All cruise ship passengers have now made it back home, as cruising has come to a halt. Because of the Corona-virus all vessels are in lay-up scattered around the globe. However it is estimated that around the world, more than 100,000 crew are still trapped on cruise ships with nowhere to go, because most ports are closed to passenger ships and like cruising, air-travel has also been terminated for the forseeable future. Reports mention that between 100 and 300 crew-members on board these ships have Covid-19 infections, but these numbers are no more than an educated guess as crew generally do not have any means to communicate with the outside world other than by phone or internet if available.
Now it seems clear that the cruise-industry will not see any fare-paying passengers on board until at least mid June when companies like Norway’s Hurtigruten want to start operations again. Others like TUI Cruises (Germany) plan to allow no more than a thousand passengers on their ships when they carefully start operations again. Royal Caribbean plans to shut down its buffet-restaurants on board in the future.
Many lines have different views on the moment they will be reactivating their cruise liners and expect cruising to be at a standstill for several months to come, maybe even for the greater part of what is left of 2020.
So to get stranded cruisemembers home, companies have organized “ferry services” to repatriate them home. This takes quite some time, as before ships start their mostly lengthy voyage agreements must have been reached with the port authorities of their destination.
Where I live, in the Netherlands, several ships are in lay-up or have called at mainly Rotterdam or IJmuiden/ Amsterdam. Several vessels are at anchor on the North Sea near the Dutch coastal village of Scheveningen.
Below are some photographs I took of these cruise ships during te last month:
Silver Origin has been built during the last year at the shipyard De Hoop in Lobith for Silversea Cruises who plan to operate her in the Galapagos-islands region. She shifted to Rotterdam in April to be outfitted there and at the end of April set out on her first sea trials. These were different from usual, as manoeuvring tests and checking the ship’s dynamic positioning functions (keeping her at the same position without dropping anchor) were carried out by a third party in St Peterburg, Russia, over 1800km away! On board the captain acted as lookout during the process. It was quite an achievement that de Hoop, although the Netherlands have been in lockdown during the last months, have succeeded in finishing Silver Origin in time. On board during construction, sanitary measures have been taken, as wel as social distancing of 6ft. between workers and a one-way route on board to prevent workers meeting eachother as much as possible. At this time, de Hoop is waiting for furniture from the US, China and Italy and artwork form Great-Britain which has all been delayed because of COVID-19 rstrictions to finish outfitting Silver Origin. After seatrials she has docked in the Eemharbour at the Damen yard at Pernis, near Rotterdam.
At the end of March, World Dream of Genting Dream Cruises, Hong Kong, spent about a week at the Verolme/ Damen shipyard in Rotterdam for technical maintenance. This was quite a surprise as normally, she cruises in the Far East, so it seemed unlogical she should come all the way to Europe for maintenance. After work at the yard had finished, she was moved to another berth in Rotterdam near the neighborhood the Heijplaat where she has been docked in such a way that she does not trouble the residents there with noise of her running generators and exhaust fumes. World Dream made headlines as she was one of the first ships to be actually quarantined (in Hong Komg) because 3 people who had been onboard during a former cruise had tested postive for COVID-19. After five days when no one of the crew and passengers had tested positive passengers were permitted to disembark. She wil stay in lay-up in Rotterdam with a skeleton crew until cruising starts up again. Her owners have stated they have not decided if she will stay in Europe for a longer period or will return to the Far East to sail on her usual itineraries.
Regal Princess was the first of a series of cruiseships visiting the Netherlands to bring crew members home. On May 6 she docked at the Rotterdam cruise terminal and 900 crew sailing until recently on ships of Holland America, Princess and Seabourn disembarked and were taken care of by local authorities (they either travelled home in the Netherlands or were transferred to Amsterdam Airport to contine their journey). Later, Regal Princess shifted to another berth at the Maasvlakte, where she has been in lay-up ever since.
Busy times on May 12 and 13 indeed as several ships called at Rotterdam. 100 crew members disembarked from Sky Princess to travel home. She was somewhat later than expected because of bad weather conditions and vacated her berth later that evening to make room for Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam. She then headed for the Mediterranean to Civitavecchia (port of Rome), her next stop while ferrying stranded crew home.
Meanwhile that same day, the luxury Seadream I, operated by Seadream Yacht Club docked at the Waalhaven in Rotterdam, and after a couple of hours after provisioning and bunkering she headed to Norway where she will be laid-up.
Nieuw Statendam and Seabourn Ovation, also called at Rotterdam on May 12 and 13. Nieuw Statendam had to wait for the Sky Princess to leave the Wilhelmina pier, the former Holland America Line pier nowadays the Rotterdam cruise terminal. Both ships were late because of bad weather they had encountered on their way to Rotterdam and at this time they are at anchor of the Dutch coast near the coastal village of Scheveningen awaiting better times.
Holland America Line’s Zaandam visited IJmuiden (Amsterdam) port on May 15 where she docked at the Felison cruise terminal. She had been at anchor off the coast for a couple of days and now only made a short stop there for provision and bunkering. A handful of crewmembers left her to travel home. Zaandam was in the news in March/ April when 9 people on board were tested positive for the Corona-virus, 4 people died on the ship. The outbreak took place during a cruise round South-America and the ship was banned from docking in South-American ports as these ports all closed for cruiseships. Luckily she was given permission to enter Port Everglades and off-loaded her passengers. now in IJmuiden she just had a skeleton crew on board and with almost no lights visible in public spaces she looked deserted from the quayside, a “dead” ship.
Oceanwide, a Dutch cruise line which specializes in expedition cruises in polar regions which has its head office in Vlissingen (Flushing), The Netherlands has recently recalled their ships to the Netherlands. Apart from two sailing ships, Rembrandt van Rijn and Noorderlicht, they also operate three expedition cruisers Plancius (formerly HNLMS Tydeman a renovated oceanographic research vessel of the Royal Netherlands Navy), Ortelius (originally named Marina Svetaeva and built in Gdynia, Poland, in 1989 as a special-purpose vessel) and Hondius (built 2019, the world’s first-registered Polar Class 6 cruise vessel). When their ships returned form Antarctica it was impossible to disembark passengers in the world’s most southern port, Ushaia, Argentina, they were permitted to call at Montevideo and have guests leave the ship there. Then they proceeded to The Netherlands and their vessels were laid-up. Plancius sits at the Visserijkade (Fishing quay) in Vlissingen next to the company’s headquarters where Oceanwide owns a stretch of quay.
Both Hondius and Ortelius are laid up in the Noordervoorhaven, in the port of Hansweert, a village 25 miles from Vlissingen.
Norwegian Star (Norwegian Cruise Line) called at Rotterdam on May 18 for a 3-day visit. She carried crew members on their way home and landed 200 crew which the authorities took care of by enabling them to continue their trip home. Norwegian Star had visited Southampton the days before where she had also off-loaded crew from England. Weeks before, ships of different NCL-brands had met off the Bahama’s to exchange crew and take them home to various destinations.
