NCL Joy in the Philippines

[Chris_2448]

It looks as though the Joy is off the coast of the Philippines. My assumption is they are picking up crew for the fleet. Hopefully this is a good sign for starting up cruising again. 

 

[roger001]

A month or so ago she had been sitting docked or anchored in Manila for quite a while.  

[www3traveler]

I doubt She is picking up crew unless they are vacation replacements.

 

As of a couple of weeks ago She still had crew on board that had NOT gotten permission from their home countries to go home yet.

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, Chris_2448 said:

It looks as though the Joy is off the coast of the Philippines. My assumption is they are picking up crew for the fleet. Hopefully this is a good sign for starting up cruising again. 

 

 

She has spent a lot of time there since the shutdown. New home port. 

[bluesea777]

2 hours ago, roger001 said:

A month or so ago she had been sitting docked or anchored in Manila for quite a while.  

 

Nay. She was anchored off Malaysia and Singapore for a long while and she set sail a few days ago and arrived in Manila anchorage this morning Oct 11th.

 

Check out posts #18 and #42.

 

Also Joy went into dry dock in Singapore mid August for a couple or so days.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by bluesea777

[roger001]

Don't know what she is doing there now.  However, here she is on June 20th where she was docked and had been docked for quite a while.  And on July 18th, she had moved out to anchorage in the harbor making room for the Escape.  So whatever she is doing, she has been in and out of Manila a lot these past few months.  An NCL crew that we know well lives in Manila.  He is pretty senior as an NCL crew member, out of work since late Feb.  He had lucked out and gone on vacation just before all this began, so he got home before the restrictions.  Checked with him today.  His agency has not provided him any signs of activity that he may soon get recalled.  Maybe the PI is letting some of the Filipino crew that has been stuck on the ships finally go ashore and home.    

Edited October 12, 2020 by roger001

[bluesea777]

Joy is now docked in Manila ....

 

[bluesea777]

3 hours ago, roger001 said:

Don't know what she is doing there now.  However, here she is on June 20th where she was docked and had been docked for quite a while.  And on July 18th, she had moved out to anchorage in the harbor making room for the Escape.  So whatever she is doing, she has been in and out of Manila a lot these past few months.  An NCL crew that we know well lives in Manila.  He is pretty senior as an NCL crew member, out of work since late Feb.  He had lucked out and gone on vacation just before all this began, so he got home before the restrictions.  Checked with him today.  His agency has not provided him any signs of activity that he may soon get recalled.  Maybe the PI is letting some of the Filipino crew that has been stuck on the ships finally go ashore and home.    

 

Old maps.

 

Joy is now docked in Manila, and Escape is now on her way to Manila from Singapore with Oct 16th as ETA.

 

Maybe they are collecting (rounding up) the Filipino crew to return to work in preparation for start of new post-Covid cruising season. Those two ships will need to meet up with other ships (in Caribbean?) to reallocate the crew amongst the ships. This is my assumption so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

 

[ColeThornton]

14 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Old maps.

 

Joy is now docked in Manila, and Escape is now on her way to Manila from Singapore with Oct 16th as ETA.

 

Maybe they are collecting (rounding up) the Filipino crew to return to work in preparation for start of new post-Covid cruising season. Those two ships will need to meet up with other ships (in Caribbean?) to reallocate the crew amongst the ships. This is my assumption so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

 

 

 

I doubt anyone here knows exactly what they are doing so I doubt you will be corrected.  Everything seems to be 99.999% speculation and guessing.   🙂

[lkj1301]

37 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

 

I doubt anyone here knows exactly what they are doing so I doubt you will be corrected.  Everything seems to be 99.999% speculation and guessing.   🙂

And maybe a little hope 😉

[hallux]

1 hour ago, bluesea777 said:

Old maps.

As was indicated in the post you quoted...

 

5 hours ago, roger001 said:

However, here she is on June 20th where she was docked and had been docked for quite a while.  And on July 18th, she had moved out to anchorage in the harbor making room for the Escape.

 

[Cruise Wonderland]

Let's assume Joy and Escape are ready to pick up the crew members in Manila in the coming 2 weeks, and they will leave Manila in early November.

