Washington Post: Cruise ships crews: Stuck at sea ...

[Petunia1950]

I hope this is not behind a paywall -- it's interesting reading about a few HAL crew members still on board:  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/cruise-ships-crews-stuck-at-sea-paydays-dwindling-and-searching-for-a-way-home/2020/04/14/c7d9c498-78fb-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html

[FlorenceItaly]

11 minutes ago, Petunia1950 said:

I hope this is not behind a paywall -- it's interesting reading about a few HAL crew members still on board:  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/cruise-ships-crews-stuck-at-sea-paydays-dwindling-and-searching-for-a-way-home/2020/04/14/c7d9c498-78fb-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html

It is behind a paywall.  Would you be willing to give us a quick summary?  Thanks.

[Sir PMP]

Yep, he doesn't like fried fish heads..

[whogo]

18 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

It is behind a paywall.  Would you be willing to give us a quick summary?  Thanks.

Executive summary: 24/100 cruise ships still at sea have known or suspected coronavirus cases. Volendam has no cases, but crew can not disembark, no transportation, a US singer and dancer was tired of eating the fish heads preferred by the Indonesian and Filipino staff, is now on a liquid diet with a toothache. "Gordon [the singer/dancer] said that according to a letter he received last week he is among the noncritical crew members whose pay would end this week, after having been briefly extended by the company after passengers departed."

 

The article rehashes the cruise ship coronavirus history. Crew who disembark face an uncertain future - no paycheck, no job.

[bluesea321]

40 minutes ago, Petunia1950 said:

I hope this is not behind a paywall -- it's interesting reading about a few HAL crew members still on board:  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/cruise-ships-crews-stuck-at-sea-paydays-dwindling-and-searching-for-a-way-home/2020/04/14/c7d9c498-78fb-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html

 

This is a very good but very sad article.  Passengers have been allowed to disembark but it is a tragedy for the crew members that are now trapped, some/many with no pay.  I hope they get to go home soon.

[MobyandDick]

1 hour ago, bluesea321 said:

 

This is a very good but very sad article.  Passengers have been allowed to disembark but it is a tragedy for the crew members that are now trapped, some/many with no pay.  I hope they get to go home soon.

I agree and it makes me rethink to book cruises in future with HAL or any other companies. Because this news 'simmers' in my head...

I always believed that crew was taken care of very well by HAL, many times I was presented during captains' talks, showing success stories that happy crew makes happy guests. But if crew now is left on the ship and HAL does not show any responsibility of bringing them home soon safely, HAL has lost me and I hope many other passengers.

Please let me be wrong, or mis-informed, but convince me that passengers ánd crew may travel home.

HAL owes this to all of them and please take the initiative and also share this news with us.    

[Tampa Girl]

1 hour ago, MobyandDick said:

I agree and it makes me rethink to book cruises in future with HAL or any other companies. Because this news 'simmers' in my head...

I always believed that crew was taken care of very well by HAL, many times I was presented during captains' talks, showing success stories that happy crew makes happy guests. But if crew now is left on the ship and HAL does not show any responsibility of bringing them home soon safely, HAL has lost me and I hope many other passengers.

Please let me be wrong, or mis-informed, but convince me that passengers ánd crew may travel home.

HAL owes this to all of them and please take the initiative and also share this news with us.    

 

Read the threat on the Eurodam picking up some of the crew and taking them home.  Read about the Amsterdam turning around after refueling in Durban so that she could take the crew home.

 

I think that HAL and other cruise lines may  have delayed returning any crew members home because they were hoping for an earlier resumption of the cruises.  Now that does not seem likely.  Further, are they not being paid, albeit no tips, fed and taken care of while on the ships?  Do you have any information that they are not?

[Despegue]

The whole travel industry is in ruins people.

HAL can do no more than to repatriate the non-critical crewmembers still onboard and put them on Unpaid Leave, just like most  all of us in the Travel Industry. 

If they would need to continue paying salaries, without Government help ( Government paying part of the salary, like in the EU), then there would be no Hal no CCL, no NCL, no RCCL etc. Within the next 2 months.

 

You can show your support to the Industry by not cancelling yet cruises that are scheduled later this year or 2021, or to book already sailings scheduled next year. We need an incoming cashflow or the Fat Lady will sing for nearly all cruiselines and Airlines, and 1000’s of careers, including mine will come to a sad end.

