mariners has nothing to do with keeping the mariners safe, it is about keeping the port cities safe.

 

And, yes, restricting naval personnel to their ships for longer than usual deployment periods will result in the same thing, a degradation of their mission.  For the navies, this is defense of the home nation, while for merchant mariners it is delivering the world's trade.

 

Yes, we must continue with world trade. It's keeping Australia supplied with essentials. Agree re the conditions of Naval Service (my Dad served 12 years on an Aircraft Carrier for RAN) and their isolation but also total confinement, is immense. In this case, will keep them safe. I hope. 

[chengkp75]

27 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

Yes, we must continue with world trade. It's keeping Australia supplied with essentials. Agree re the conditions of Naval Service (my Dad served 12 years on an Aircraft Carrier for RAN) and their isolation but also total confinement, is immense. In this case, will keep them safe. I hope. 

I've been on the ship since the beginning of March, so the immensity of the emergency in the US really hasn't hit us, because on most days, we continue to do the same thing we've done for years.  The only difference is when we get to the dock, we limit exposure to personnel from shore.  Emailing my family, it's sort of hard for me to wrap my head around what they are going through, because to us it's virtually "business as usual".  We are probably safer onboard, due to limited crew size, and limited interaction with people outside the crew, than most cities and towns in the US.

[Pushka]

3 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

I've been on the ship since the beginning of March, so the immensity of the emergency in the US really hasn't hit us, because on most days, we continue to do the same thing we've done for years.  The only difference is when we get to the dock, we limit exposure to personnel from shore.  Emailing my family, it's sort of hard for me to wrap my head around what they are going through, because to us it's virtually "business as usual".  We are probably safer onboard, due to limited crew size, and limited interaction with people outside the crew, than most cities and towns in the US.

Gosh, it's like you are in a parallel universe then. Best wishes. Routine is good. 

[Papa Yoda]

Captain Jonathan reports on his blog that the HAL Amsterdam is heading to Indonesia to let crew off.  They stopped in Durban to take on fuel and provisions and to let 5 South African crew members off.  

[SeaDog-46]

So Chief what sort of rotation do you normally do on your tanker?

In Australia 20 years ago we did 6 week "swings" on our coastal tankers & minimum of 12 weeks on the overseas ones.  We do not have any petroleum tankers anymore.

Back in the good old days when I started as a UK cadet [1964] - the ships were smaller about 10,000gtr refrigerated cargo liners. My 1st voyage was under 4 months to NZ, & back with frozen lamb.  The second voyage we expected to be the same but prior to starting loading we were shanghied & sent to Australia to load frozen boneless beef for the US/Canada east coast hamburger trade.

After 3 loadings the ship was due for docking & we left Montreal for Glasgow. Fog all the way at half ahead. Due to loss of some deck crew I was put on 4-8 morning watch as lookout on the forecastle head.  

Arrived on the Clyde after a 14 month & 8 days trip away. No Radar, no AC & very few half days off.

[Carnevale]

A big thank you to Chengkp75!  You continue to offer such interesting and informative insights.  I appreciate the info you have shared here and on so many other threads.  Thanks so much!

[chengkp75]

6 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

So Chief what sort of rotation do you normally do on your tanker?

These days the officers are doing 75/75 day rotations, and the crew 120/90 day, but we are coastwise.  Foreign voyages have separate articles for each voyage (US to where ever and back to US), however long (maximum 12 months), so you can get off after each voyage, but most will do 3-6 months.

[AF-1]

chengkp75;  I had two uncles who were merchant marines.  One was a ship captain and the other was engine/boiler man.  Stay safe out there.

[Roberto256]

I noticed that Grand Princess is now near Star Princess, off Ensenada.

 

I wonder if they are going to trans-ship all the Fillipino Crew to Star, for the ride home...

 

[easykruz]

As of April 9, 2020, the CDC just extended the No Sail Order from any US Ports for 100 days, of course they can always rescind

the notice if circumstances change. CDC.gov

[easykruz]

For Cruise Lines

[SeaDog-46]

Maritime news item.

Between 5th & 12th April the Philippines government allowed repatriation by air of 4,700 cruise ship Filipino nationals from Costa, Carnival, Scenic, NCL, P&O UK, Viking, Mystic, Oceania, Virgin & some others.  Note - Princess was not mentioned.

 

[PaperSniper4]

7 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

Maritime news item.

Between 5th & 12th April the Philippines government allowed repatriation by air of 4,700 cruise ship Filipino nationals from Costa, Carnival, Scenic, NCL, P&O UK, Viking, Mystic, Oceania, Virgin & some others.  Note - Princess was not mentioned.

 

Maybe they included Princess under the Carnival banner.....odd, because other Carnival lines (Costa and I think P&O) are part of that group. Odd.

[AF-1]

We shall see how things shake out