Repatriation Plans Announced for Crew Members to get home

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Royal Caribbean is preparing a major plan for the repatriation of thousands of its crew members back to their home countries. In a letter sent to the crew signed by Michael Bayley - President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, the company announced the repatriation of the crew from 60 different countries using cruise ships and charter flights.

 

Plan for Crew Members to get home

[ticketsunlimited]

What a nightmare for these poor people. I wonder if half of them will ever want to get on a ship again. 

[Biker19]

These might be one way TAs:

Empress and Majesty will depart Port Miami on May 15, and arrive in Southampton on May 28.

 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

7 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

These might be one way TAs:

 

 

For crew only...

[Biker19]

Just now, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

For crew only...

I meant those ships may never have TA in the other direction.

[sandebeach]

8 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

These might be one way TAs:

 

I was just thinking the same thing. 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

I meant those ships may never have TA in the other direction.

 

Especially seeing what ships they're using. 

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by suzyluvs2cruise

[mugtech]

Manila airport, NAIA, closed all international flights as of 8 AM Sunday, 5/3/20.  There has been no indication when there will be flights again.  The city is on extreme Luzon Lockdown until at least 5/15/20 and it appears that even if they go to the next level as some of the northern provinces travel will still be restricted.  Good chance anyone getting off a ship will spend 14 days quarantine in local hotels.

[Milwaukee Eight]

15 minutes ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

For crew only...

I agree with Biker. Might never make a Westbound TA. 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Missing from the article was this information about Allure and Jewel.   

[sandebeach]

So it looks like Harmony and Navigator will stay near Miami and the Caribbean, and no mention of Symphony, Mariner and Independence moving around. So maybe these will be ships that Royal plans to use once they start cruising again, just a thought. 

[Billy Baltic]

Interesting to see Explorer excluded from the ships going to Europe. Maybe the first indication that it won’t be in the Mediterranean in 2020.

[mac_tlc]

15 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

So it looks like Harmony and Navigator will stay near Miami and the Caribbean, and no mention of Symphony, Mariner and Independence moving around. So maybe these will be ships that Royal plans to use once they start cruising again, just a thought. 

Not clear if the crew of these ships will also be part of the repatriation. That would be a big indicator. If all crew are going home, then even Royal thinks it’s going to be a long time before cruises resume. If they keep the crew on those ships, they may be holding out hope to start sooner. I’m any event, it ain’t June 12th. 
 

Isn’t it about time for another cancellation announcement this week? 😜

 

mac_tlc

[sandebeach]

4 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

Not clear if the crew of these ships will also be part of the repatriation. That would be a big indicator. If all crew are going home, then even Royal thinks it’s going to be a long time before cruises resume. If they keep the crew on those ships, they may be holding out hope to start sooner. I’m any event, it ain’t June 12th. 
 

Isn’t it about time for another cancellation announcement this week? 😜

 

mac_tlc

Could be. I was thinking about this today because I saw on a social media site that the Grill at Port Canaveral is opening tomorrow, with both indoor and outdoor seating. I believe that Port Canaveral will be the first cruise port to open in Florida. Down here in South Florida, we are hoping that the number of new viral cases go down so we can start Phase 1 Re-opening in a few weeks or so. 

[PaulS]

After I read about all of the ship movements, I went on my travel agent’s booking website to see if Royal was still accepting reservations for those ships. I entered a July date and specifically looked at the Empress of the Seas. To my surprise, all categories were available for booking. 

They have known that these ships are not going to be sailing, yet they are still accepting reservations which I think is just wrong. They should let the public know what ships may be sailing when the ban is lifted so people are not duped into making reservations for cruises that are never going to sail.

[bouhunter]

35 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

So it looks like Harmony and Navigator will stay near Miami and the Caribbean, and no mention of Symphony, Mariner and Independence moving around. So maybe these will be ships that Royal plans to use once they start cruising again, just a thought. 

There's no reason to think the crews of those ships aren't going home too.  I don't think anything can be read into where any ship will be hanging out in the near future.  They're obviously sending most everyone home and ships won't be sailing for many months.

Edited May 4, 2020 by bouhunter

[MADflyer]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

These might be one way TAs:

 

I am going with that this is capacity related as they have analyzed exact numbers needed for a proper social distancing crossing. 

 

Even if the ships were ever to be transferred to Pullmantur they would still be RCL's problem with fully owned subsidiary. 

 

Marella with TUI did announce they were taking their oldest vessel out of service permanently and could be a possibility. 

[MADflyer]

Just like NCL, the ships are probably all going into 'cold layup' for substantial cost reduction during the down time. I am somewhat surprised they did not start the process a bit earlier. 

[sandebeach]

6 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

There's no reason to think the crews of those ships aren't going home too.  I don't think anything can be read into where any ship will be hanging out in the near future.  They're obviously sending most everyone home and ships won't be sailing for many months.

Yes, that could be what they are planning. 

[Sunshine3601]

44 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

So it looks like Harmony and Navigator will stay near Miami and the Caribbean, and no mention of Symphony, Mariner and Independence moving around. So maybe these will be ships that Royal plans to use once they start cruising again, just a thought. 

No mention of serenade  she has been hanging around Barbados since March.  

[Sunshine3601]

8 minutes ago, MADflyer said:

Just like NCL, the ships are probably all going into 'cold layup' for substantial cost reduction during the down time. I am somewhat surprised they did not start the process a bit earlier. 

I suspect part of the delay in transfer was due to sick crew and then having to quarantine all of them before they could do transfers to various ships.

 One can only assume that everyone is now healthy on all their ships to be able to do this transfer

This quite an endeavor to coordinate.

Bless them all for safe trips home.

[MADflyer]

I am guessing they might also be taking Celebrity and Azamara crew on the sailings. 

[Hawkeye Mark]

The Majesty of the Seas was seen off Surfside Beach in Texas by a friend of mine who owns a condo there. anyone know where it was going.

[MADflyer]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Manila airport, NAIA, closed all international flights as of 8 AM Sunday, 5/3/20.  There has been no indication when there will be flights again.  The city is on extreme Luzon Lockdown until at least 5/15/20 and it appears that even if they go to the next level as some of the northern provinces travel will still be restricted.  Good chance anyone getting off a ship will spend 14 days quarantine in local hotels.

Did I catch that US Residents from the Philippines will have to fly to Manila and then at some point in the future get to fly back to the USA? 

[NancyIL]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

I meant those ships may never have TA in the other direction.

 

I was hoping Empress might still do its September Canada cruises.

 

1 hour ago, Billy Baltic said:

Interesting to see Explorer excluded from the ships going to Europe. Maybe the first indication that it won’t be in the Mediterranean in 2020.

 

We have b2b cruises booked on Explorer in Oct./Nov. from Civitavecchia. I was already pretty sure it wouldn't be sailing in Europe this fall.

 

I just hope we don't have to make the final payments on all these cruises in order to get a refund!