Crew going home/coming back

[Sleepyluke]

This is somewhat DCL, but partially the cruise industry as a whole. With the cruise industry putting crew on ships to get them home, with various politics of many countries involved, I know that has been a logistical nightmare for the industry as well as the crew, with few of us knowing the whole stories. My question is, how do they get the crew back? I know these are unprecedented times, but does anyone have contact with current crew? Are they under their same contracts, and fly to wherever the ship is at the time? Do the ships make the same slow round the world to pick them up from random countries that would let them through? Does DCL send out a homing beacon to let the crew know 2 weeks until we sail again (half joking, but half not!)

These are some of the random questions I have had lately when it comes to the crazy world of Corona cruises....

 

[BadPinkTink]

Well the one ship I am tracking is Disney Magic as I have a September cruise booked on that ship. The Disney Magic took crew from The Dream and Fantasy, sailed transatlantic and is now in Dover, England. This makes logistical sense for a number of reasons

• Heathrow Airport is a major international hub airport, and is located 2 hours drive from Dover, England
• The repatriated crew can easily get flights to anywhere in Europe , as well as Africa, Middle East, China, and Australia
• It will be easy for returning crew to get a flight to Heathrow from almost anywhere in the world
• The August and September Disney Magic itineraries depart from Dover
• Dover is a "home port" for The Magic, so it will be easy to restock food and other supplies when sailings resume
• The summer season contracts for The Magic were supposed to start with the May 11 Transatlantic sailing, obviously none of the summer crew started their contracts. Disney will probably call them to Orlando for training the week before sailings start and then fly them to Heathrow to get onto The Magic.

 

[BartmanLA]

I'm probably guessing that all crew not currently under contracts will have new ones offered if they want to come back, bit right now resuming operations for all levels of the crew/cast members will not happen overnight or even in a couple of weeks. A lot of the remaining crew still on board will be tasked with preparing the ships for resumption, bit the logistics of foreign crew members returning will have to follow their own countries travel restrictions so that might delay things getting started back fully by weeks and even months in order for DCL to get back to full crew strength to welcome aboard new guests..

 

[Rob1872]

I doubt that there will be any logistical difficulty in getting the additional crew back on the ships. If there are massive international travel restrictions still in place, the cruise ships are probably not sailing. I expect cruise ships to be at the end of the recovery, so there should be a (relatively) easy process to fly the crew back to the ship.

 

[clten]

The summer season contracts for The Magic were supposed to start with the May 11 Transatlantic sailing, obviously none of the summer crew started their contracts. Disney will probably call them to Orlando for training the week before sailings start and then fly them to Heathrow to get onto The Magic.

Either I don't understand what you are saying or you don't understand how the crew contracts work. There's no such thing as "summer crew", there is just crew. They don't re-crew when they change home ports. Crew contracts vary in length by position. So there were probably some crew that returned to the ship in February that were under contract until June (4 month contract positions) or August (6 month contract positions). So even some of the crew that came back in December or January were expected to be on the May, June and even July sailings. Crew is constantly fluctuating. So some of the crew they are returning to Europe may have had contracts that ended by now but some may still have been under contract - if the ships had continued sailing.

Also not understanding why they would need to go back to Orlando. If they are ready to start sailing when the ship is in Dover, crew will fly into London to get back to the ship. There's no need to fly them thousands of miles out of their way.

 

[bbel]

For the US based ships it will be the CDC who says when and how ships can restart and how crew can get there (as long as their home countries allow them to leave).

As for contracts, when they are home they are not under any contract, you get offered a contract to go back to and that can change (which ship your going to, when you're joining, length of contract) up to the point that you leave (and again once onboard). Crew contracts are not set in stone and can change as much as the company wants thanks to "operational needs".

 

[BadPinkTink]

Either I don't understand what you are saying or you don't understand how the crew contracts work. There's no such thing as "summer crew", there is just crew. They don't re-crew when they change home ports. Crew contracts vary in length by position. So there were probably some crew that returned to the ship in February that were under contract until June (4 month contract positions) or August (6 month contract positions). So even some of the crew that came back in December or January were expected to be on the May, June and even July sailings. Crew is constantly fluctuating. So some of the crew they are returning to Europe may have had contracts that ended by now but some may still have been under contract - if the ships had continued sailing.

Also not understanding why they would need to go back to Orlando. If they are ready to start sailing when the ship is in Dover, crew will fly into London to get back to the ship. There's no need to fly them thousands of miles out of their way.

there were crew who had new contracts starting with the scheduled May transatlantic, new hires who just had a contract for the European sailings.

New crew hires go to Orlando first, before joining a Disney ship to do Traditions and land based training. They do a week in Orlando before joining the ship.

 

[bbel]

there were crew who had new contracts starting with the scheduled May transatlantic, new hires who just had a contract for the European sailings.

New crew hires go to Orlando first, before joining a Disney ship to do Traditions and land based training. They do a week in Orlando before joining the ship.

