The art of deflection.
Iām learning from a master of the art.
Still no reply to MY questions. (??)
First to last is the accepted order of things. Take your meds and go back to sleep.
Another Cruise ship, Viking Star, arrived in Aalesund for layup today. (Sorry no picture yet)
That make it 5 cruise ships and 2 Hurtigruten Coastal Express ships in layup here now
This is the time most of them layup any way. The parking meters determine where they go to for a nap.
Summer (and winter) is cruising season. Its a little early for the summer rush but the spring slowdown should have been almost ending.
Is it not spring now?
True, it is spring. The summer season kicks off when the schools are out. University should have been over for many so the collage rush should have begun already. The real crazy starts after May when the school children are out and the families start cruising. The old folk either stay away or go to upscale cruises.
Spring started early for these guys for reasons that are quite evident. They will not have a good summer, and they know it. So, double spring?
Cruising is a year around business.They just move their activity to different parts of the world based on seasons.
Here in Aalesund the season should be well under way, with cruise ships full of people visiting just about every day from April onwards. (Some days several ships simultaneously)
The winter season was fairly normal, with ships stopping here on their way to/from Northern Norway on their Northern Light cruises, but since mid-March all cruises have been cancelled.
Nearly 200 cruise ship visits were scheduled this year, but it does not look like there will be many at all.
Here is what was/is scheduled from now on:
http://www.alesund.havn.no/en/Havna/Cruisehavn/CruiseExpected
The twice daily Coastal Express visits will probably start again in mid-June, but mainly with Norwegian round trip passengers and point-to-point travellers on board.
Bugge, perhaps you missed my point. In good times some in the cruise industry did do exactly as you say. These are not good times. A cheap parking spot is desired by most cruise ship lines until this virus shit is resolved.
Sorry, I was answering to DeckApe, but your post came in between.
Not only cheapest wharf fee, or shore power supply decided where they layup, but safety, security and not least their plans for where they will start their next cruise, when this sh*t ends.
PS> Nobody know for sure when the situation will end, though.
The security and reasonable berthing fees were somehow attractive to the 3 Norwegian line ships currently berthed at PIT. I doubt the citizens of our state will be boarding these vessels anytime soon. We werenāt one their best customers before this virus crap. They called on our port to get the best layup fees they could get at the time. No problem with that choice. Just hope they pay the bill.
Iām sitting here reading this post and waiting for the Dentist to open so I can get treatment for toothache. The crew stuck on the cruise ships are slightly better off than the million or so crew stuck on the rest of the worlds tonnage as the medical staff are stuck there with them.
I feel for the guy stuck there with the mate, pliers in one hand and shipmasterās medical guide in the other.
1 Like
Thanks for chuckle Hogsnort. I do the feel for our fellow Mariners stuck on board. Hope your toothache goes away.
This one took the advice of some here on the forum and headed for her home port:
From Maasmond News clippings today:
Before I chip in here, I would like to ask, of those giving their negative opinions on how the cruise industry have or have not been following CDC guidelines or as to how them being flagged abroad as a tax scam or legal loophole, how many have ever worked on a cruise ship or are currently working on a cruise ship?
Donāt all jump up at once nowā¦
I have worked within the cruise industry for nearly 16 years and was onboard when the COVID 19 situation really hit and we were going to suspend operations. We followed all guidelines available to us at the time as to how to react to this situation and how to try to contain it. I was fortunate to pay off on the 18th March and head home before the situation got to a point where I wouldnāt be able to travel home. Now, Iām back onboard one of the company ships because with me living in Florida, I would be able to drive to meet the ship and not violate any CDC or USCG regulations to board. I could have said no, and this is not my usual berth, but knowing that the vast majority of my colleagues are decent, hard working, professional mariners who would have done the same for me, I honestly couldnāt refuse. And so, I am now part of the crew who are working the repatriation voyages and trying to get our crew mates home.
And did I forget to mention that through all this, I need to be home for the birth of my first two children and this is in no way, shape or form guaranteed?