 

Then they will sail in the route of Manila > Singapore > Suez Canal > Mediterranean > Gibraltar > transatlantic > Bahamas > Miami, which is just the opposite direction when they came to Asia in early summer for crew repatriation. This long journey takes more than one month.

 

In other words, these crew members won't arrive at the Bahamas earlier than the first half of December. Also they still have to be transferred to other NCL ships near Great Stirrup Cay.

 

Therefore I believe Christmas is the earliest date that NCL can restart the cruises. Early December is still too rushed and I don't think they can have everything ready yet.

[bluesea777]

6 hours ago, Cruise Wonderland said:

Let's assume Joy and Escape are ready to pick up the crew members in Manila in the coming 2 weeks, and they will leave Manila in early November.

 

Then they will sail in the route of Manila > Singapore > Suez Canal > Mediterranean > Gibraltar > transatlantic > Bahamas > Miami, which is just the opposite direction when they came to Asia in early summer for crew repatriation. This long journey takes more than one month.

 

In other words, these crew members won't arrive at the Bahamas earlier than the first half of December. Also they still have to be transferred to other NCL ships near Great Stirrup Cay.

 

Therefore I believe Christmas is the earliest date that NCL can restart the cruises. Early December is still too rushed and I don't think they can have everything ready yet.

 

Maybe the other way - transpacific and Panama canal? Joy, yes, but Escape?? Maybe the latter might now be able to go thru new locks? HAL's Koningdam was able to do so - his lifeboats stick out too.

 

[Cruise Wonderland]

15 minutes ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Maybe the other way - transpacific and Panama canal? Joy, yes, but Escape?? Maybe the latter might now be able to go thru new locks? HAL's Koningdam was able to do so - his lifeboats stick out too.

 

 

Seems impossible for NCL to pay the huge charge for canal transit...

 

Over the past 6 months of suspending service of various cruise lines, I only see a few ships enter the Panama Canal. Examples that I still remember include Disney Wonder (eastbound, now already in Europe) / Seven Seas Mariner (eastbound, now in Curacao).

 

For those ships which ended their last cruise in US West Coast in March, some of them are still there now (Los Angeles / Baja Mexico). And some of them later sailed to Asia (transpacific) for crew repatriation, stayed in Asia for several months, and recently went to Mediterranean / Africa / Caribbean. They travelled almost around the world but still haven't pass through the Panama Canal.

 

Note that the smaller Escape (as well as Breakaway / Getaway) cannot go through the canal due to their overhang lifeboat design. However the larger sister Joy (and Bliss / Encore) are able to do so because they have modified lifeboat positions.

[mugtech]

On 10/11/2020 at 5:43 PM, BirdTravels said:

 

She has spent a lot of time there since the shutdown. New home port. 

Would love to sail out of Manila, would give me great joy.

[mugtech]

On 10/12/2020 at 11:48 AM, bluesea777 said:

 

 

Maybe they are collecting (rounding up) the Filipino crew to return to work in preparation for start of new post-Covid cruising season. Those two ships will need to meet up with other ships (in Caribbean?) to reallocate the crew amongst the ships. This is my assumption so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

 

You are correct, it is an assumption.  They have to hangout somewhere.  The Philippines is nice this time of year, rainy season and typhoon season about to end.  No foreigners allowed into the Philippines unless they have Filipino children or are married to a Filipino citizen.  Even in those cases they must get a visa from the Philippines embassy or consulate in their home country.

[FreestyleNovice]

NorwegianJoy and NorwegianEscape are both back in Manila now. Many Filipino crew members are currently under quarantine in local hotels for coronavirus testing, and are ready to embark in the next two weeks. Then the two large ships will carry thousands of crew members to set sail for a long voyage back to USA, and have crew transfer to other Norwegian Cruise Line's vessels afterwards for preparing for the resumption of cruise operations. The tentative route is estimated as follow, subject to change due to various port restrictions:

NORWEGIAN JOY
Oct 23: Manila, Philippines
Oct 27-29: Jakarta, Indonesia
Nov 03: Colombo, Sri Lanka*
Nov 13-16: Mormugao (Goa), India
Nov 17-20: Mumbai, India
Nov 29: Suez Canal
Dec 02-05: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Dec 08: Gibraltar*
Dec 18: Miami, USA

