CRUISE ships have been known to capsize and sink, sometimes become inflicted with mass outbreaks of virulent sickness and rampant diarrohea, there’s even been liners attacked by pirates – but never before has the whole industry ground to a complete halt – only COVID-19 has managed to scuttle this 126 billion dollar economy.
The biggest cruise company on the planet, Carnival Cruises, managed to successfully ride out the PR disaster of the infamous Poop Cruise of 2013 when a generator fire left the ship powerless and all the bathrooms stopped working. Passengers were forced to rid themselves of their “loads” of hazardous waste in the equivalent of doggie bags. Luxury carpets ended up soaked in backed up raw sewage.
By the time the Triumph (now called the Carnival Sunrise) and its 4000 passengers had been towed over 4 days to Alabama, the stench was so strong people were said to be able to smell the ship while standing on the docks. News reports described the experience as a “new circle of hell” and 27 passengers successfully sued Carnival for the upset some even claiming PTSD.
The Poop Cruise Returns USnews.com
Such incidents as the tragic disaster of the Costa Concordia, which sank off the coast of Tuscany, Italy, in 2012 (with 34 fatalities) nbc news survivor interviews (bizaarly glamorous that link) ; or attacks made on luxury cruise ships by pirates off the coast of Somalia, did not thwart the dream of great profits and interupt the cash flow. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pirates-attack-cruise-ship/
Only the coronavirus has managed that.
2020 was set to be the biggest year for cruises yet with some 32 million passengers expected – Carnival, Royal and Norwegian – the big 3 in the industry made about about 8 billion in revenue between them in 2019 according to Cruise Industry News. New ships were expected in 2020 including a whole new Virgin Cruise Line; Iona, Enchanted Princess, Spirit of Adventure, Mardi Gras, to name but a few. Things were looking good.
Then covid-19 hit the world and the cruise ships, intially, were right at the heart of the first outbreaks in Australia and the USA. They were soon to be described as petri-dishes for infection and correctly blamed for spreading the virus to new populations. Thousands of crew and passengers became stranded in the oceans of the world, as a result, as ports refused to let them dock for fear of their contagious nature and risk of causing deaths.
criminal investigation launched in Australia Ruby Princess
The US state department warned people against travelling on cruise ships in March and Carnival Corporation announced that it was suspending operations of its Princess Cruises line a few days later on March 12th 2020. This halted the business.
By April the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited COVID-19 infections and deaths on cruise ships as the reason for issuing an new “no sail” order to remain in effect for at least 100 days or until the Department of Health and Human Services had lifted its COVID-19 public health emergency declaration.
The industry had been forced to stop running and not necessarily to a timetable of its own choosintg. More recently there are yet more threats to the cruise corporations with individual passengers and crew members attempting to sue them. Criminal investigations are also taking plac,e looking at company decisions made in the midst of the outbreaks.
Senators in Congress were calling for a second congressional investigation of Carnival’s COVID-19 response. They were concerned about the cruise lines plans to being cruising again on August the 1st. Representatives wanted to know why cruise companies including Carnival Corp. and its competitors, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises, continued operating until March 13th despite the outbreaks and infections.
According to a Miami Herald investigation at least 19 of Carnival’s 104 ships included passengers or crew members who tested positive for COVID-19 and found that 58 people have died.
“Across the entire global cruise fleet, the Miami Herald has found that at least 2,787 people have been infected across 57 ships – about 22% of the total number of ships – and at least 74 people have died.” Miami Herald, May 7th 2020.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article
It’s not surprising then that share in these companies has dropped by 70 and 80%. It is the worst disaster the industry has ever endured in its entire existence. Something which even the best public relations department cannot hide or deny. At the moment – it no longer exists as an industry. It’s shut down.
For thousands of crew and passengers this has meant enduring some nightmarish experiences of being stranded, isolated and in a world devoid of information, not knowing when they are to be allowed out of the weird social quarantine on ships which can sometimes be rife with infection. Stuck in ports going lockdown crazy.
This has continued for various liners right from the first outbreak which brought coronavirus out of China in February, since the first British man to die of covid-19 came off the Diamond Princess. And these strange and tragic incidents on board stranded cruises are still taking place this week, which I will follow up in my next blog in the next couple of days. The impact of the disaster and its human and economic cost is still not over yet.
My own experience, which I also plan to write more about in future blogs, involved being one of roughly 1000 crew aboard the Grand Princess stranded in the Pacific off the Coast of California in early March this year. I recovered from my bout of COVID-19 back in England in isolation which I caught on board the ship in the midst of a visible outbreak of people with symptoms.
One of the passengers who died of cornavirus in hospital having been a passenger on my ship, the Grand Princess, was the first person to die of COVID-19 in California. An infamy a cruise company could do without. We were described in the English Sun as the “coronavirus cruise” and a “Plague Ship” in its news reports at the time.
That was back when this all started.
Strangely enough, the cruise companies are still raring to reopen for business and there are members of the public who still fancy a cruise out into the ocean. So it’s just a matter of time before the relaunch of the fleets. Who knows, as someone who completed my first contract as a paid, solo musician on board before being evacuated by the British Consulate and repatriated, maybe I’ll go again myself. Maybe not.
Here’s a link to a great CBS news report where the presenters eventually discuss the madness of anyone still wanting to go on a cruise. Worth watching. Of all the links I think this is the best as it absolutely sums up exactly what I’ve just written about.
I love this report.
Carnival cruises response to covid cbs news
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