 

Stay Healthy all,

 

Despegue

[bluesea321]

1 hour ago, Tampa Girl said:

Further, are they not being paid, albeit no tips, fed and taken care of while on the ships?  Do you have any information that they are not?

 

The Washington Post article that is the subject of this thread states that "that according to a letter he (Gordon) received last week he is among the noncritical crew members whose pay would end this week".  He is being fed but he has a bad tooth and there is no dentist on board so that "made chewing so unbearable that he has turned to a liquid diet while he waits to hear how he will get back home to Augusta, Ga."  So unfortunately some crew members are not being taken care of. 

[Himself]

3 hours ago, bluesea321 said:

 

The Washington Post article that is the subject of this thread states that "that according to a letter he (Gordon) received last week he is among the noncritical crew members whose pay would end this week".  He is being fed but he has a bad tooth and there is no dentist on board so that "made chewing so unbearable that he has turned to a liquid diet while he waits to hear how he will get back home to Augusta, Ga."  So unfortunately some crew members are not being taken care of. 

When HAL can disembark him they will.  Wheb the Volendam cones in for refueling, will Ft. Lauderdale allow him to leave the ship and fly home?  The people in Florida seem to be very diffident about letting crew disembark the vessel.

[bluesea321]

34 minutes ago, Himself said:

When the Volendam cones in for refueling, will Ft. Lauderdale allow him to leave the ship and fly home?

 

No. Per the CDC order, HAL would have to put him on a charter flight or drive him by private car to Georgia.

[sansterre]

8 hours ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Read the threat on the Eurodam picking up some of the crew and taking them home.  Read about the Amsterdam turning around after refueling in Durban so that she could take the crew home.

 

I think that HAL and other cruise lines may  have delayed returning any crew members home because they were hoping for an earlier resumption of the cruises.  Now that does not seem likely.  Further, are they not being paid, albeit no tips, fed and taken care of while on the ships?  Do you have any information that they are not?

Yes, and I believe the Eurodam is also taking some crew home from the Maasdam and Oosterdam (those whose contracts are up).  The Nordam and Koningsdam are also headed toward the Eurodam and San Diego so some of their crew might return on the Eurodam as well.   

We were on the last cruise of the Eurodam, ending March 18.  At that time the staff was anticipating waiting a month or so off the shore of Mexico, then heading up for the Alaska cruises in May.  Our wine steward's contract was up March 18 but Manilla had closed the airport so he had no choice but to stay on the ship.  Our server's contract went until May so I suspect he is on his way home now on the Eurodam.  It was very sad leaving these young men and women who were trying to stay positive about HAL and their future too.

 

I do not understand why the dancer from Georgia cannot get off the ship.  He is an American citizen and should be able to get off in Ft. Lauderdale.  IMO he should have been able to get off with the passengers, except that the city and county raised such a fuss about receiving the cruise ships Zaandam and Rotterdam because of COVID. 

Well, now he has been quarantined for another 14 days so this confinement should end soon for him.  Meanwhile, the doctors on board should be giving him antibiotics and something for pain.

The situations are unfortunate, but I think HAL is doing the best they can.  

Edited April 15, 2020 by sansterre

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for the link.

 

Sad what is happening to the crew.  It is a bad situation.

[anaco_angler]

The individual cited in the article did have an option and made a calculated decision. I think the article also implies that crew under long-term contract may be treated differently than entertainment staff, who are probably on shorter term contracts. But that's just my assumption.

As they prepared for the passengers to depart, Gordon said he and other crew members still under contract faced what he saw as a choice: leave with the guests and risk future employment prospects with Holland America or remain onboard for the nine days then left on his contract and have the cruise line cover the cost of their returns home.

 

 

 

[ECCruise]

8 minutes ago, anaco_angler said:

The individual cited in the article did have an option and made a calculated decision. I think the article also implies that crew under long-term contract may be treated differently than entertainment staff, who are probably on shorter term contracts. But that's just my assumption.

As they prepared for the passengers to depart, Gordon said he and other crew members still under contract faced what he saw as a choice: leave with the guests and risk future employment prospects with Holland America or remain onboard for the nine days then left on his contract and have the cruise line cover the cost of their returns home.

 

 

 

Doesn't sound like much of an "option" to me.