There are crew starting and ending contracts every cruise. DCL dont do seasonal like other cruise lines do.

And not all crew do their traditions in Orlando, only those embarking at Canaveral or miami. You do it where you first board, I did mine in a hotel in Vancouver...

 

[T & R]

For the US based ships it will be the CDC who says when and how ships can restart and how crew can get there

Was wondering if any of the cruise companies or even any individuals have challenged (or going to challenge) this obvious overreach by the CDC. The CDC's mission is to protect Americans by "conducting critical science and providing health information". That's per their directive and mission statement. Nowhere in there does it say the CDC can rule by decree and cherry pick which legal businesses can earn and which ones must be closed into bankruptcy. As far as I can tell, only the cruise industry received this draconian 100 day CDC order. I understand the cruise companies may be hesitant to go to court against the gov because they are afraid of retaliation but if they sit on the sidelines much longer they may not have a company to go to court for. Let the market decide, if people are not comfortable cruising, then they won't book a cruise.

Company's and people's rights do not end where other people's fear begins. I've been told that cigarettes cause the disease known as cancer. Where is the CDC's 100 day order for the tobacco companies? Oh, that's right.

Release the cruise ships!!

 

[bbel]

Was wondering if any of the cruise companies or even any individuals have challenged (or going to challenge) this obvious overreach by the CDC. The CDC's mission is to protect Americans by "conducting critical science and providing health information". That's per their directive and mission statement. Nowhere in there does it say the CDC can rule by decree and cherry pick which legal businesses can earn and which ones must be closed into bankruptcy. As far as I can tell, only the cruise industry received this draconian 100 day CDC order. I understand the cruise companies may be hesitant to go to court against the gov because they are afraid of retaliation but if they sit on the sidelines much longer they may not have a company to go to court for. Let the market decide, if people are not comfortable cruising, then they won't book a cruise.

Company's and people's rights do not end where other people's fear begins. I've been told that cigarettes cause the disease known as cancer. Where is the CDC's 100 day order for the tobacco companies? Oh, that's right.

Release the cruise ships!!

Dont get me started on the CDC haha.
I feel if any cruise line does challenge it they will be called greedy and not caring about their crew/guests which is what they're being branded a lot right now.
I know of CM who have been flown home on Iger's jet, but they're still not doing enough according to some.

I've seen plenty of comments from people who would cruise tomorrow if they could, there might not be as many cruisers as there were before, but theres still enough yo get going, especially if they're going to be at a lower capacity.

 

[Sleepyluke]

Was wondering if any of the cruise companies or even any individuals have challenged (or going to challenge) this obvious overreach by the CDC. The CDC's mission is to protect Americans by "conducting critical science and providing health information". That's per their directive and mission statement. Nowhere in there does it say the CDC can rule by decree and cherry pick which legal businesses can earn and which ones must be closed into bankruptcy. As far as I can tell, only the cruise industry received this draconian 100 day CDC order. I understand the cruise companies may be hesitant to go to court against the gov because they are afraid of retaliation but if they sit on the sidelines much longer they may not have a company to go to court for. Let the market decide, if people are not comfortable cruising, then they won't book a cruise.

Company's and people's rights do not end where other people's fear begins. I've been told that cigarettes cause the disease known as cancer. Where is the CDC's 100 day order for the tobacco companies? Oh, that's right.

Release the cruise ships!!

Don’t go using brain cells. That is not allowed!! And a whole nother 300 page discussion. You and I happen to agree though

 

[Husker Mike]

This topic has taken a left-turn off-topic, but there are two relevant observations:

1. COVID deaths in the US went from under 1,000 in late March to over 100,000 yesterday, even with all of the draconian preventative measures. Extrapolating the results of the last two months over a 12 month period (using a linear progression and not the exponential progression that's reality), that's in the range of 600,000 annually. Smoking claims the life of under 500,000 each year. So COVID is a much, much more serious and urgent problem.
2. The CDC has taken numerous actions against tobacco over the years, though not any "100 day" actions, primarily because tobacco hasn't gone from unknown to a health crisis in a matter of a few months.

 

[T & R]

COVID deaths in the US went from under 1,000 in late March to over 100,000 yesterday

What is a COVID death? The problem is they're counting people who die with COVID as COVID deaths. That's not accurate. If a person dies that has Coronavirus, it doesn't mean they died from Coronavirus. We have doctors in my state that are complaining that they have to record deaths as Covid related for the only reason that the person tested positive for Covid. For example, an 85 yr old lung cancer patient dies who has Covid, they automatically record it as a Covid death in my state. I guess anyone can make stats to fit their agenda.

 

[Husker Mike]

That's not accurate. If a person dies that has Coronavirus, it doesn't mean they died from Coronavirus.

It is accurate.