Iām not telling you all this for sympathy, applause or credit. Iām telling you all this because quite frankly I am sick and tired of these little shit keyboard mariners coming on to a public forum such as this and belittling the cruise industry and the professional mariners who work within. One such person is talking about Flags of Convenience as though weāre all sailing under them. Tell me then, good sir, since when has the Netherlands been a flag of convenience? Or the UK for that matter? Somehow donāt think that they fall under the moniker of āFlag of Convenienceāā¦
The current situation and difficulties in trying to get crew home is nothing to do with the lines not complying with CDC regulations, itās that the regulations are constantly changing and a lot of countries are not allowing ships in to make a crew exchange or allow disembarkation for crew to go home. We have complied with every regulation thatās been put forward to us and weāre still facing these difficulties. Hopefully it is going to get easier in the coming days and weeks and weāll be able to repatriate more crew members.
In the Merchant Navy that I grew up in, seafarers supported seafarers and did not belittle or berate. Maybe this would be the time to remind of the old saying āNever judge a man until youāve walked a mile in his moccasinsā.
2 Likes
Nice to see that someone that actually work on cruise ships have the guts to come on here and ātell it as it isā.
I have never worked on cruise ships, but I know that it is not all a game to cheat gullible Americans out of their hard earned monies, āstealā from American taxpayers, or take the jobs away from American mariners.
The Cruise industry isnāt and never was, an all American industry. In fact all the three largest American based Cruise lines and the concept of inexpensive Caribbean cruises out of Miami and other US ports, was originally Norwegian. The Companies were Norwegian owned, the ship were Norwegian flagged and the Marine crew were largely Norwegians in the start (late 1960s/early 1970s)
Did the Americans āstealā the idea, the companies, the ships and the jobs? NO. The Norwegian owners flagged out the ships and eventually sold out the companies to pursue other business in the Offshore and Shipping industries.(It is called natural evolution)
PS> There are still some Norwegian interests in the Cruise industry, but not in the cheap end.
1 Like
Where are all the cruise ships now? A lot of them in Manila Bay, but they are also spread around the world, waiting for the situation to improve:
Three cruise ships, two companies, 735 days of cruising from deckhand and cocktail server to captainās waiter. (Did I pass the test?) Iāve moved to other ship types but the cruise industry is where I got my start.
Like you, most of us in the maritime industry have missed the births (and conceptions) of our children, the deaths and funerals of our siblings, parents and children, not to mention birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations and all the other lifeās milestones land folks enjoy and take for granted.
Preaching to the choir, brother (or sister). Like you we have folks stuck past due on ships and in ports both foreign and domestic. My own company has some folks now 200 days past the end of their contract. Like you we have folks who canāt get relieved (about 10% of the reliefs are happening now). We have folks ashore waiting to go to a ship who canāt get there. We have folks on a ship who canāt get relieved. We have folks who have been relieved and are stuck on the ship unable to depart.
In other words, your situation is our situation. Itās not unique to your branch of the industry. You seem to think youāre in it alone. The truth is weāre all stuck in it together. Iām sorry for your troubles as Iām sure you are for us.
Now with our introduction complete let me cut to the heart of our disgust with the cruise industry. We are disgusted with cruise industry corporations using tax laws and loopholes to avoid responsibilities, to corrupt and buy local officials to abuse their passengers, their destinationsā citizens and you, their crew.
We are sick of them pitting destination against destination in a race for the bottom turning venerable cultures into garish cartoon characterizations. We are sickened knowing those communitiesā leaders have been bought off, their economies tuned to the needs of the cruise industry and, like a kid turned drug addict by the local dealer, now dependent on the industry that corrupted them.
We have no objections with you, shipmate. We all leave home. We all miss our lives and families. We all work hard to earn the living that enables us to support the ones we care for. Our contempt is not for you. It never has been. It will never be.
Iām sure I speak for most reasonable mariners here when I say we are sorry your jobs are collapsing. We experience the same from time to time. We understand. Weāre sorry you canāt go home. Weāre stuck, too. We also understand your need to vent. Much of this forum is little more than mariners blowing off steam. A bitching sailor is a happy sailor, right? 
Good luck you. Safe travels.
2 Likes