Homeless ships

[Panda 1]

I was looking on vessel finder to find current position of  Arcadia as we know someone who is on it for the world cruise and we were wondering where all the ships can possibly be berthed whilst the cruises are cancelled.  Might be a daft question, probably answered somewhere else on the forum.

[afcandrew 369]

4 hours ago, Panda said:

I was looking on vessel finder to find current position of  Arcadia as we know someone who is on it for the world cruise and we were wondering where all the ships can possibly be berthed whilst the cruises are cancelled.  Might be a daft question, probably answered somewhere else on the forum.

Currently:

Alongside in Southampton:  Azura, Britannia, Ventura

Alongside Dover Cruise Ship Pier:  Aurora, Oceana

Alongside in Tilbury:  CMV Astoria & Magellan, Saga Sapphire & Spirit of Discovery, Viking Star

Alongside in Bristol:  CMV Marco Polo

At anchor in the Firth of Forth:  Fred Olsen Balmoral, Black Watch & Boudicca (to be joined I believe by Braemar)

At anchor off the Isle of Wight:  Marella Celebration.

In the near future:

Arcadia is due back in Southampton on 12th April.  Queen Mary 2 on 16th April

Queen Victoria is currently tootling around in the English Channel.

The ships do take turns going out into the channel, so there is a degree of 'musical berths' going on in Southampton.  More ships may end up at an Anchorage in the Solent area.

[Panda 1]

Thank you for that. 🙂  Just so many ships doing nothing, we couldn’t imagine there were enough berths for them all. 

[Oldworldtraveller 2225]

Marella Dream is anchored off the coast of Malaga with many anchored off the coast of Port Everglades. 

Queen Elizabeth is anchored off the Queensland coast and Vasco da Gama is at heading for Cape Town.

Where are the other 300+????

[afcandrew 369]

4 hours ago, Oldworldtraveller said:

Marella Dream is anchored off the coast of Malaga with many anchored off the coast of Port Everglades. 

Queen Elizabeth is anchored off the Queensland coast and Vasco da Gama is at heading for Cape Town.

Where are the other 300+????

Just had a quick whizz around on Marine Traffic:

Miami/Fort Lauderdale - 20

Bahamas area - 28

East Coast USA - 17

West Coast USA - 11

Barbados - 9

Mexico - 4

Italy - 8

Athens - 8

Marseille - 3

Lisbon - 1

Australia - 16

 

I also noticed a lot of ships on the go that only came up as "Passenger Vessel" and no details available.

[Oldworldtraveller 2225]

Would seem the ships will be staying there as it doesn't look as if any of us will be cruising in the near future since the Foreign Office has changed the travel ban from the 15th April to 'Indefinitely'. 

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/04/06/uncertainty-grows-for-holiday-makers-as-uk-extends-travel-restrictions-to-indefinitely-while-those-stranded-abroad-wait-for-flights-home/?fbclid=IwAR3JpBPd-xXe4vy9THXPauLsOSa0xO9htmOKYnC7CpBjEKgRy62_g8URop4

[Pesky Pirate 172]

silly question whilst I assume that crew will still be on board do they keep the engines turning over every so often.... they say the pollution rate has dropped dramatically so just wondering how much pollution is still in these ports...

[afcandrew 369]

On 4/6/2020 at 9:49 PM, Oldworldtraveller said:

Would seem the ships will be staying there as it doesn't look as if any of us will be cruising in the near future since the Foreign Office has changed the travel ban from the 15th April to 'Indefinitely'. 

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/04/06/uncertainty-grows-for-holiday-makers-as-uk-extends-travel-restrictions-to-indefinitely-while-those-stranded-abroad-wait-for-flights-home/?fbclid=IwAR3JpBPd-xXe4vy9THXPauLsOSa0xO9htmOKYnC7CpBjEKgRy62_g8URop4

To be honest, I think they have only made it indefinite as they don't have any idea how long this virus will be raging.  I agree it will be some time.  On another forum I am part of, there are still people hoping that perhaps their cruises at the end of May will take place 🙄.  I don't think there is any likelihood of any these ships being back in service before Autumn at the earliest and I am certainly not at all confident the cruise I have booked for October will happen. 

[afcandrew 369]

1 hour ago, Pesky Pirate said:

silly question whilst I assume that crew will still be on board do they keep the engines turning over every so often.... they say the pollution rate has dropped dramatically so just wondering how much pollution is still in these ports...