If the 85 year old patient didn't have lung cancer, there's still a strong possibility that the 85 year old would still have died from COVID. (Mortality rates for that age group are very high.),

If the 85 year old lung cancer patient didn't contract COVID, there's probably a high likelihood that, unless he was already in the hospital when he contracted COVID, that he'd be alive.

If someone dies in a car wreck, and it's determined there was a medical issue, it counts as a traffic death - even if the traffic accident might have been caused by the medical issue.

Furthermore, medical professionals believe that we're UNDERCOUNTING the deaths from COVID, because overall deaths have been much higher than normal, even when accounting for known COVID deaths and adding that to the normal death rate. This is because we are still struggling with testing people, so more people have this than we are accounting for. And if you die with undiagnosed COVID, coroners are reluctant to use scarce testing materials on a corpse that has a 0% chance of recovery. There were thousands of deaths higher than expected in New York in March and April, for example. I've heard estimates that the true death count is probably closer to 150k at this point.

 

[Cynth]

What is a COVID death? The problem is they're counting people who die with COVID as COVID deaths. That's not accurate. If a person dies that has Coronavirus, it doesn't mean they died from Coronavirus. We have doctors in my state that are complaining that they have to record deaths as Covid related for the only reason that the person tested positive for Covid. For example, an 85 yr old lung cancer patient dies who has Covid, they automatically record it as a Covid death in my state. I guess anyone can make stats to fit their agenda.

And all those that die of COVID, but the test results come post-mortem are not counted.
And all those that die of COVID, but are never tested, because they could't get a test while alive and most states don't test post-mortem.

That's why most newsoutlets, also internationnal ones, report it as the USA has at least 100 000 Covid- deaths.

I guess everyone can read the numbers as they wish.

 

[T & R]

medical professionals believe that we're UNDERCOUNTING

Some may say that and med professional in my area have stated the opposite. We have a doctor that lives 4 doors down from us. She stated she did not feel it was right that she had to count people as covid deaths who she knew were dying from other factors just for the simple fact that they had a positive covid test. She stated she suspected it had more to do with funds received when dealing with a covid patient or a covid death versus other kinds of deaths.

would still have died from COVID

We don't do would have, could have, should have. Dying with Covid doesn't mean you died from Covid. In my state they are counting them as Covid deaths just for having Covid and dying. We have people who die from old age or autoimmune issues and are counted as covid deaths simply because they are covid positive.

And all those that die of COVID, but the test results come post-mortem are not counted.

That may be true in your state. Every state uses different methods. In my state if an 85 yr old lung cancer patient dies and has Covid, they are counting it as a Covid death or if a 95 yr old dies of old age and had covid, they are counted as a covid death.

 

[FightingIrishman]

This thread has been hijacked!

 

[delmar411]

I read an article about the stranded crews for each cruise line. At the time of the article (a couple weeks ago), Disney was the bottom for repatriating the crew. That only around 23% of their crew had been able to go home, the remainder are all on the ships. No cruise line had very high numbers sent home, I believe the others were in the 30%s. Several cruise lines were currently sailing around the world trying to dock in each home country and see if the crews would be allowed off.
So if they never sent the crews home, then I doubt it would be much of an issue to restaff. They would just need to start paying them again so that the ships could be cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom. The crews are all living in guest cabins at this point. Many of the crew cannot really afford to just give up these jobs.

It was a really interesting (and long) article, you could feel the desperation from crew members the author interviewed.

I know not an answer and also a bit of a left turn but relevant-ish.

 

[SamFaniam]

I read an article about the stranded crews for each cruise line. At the time of the article (a couple weeks ago), Disney was the bottom for repatriating the crew. That only around 23% of their crew had been able to go home, the remainder are all on the ships. No cruise line had very high numbers sent home, I believe the others were in the 30%s. Several cruise lines were currently sailing around the world trying to dock in each home country and see if the crews would be allowed off.
So if they never sent the crews home, then I doubt it would be much of an issue to restaff. They would just need to start paying them again so that the ships could be cleaned and sanitized from top to bottom. The crews are all living in guest cabins at this point. Many of the crew cannot really afford to just give up these jobs.

It was a really interesting (and long) article, you could feel the desperation from crew members the author interviewed.

I know not an answer and also a bit of a left turn but relevant-ish.

i’m sure it’s very challenging. You have the rules of the country they sail from, the rules of the country they're flagged under, the rules of the country where they’re trying to port to get crewmembers to an airport, the rules of the country where the crewmembers actually live, the rules of the country that crewmembers may pass through on the way from the country with the airport to the country of their home. Plus, a number of airlines have severely limited flights. I did see an article about crew members from Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Lucia. In both countries, the government was hesitant to allow the crewmembers off the ship. Once they were, they are having to go through a 14 day quarantine, but not allowed to go home to their family yet.

 

[AquaDame]

This thread has been hijacked!

Agreed. I'm closing it if it continues. Yet again if anyone would like to argue politics or agendas, please join the community board.