NORWEGIAN ESCAPE
Nov 02: Manila, Philippines
Nov 06-08: Jakarta, Indonesia
Nov 13: Galle, Sri Lanka*
Nov 23-26: Mormugao (Goa), India
Nov 27-30: Mumbai, India
Dec 09: Suez Canal
Dec 12-15: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Dec 18: Gibraltar*
Dec 28: Miami, USA

*Technical calls

 

Source: Hong Kong Cruise Society

[oteixeira]

@FreestyleNovice  Glad to see this, but we are basically admitting no cruises until January based on this, since crew transfers for other ships would come from these two.  I also see no way they go to India with how that country is doing with the Covid, so that will be interesting.  Hoping for the best, as I am still on the Escape from Jan 9th, and the only way I am not onboard is if NCL tells me they have cancelled.

 

 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, oteixeira said:

We are basically admitting no cruises until January based on this, since crew transfers for other ships would come from these two. 

Not sure exactly sure how you came to this conclusion, but ok. You need >20,000 crew to staff all ship. So the Joy and Escape won’t do that. 
 

 

[oteixeira]

28 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Not sure exactly sure how you came to this conclusion, but ok. You need >20,000 crew to staff all ship. So the Joy and Escape won’t do that. 
 

 

I get that it wont get crew for all the ships, but if that is the first crew they are getting, and they wont even arrive until at earliest Dec. 18th, I would think we would not cruise in December is what I meant.  Please let me know if you think there is a way to do it, I am super pro cruise now, but this seems like it would be hard to do based on those dates.

[Love my butler]

I recently spoke with a crew member I know from PI.  She told me many of her colleagues are being recalled.  She hasn't received the call yet, but it sounds like NCL is gearing up for some cruises around the first of the year.  I doubt NCL would go thru all this expense and trouble without some pretty strong evidence they will be able to board passengers.

[DCGuy64]

19 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

NorwegianJoy and NorwegianEscape are both back in Manila now. Many Filipino crew members are currently under quarantine in local hotels for coronavirus testing, and are ready to embark in the next two weeks. Then the two large ships will carry thousands of crew members to set sail for a long voyage back to USA, and have crew transfer to other Norwegian Cruise Line's vessels afterwards for preparing for the resumption of cruise operations. The tentative route is estimated as follow, subject to change due to various port restrictions:

NORWEGIAN JOY
Oct 23: Manila, Philippines
Oct 27-29: Jakarta, Indonesia
Nov 03: Colombo, Sri Lanka*
Nov 13-16: Mormugao (Goa), India
Nov 17-20: Mumbai, India
Nov 29: Suez Canal
Dec 02-05: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Dec 08: Gibraltar*
Dec 18: Miami, USA

NORWEGIAN ESCAPE
Nov 02: Manila, Philippines
Nov 06-08: Jakarta, Indonesia
Nov 13: Galle, Sri Lanka*
Nov 23-26: Mormugao (Goa), India
Nov 27-30: Mumbai, India
Dec 09: Suez Canal
Dec 12-15: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Dec 18: Gibraltar*
Dec 28: Miami, USA

*Technical calls

 

Source: Hong Kong Cruise Society

The Joy is scheduled for 7-day cruises on Dec 20-27 and Dec 27-Jan 3, so theoretically those could happen based on the scenario outlined above. (assuming it's in Miami by the 18th) I guess we'll see. Thanks for posting this information and providing the source.

[Laszlo]

Not NCL but close enough......

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnsjpT6ZKU

[bluesea777]

3 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

The Joy is scheduled for 7-day cruises on Dec 20-27 and Dec 27-Jan 3, so theoretically those could happen based on the scenario outlined above. (assuming it's in Miami by the 18th) I guess we'll see. Thanks for posting this information and providing the source.

 

Nay, they are not happening - the Joy and Escape are sailing full of crew back to Miami and will need time to disperse the crew among other ships.

 

Also, those two cruises dates are holiday ones and are the busiest ones of the year (every year) - sailing at 110-130% capacity with 3rd and 4th people in cabins. Not happening this year.

 

 

[HaveWeMetYet]

2 hours ago, Laszlo said:

Not NCL but close enough......

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBnsjpT6ZKU

Royal had cancelled Quantum of the Seas cruises thru March 21.

Posted on their website today.