P&O are trying to get the majority of their crew home and so the ships will have a skeleton technical/maintenance crew left on board.  Much of the time they are either berthed or at anchor, so will be using far less power.  Not being a 'techie' I don't know how that operates in terms of engines and generators but they will be on some sort of 'base' power and so emitting less.  Those that are docked tootle out to sea for a day or two at a time, which I have read elsewhere is to do with discharging 'grey water', but will also keep the engines ticking over.

[Oldworldtraveller 2225]

Well done to British Airways in flying home 300 crew to Manila from Oceana and Aurora ported in Dover.

Question is, with cruise lines flying home the crews how long will it take to get them back.

[towny44 229]

4 hours ago, Oldworldtraveller said:

Well done to British Airways in flying home 300 crew to Manila from Oceana and Aurora ported in Dover.

Question is, with cruise lines flying home the crews how long will it take to get them back.

Re your part 1, I assume someone paid them, I doubt they did it for free.

Re pt 2,  I imagine that most will be desparate to re-sign as soon as the cruise lines are able to sail again.

[Oldworldtraveller 2225]

4 hours ago, towny44 said:

I assume someone paid them, I doubt they did it for free.

I have no idea but I do know that many of the crews operating repatriation aircraft are volunteers. The last flight back from Hurghada by EasyJet the crew were volunteers.

4 hours ago, towny44 said:

I imagine that most will be desparate to re-sign as soon as the cruise lines are able to sail again.

I have no doubt of that but it will be the logistics of getting them back, think about it, thousands of crew trying to return at about the same time.  

Edited April 10, 2020 by Oldworldtraveller

[afcandrew 369]

15 hours ago, Oldworldtraveller said:

I have no idea but I do know that many of the crews operating repatriation aircraft are volunteers. The last flight back from Hurghada by EasyJet the crew were volunteers.

I have no doubt of that but it will be the logistics of getting them back, think about it, thousands of crew trying to return at about the same time.  

Just a thought - I wonder if the "volunteers" crewing the Easyjet flight were paid staff members?  Maybe Easyjet requested volunteers rather than force someone to crew when they might feel vulnerable?

I have no doubt BA didn't do the repatriation flight free.  I suspect P&O have had to pay and they will maybe seek some help from the appropriate home countries.

The P&O Chief Exec (or 'President' as they call him) has already hinted that when possible, the ships will resume sailing gradually.  As you say, getting crew back from all over the World will be quite a logistical nightmare.  I suspect the quickest it might happen is one ship per week but quite possibly slower than that.

There are so many unknowns.  At the time of resumption, there may possibly still be some ports closed to cruise ships.  Itineraries may need to be amended.  Really is anyone's guess at the moment as to what will happen and when.

[Oldworldtraveller 2225]

43 minutes ago, afcandrew said:

Really is anyone's guess at the moment as to what will happen and when.

Couldn't agree more.

I was talking to someone the other day who I thought posed a good question, 'Why should governments in the UK and USA bail out the cruise industry when they don't pay their taxes there?' Food for thought.

[sinbad10 757]

4 minutes ago, Oldworldtraveller said:

Couldn't agree more.

I was talking to someone the other day who I thought posed a good question, 'Why should governments in the UK and USA bail out the cruise industry when they don't pay their taxes there?' Food for thought.

That is what Donald Trump has already stated thats why the recent announcement of US agreeing to money for US companies none was going to cruise companies because they dont pay taxes and do not employ many if any at all staff from the US.

[afcandrew 369]

2 hours ago, sinbad10 said:

That is what Donald Trump has already stated thats why the recent announcement of US agreeing to money for US companies none was going to cruise companies because they dont pay taxes and do not employ many if any at all staff from the US.

I largely agree with what you say but don't think it is quite as simple as that.  Yes, the ships are registered overseas because, as I understand it, that brings certain tax breaks and makes employing crew cheaper.  Having said that however, the main companies (E.G. Carnival Corporation) are registered/incorporated in the USA or UK.  I wonder how that affects the tax situation?  Perhaps it would be helpful if the home countries made it more cost-efficient for cruise lines to register ships at home?

Also, regardless of that, they must still contribute a lot to the economy by way of home-porting most of their vessels, which creates a lot of employment, with all those employees and port companies paying taxes.

With P&O, it is interesting to note that Britannia is registered in Southampton as will be Iona.