Barriers to overcome prior to start up

[klfrodo]

Curious as to what other people can add to what barriers need to be resolved prior to start up. Other than the obvious Covid - 19 barriers

Lets assume that either a vaccine is available or the cruiselines have satisfied a plan of action with CDC.

 

I'm thinking that after all the CDC requirements are met, we're still looking at 60 to 90 days until the first sailing.

 

Still have to find enough people who want to staff a cruise ship.

Have to get them to the ship.

Have to train the staff for specific duties

have to line up entertainers

Have to learn or relearn choreography

Have to retrain on safety

Can't imagine what engineering might have to do to prepare ships for passengers.

Have to renegotiate contracts for food and beverage

Have to renegotiate contracts for shore excursions

Have to negotiate contracts with other countries for berthing

 

I'm sure there are a ton of other things.

 

What else?

[navybankerteacher]

Good questions - which raise a tangential issue:  what do you think service will be like on the first couple of sailings?   It has often been reported that the first sailing of a new ship, or the first one after an extended refit of an existing ship, is kind of chaotic - that it takes a while for bugs to be worked out and for the crew to get a good routine going. This also is reported to happen after any significant crew turnover.

[cruisemom42]

Well, even if CDC has approved a plan, it would still need to be implemented, so I would add:

 

Upsize and scale up medical facilities

Hire additional medical staff

Create potential quarantine deck or area

Install any new/upgraded ventilation required

Make necessary changes to buffet area to eliminate self-serve

Create work-arounds to situations where large volume of passengers are in close vicinity

[Joebucks]

Having to figure out anything listed so far pales in comparison to having to overcome the panic. It is inevitable that the second cruising happens, COVID appears and the media lets everyone know how bad it is.

[packedandready]

I'm interested to see what, if anything, will be changed regarding travel insurance. Most policies now do not cover anything covid related. Since we don't yet know what the policy will be if there is a large outbreak this could be a big financial issue. 

[sverigecruiser]

11 minutes ago, packedandready said:

I'm interested to see what, if anything, will be changed regarding travel insurance. Most policies now do not cover anything covid related. Since we don't yet know what the policy will be if there is a large outbreak this could be a big financial issue. 

 

I'm interested in that too.

 

I will not travel to the US without insurence and right now I shouldn't go there unless I had an insurence which cover Covid related things. 

 

Within the European Union I have medical coverage so I don't feel the need for anything else than before Covid-19.  

 

 

[Hlitner]

 I think the major barrier, and a question avoided by many, is what happens when a single person (passenger or crew) develops COVID 19 on the ship?  At the current time the only solution seems to be that all souls onboard would need to be quarantined for at least 14 days and tested (multiple times).  The cruise line would also need to have a written protocol with a port, the authorities, etc.  Until this issue is solved we do not think there is any chance that the CDC will green light cruises involving US Ports.

 

All the other stuff mentioned by the OP would also cause lots of difficulties for the cruise line.  For example, Guest Entertainers usually come and go on multiple vessels.  But now, they would probably need to be quarantined for many days, tested, etc.  

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

[donaldsc]

21 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

 I think the major barrier, and a question avoided by many, is what happens when a single person (passenger or crew) develops COVID 19 on the ship?  At the current time the only solution seems to be that all souls onboard would need to be quarantined for at least 14 days and tested (multiple times).  The cruise line would also need to have a written protocol with a port, the authorities, etc.  Until this issue is solved we do not think there is any chance that the CDC will green light cruises involving US Ports.

 

All the other stuff mentioned by the OP would also cause lots of difficulties for the cruise line.  For example, Guest Entertainers usually come and go on multiple vessels.  But now, they would probably need to be quarantined for many days, tested, etc.  

 

Hank

 

 

 

 

 

The problem w written protocols is that the cruise lines do not follow their own clearly written protocols.  That has what has happened with all the companies that have attempted to cruise thus far.  The protocols were reasonable but actually enforcing them was immediately ignored.

 

Whatever else is done,  it has to be made clear to all the  cruise lines that once their protocols are accepted, the consequences to the line if they do not follow them will be so catastrophic to the line,  to upper management and to the ship captains that the lines and all personnel involved will be out of the cruise business forever; i.e, ship captain licenses will be revoked; every ship owned by the line will be bared from every port in the world for a long period of time and upper management will be thrown into jail in a third level country for a long time.  

 

DON

[chipmaster]

Still have to find enough people who want to staff a cruise ship.

  With the terrible economy in places were most of the people staff, getting people back to work isn't a problem, the'll work!  Most places don't have 600/week unemployment.

 

Have to get them to the ship.  

  If cruising is allowed that means travel will be possible with test-quarantine-test for validation of being SARS-COV-2 free.

 

Have to train the staff for specific duties

  That is also easy, look at what you have those people doing already on the ship and their background, a few more routines just another set of jobs/skils

 

have to line up entertainers

  As noted above, the world's entertainment people, singers, dancers, jugglers etc. are ALL un-employed they will work for food and $

 

Have to learn or relearn choreography

  They are professionals, takes but a little time, and it isn't like they were that good anyways, and their captive audience ain't going to be able to demand refunds or not come back the next night,

Have to retrain on safety

  Like I discussed above simple, they won't be too much changes.

 

Can't imagine what engineering might have to do to prepare ships for passengers.

  They aren't going to re-engineer, they will put of plastic screens and have santizer stations and serving by people in masks and gloves, pretty standard shake and bake stuff everyone is doing on land already.

 

Have to renegotiate contracts for food and beverage:   

 The world is awash in bulk food/beverage looking for a place to go, nothing big here

 

Have to renegotiate contracts for shore excursions

  There will be a ton of local rules and regulations, expect severe limitation here if anyone is even allowed off.  I guess if everyone is certified SARs-COV-2 free, but someone on shore is the bigger risk to bring back. 

 

Have to negotiate contracts with other countries for berthing

 This is the elephant in the room, why would any port want to allow thousands off for the small economic benefit with the risk of another outbreak?   Nothing is assured till a country has herd immunity thru vaccine or total exposure of the population.

 

 

Vaccine and herd immunity won't be anywhere near that cruising and things like spectator sports till fall of 2021 at the earliest.  Think 1/2 of the cruise companies will be gone by then.

[neverbeenhere]

See you in ‘’22, hopefully. 

[bigrednole]

With the requirements the CDC is making, it is going to be a long time before cruise lines sail to/from the US. Basically, they have told them they are responsible for financials of an outbreak and they must have all logistics in place before a ship sails. Its too expensive for them to accept, there is no insurance that would be sold to cruisers to cover it, and the cruisers aren't going to accept an insane fee to cover quarantine, medical, and housing. Until that changes, everything else is just extra and easy.