RCL bans crew members from India temporarily

[HaveWeMetYet]

Indian crew members will not be able to board Royal Caribbean ships at this stage after the company decided to temporary cancel all assignments for shipboard employees from India or people who reside in this country. According to a letter sent to the crew, this decision is based on various reasons and related to recently announced travel restrictions and complexities with crew movement to and from India.

 

I can think of only one reason not various. Sky high Covid numbers.

I wonder how this might affect any start up of cruising?

[Sunshine3601]

Very Sad what is happening in India.   Good to see Royal is not going to take any chances.

As they have limited ships preparing to sail in near future I'm sure they will have no problem finding crew from other countries.

[John&LaLa]

http://crew-center.com/royal-caribbean-suspends-all-indian-crew-assignments-until-further-notice?fbclid=IwAR0cYLQnhQmz-0IcKuM9jKDSDRoYQOdRB7BuUEyad6Ocq2fLYtVNBtxc_zI

[Vera/Lee]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

Very Sad what is happening in India.   Good to see Royal is not going to take any chances.

As they have limited ships preparing to sail in near future I'm sure they will have no problem finding crew from other countries.

Yes, it is sad! We were on Adventure's next to the last sailing last year. Our wonderful waiter in the MDR is from India. His wife was concerned about his safety. Now, it's surging in their home country. My heart breaks for them.

[ReneeFLL]

That’s unfortunate. Hopefully India can get their numbers under control. With only a few ships cruising I don’t think they will have a problem staffing them. 

[livingonthebeach]

If they plan on vaccinating and placing the entire crew on quarantine before assignments, what does it matter which country they come from?  Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

Perhaps RCI wants to be seen as politically correct - oh, and Anthem is in the UK.

[livingonthebeach]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Perhaps RCI wants to be seen as politically correct - oh, and Anthem is in the UK.

 

True I meant Adventure not Anthem.

[dswallow]

2 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

If they plan on vaccinating and placing the entire crew on quarantine before assignments, what does it matter which country they come from?  Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

 

I suspect they're just concerned about bringing in people who may be a lot more likely to be carrying an infection into the group that is being quarantined and vaccinated. I think it'll be less of an issue once they reach the staffing they need to then loosen things up a bit on the group they'll be processing/quarantining/vaccinating.

[Biker19]

This guy got in just before the ban:

 

Odyssey of the seas | Brand New Ship | Covid-19 | Quarantine | Travel | Seaman | Cyprus | Israel. - YouTube

[Hogbay]

Others were on flights and found out when they landed 🤔

[ace2542]

7 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

If they plan on vaccinating and placing the entire crew on quarantine before assignments, what does it matter which country they come from?  Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

Perhaps because of the now so called "triple Indian variant" with different spike mutations" which is rampant in parts of India and can possibly evade vaccination?

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

If they plan on vaccinating and placing the entire crew on quarantine before assignments, what does it matter which country they come from?  Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

Have they said how they plan to vaccinate the crew?  Or are they planning on using the home countries' vaccination policies to get crew vaccinated?  What vaccine is available to private industry?  These are the important little details that aren't made public yet about promises "to have fully vaccinated crew".

 

And, yes, since Indians make up a sizable portion of crew, I suspect this will have a significant impact on cruises resuming.

Edited April 25, 2021 by chengkp75

[Jimbo]

With the public now knowing  of the the trouble in India, the cruise line has no other choice then not to allow them onboard.

 

Who would want to sail with them onboard now.

 

[soloadventurer]

Very simple let RCCL vaccinate all crew members   💉 

 

 

[ace2542]

6 minutes ago, soloadventurer said:

Very simple let RCCL vaccinate all crew members   💉 

 

 

Yes and they could use their larger ships to do it and allow the staff for the entire fleet to quarantine onboard the larger vessels in all cabins. But the question is can they secure private supply of the single shot Johnson which they would have to use unless they want take 2 or 3 months about doing it with Pfizer/Moderna?. And what if someone dies after being vaccinated by a Royal doctor?

Edited April 25, 2021 by ace2542

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, ace2542 said:

Perhaps because of the now so called "triple Indian variant" with different spike mutations" which is rampant in parts of India and can possibly evade vaccination?

 

Yep, just like the UK variant which was going to doom England and never did. Or like the South African variant that was going to doom SA and never did.

[soloadventurer]

Pfizer can be given within 2wks I believe (which is the company advice) UK have strung it out for 10wks to give more 1st shots

[ace2542]

7 minutes ago, soloadventurer said:

Pfizer can be given within 2wks I believe (which is the company advice) UK have strung it out for 10wks to give more 1st shots

3 or 4 weeks isn't it? And it has to be kept frozen at minus whatever with a special freezer probably more than 1 which each ship would have to buy and connect up. Johnson can be stored in a normal fridge can't it?

Edited April 25, 2021 by ace2542

[smokeybandit]

Pfizer has long term storage at super cold temps, but can be stored in regular freezers for up to two weeks.

[orville99]

14 minutes ago, soloadventurer said:

Pfizer can be given within 2wks I believe (which is the company advice) UK have strung it out for 10wks to give more 1st shots

One of the problems facing India is neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccines have been approved for use there. India is manufacturing its own version of the AZ vaccine (more than 150 Million doses administered so far), and has developed its own vaccine that is just being rolled out. 

[Billy Baltic]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

With the public now knowing  of the the trouble in India, the cruise line has no other choice then not to allow them onboard.

 

Who would want to sail with them onboard now.

 

Perhaps this is just badly phrased but the cruise line will not want anyone with the virus onboard. That’s not determined by nationality.
 

Most countries with large populations have had high rates at different times over the last 14 months and those nationalities weren’t shunned. 

 

[ace2542]

48 minutes ago, orville99 said:

One of the problems facing India is neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccines have been approved for use there. India is manufacturing its own version of the AZ vaccine (more than 150 Million doses administered so far), and has developed its own vaccine that is just being rolled out. 

Is that a technological issue particular to that country? In that they can't store it correctly on mass? They are running out of oxygen, we didn't get to that stage. We may or may not have come close to running out of beds perhaps but not oxygen.

Edited April 25, 2021 by ace2542

[Sunshine3601]

10 hours ago, livingonthebeach said:

If they plan on vaccinating and placing the entire crew on quarantine before assignments, what does it matter which country they come from?  Makes no sense to me -- especially for the ones already in route or in St. Maarten ready to join Anthem. 

I guess they don't want to take the chance of someone traveling from India and spreading to others while traveling plus the higher chance of bringing on board which could further delay their start up.    Make sense to me.      

Not worth the risk with how high the cases are in India right now.   

Plus they say you should not get vaccinated for 90 days if you just recovered from covid.    

[Sunshine3601]

11 minutes ago, ace2542 said:

Is that a technological issue particularly to that country? In that they can't store it correctly on mass? They are running out of oxygen, we didn't get to that stage. We may or may not have come close to running out of beds perhaps but not oxygen.

I saw pictures on news where they have 2 people sharing hospital beds and 1 oxygen tank for a couple people at the same time.   they are running out of everything and Need Help Now!