[Himself]

10 hours ago, sansterre said:

Yes, and I believe the Eurodam is also taking some crew home from the Maasdam and Oosterdam (those whose contracts are up).  The Nordam and Koningsdam are also headed toward the Eurodam and San Diego so some of their crew might return on the Eurodam as well.   

We were on the last cruise of the Eurodam, ending March 18.  At that time the staff was anticipating waiting a month or so off the shore of Mexico, then heading up for the Alaska cruises in May.  Our wine steward's contract was up March 18 but Manilla had closed the airport so he had no choice but to stay on the ship.  Our server's contract went until May so I suspect he is on his way home now on the Eurodam.  It was very sad leaving these young men and women who were trying to stay positive about HAL and their future too.

 

I do not understand why the dancer from Georgia cannot get off the ship.  He is an American citizen and should be able to get off in Ft. Lauderdale.  IMO he should have been able to get off with the passengers, except that the city and county raised such a fuss about receiving the cruise ships Zaandam and Rotterdam because of COVID. 

Well, now he has been quarantined for another 14 days so this confinement should end soon for him.  Meanwhile, the doctors on board should be giving him antibiotics and something for pain.

The situations are unfortunate, but I think HAL is doing the best they can.  

 

Is there a Doctor on the ship?

[Tampa Girl]

10 minutes ago, Himself said:

 

Is there a Doctor on the ship?

 

I do not know for a fact, but I would assume so since they are under contact and there are still the ship's officers and a skeleton crew.  The ship, after all, still has to be maintained during this period, as well as the people on the ship.

[sansterre]

14 minutes ago, Himself said:

 

Is there a Doctor on the ship?

Yes- the ship does not move unless there is a doctor on board!

In the case of the Zandam, one of the conditions of being permitted to dock in Ft. Lauderdale was that medical staff would remain on board to care for ill guests and crew.  I believe the Zaandam had more than the required two doctors and three or four nurses.  Normally there are two doctors on every cruise ship, one of them being a crew doctor.

Edited April 15, 2020 by sansterre

[Tampa Girl]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

Doesn't sound like much of an "option" to me.

 

It sounds like a very reasonable option to me.  The contract worker chose to roll the dice and lost.  Unfortunately, many of our land based U.S. employees never had such an option.  With two doctors and two nurses on board, he is getting as good a care as he can expect, having made the choice that he did.

[Sir PMP]

Basically it was a dumb article, and this pariah, Gordon, should have disembarked with us from the Volendam on March 20, he is a dancer, cannot clean rooms, is not a cook, he's a nuisance on the ship.

[ECCruise]

Why do I think that if the dancer had left the ship before the end of his contract and was prohibited from working at HAL again, some of the response would be "well, he quit his job.  He should not be allowed to return to a job with the cruise line!  What does he expect?  If I quit my job in the middle of my contract...."

[DaveSJ711]

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Basically it was a dumb article, and this pariah, Gordon, should have disembarked with us from the Volendam on March 20, he is a dancer, cannot clean rooms, is not a cook, he's a nuisance on the ship.

 

What a horrid comment.  Talk about lack of sympathy for a fellow human being.

 

Note also that Mr. Gordon made the same decision that 592 other crew members made -- to stay on the ship.  Are they all "pariahs"?

[Tampa Girl]

35 minutes ago, DaveSJ711 said:

 

What a horrid comment.  Talk about lack of sympathy for a fellow human being.

 

Note also that Mr. Gordon made the same decision that 592 other crew members made -- to stay on the ship.  Are they all "pariahs"?

 

i don't believe that the crew members had a choice as to stay or get off.  They are being cared for; they are presently working on the ships to maintain them; and it appears that most of the crew will be delivered to their home countries.  The dancer had a chance to get off.  I doubt that his future employment possibilities would have been damaged.  He was hired to dance for the passengers.  There are no passengers.  His side of the contract was impossible to perform.  He would have done the logical thing by disembarking when he had the chance.   It is hard to have much sympathy for a person when he is the architect of his own situation.

[Woofbite]

Do dancers actually work for Holland America?  I thought they were employees of Step One.

 

[SeaDog-46]

Mean while - in the rest of the world.

Voyager ots has arrived in Bali to disembark Indonesian crew & some others. 

Some days ago there was a large night time operation in Sydney harbour where crews from several RCC ships transfered to other vessel & they all set off for different countries.

Radiance ots is approaching Singapore & was involved in the same operation.