At least one US-based cruiseship is heading into temporary lay-up as chaos runs rife throughout the entire cruise industry due the global spread of COVID-19 coronavirus.
Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line (BPCL), a two-ship company that operates short cruises between Florida and the Bahamas, announced on Friday that it was cancelling all cruises scheduled for its 53,000-gt Grand Classica (built 1991) for three months.
While not specifically mentioning COVID-19, BPCL chief executive Oneil Khosa cited the “anxiety” in the cruise business environment in statements to cruise industry media. He said that bookings had been negatively affected as potential passengers preferred to stay closer to home.
The Grand Classica will undergo some upgrading work to its interior during its spell of inactivity.
Events last week affecting cruiseships trading in the Caribbean and elsewhere outside of Asia highlighted the chaos the coronavirus has caused the cruise industry, and the anxiety that that continues to grow among cruise consumers.
Several cruiseships were turned away from ports after reporting that they had people displaying flu-like symptoms aboard.
MSC Cruises 172,000-gt MSC Meraviglia (built 2017) garnered international headlines last week when it was turned away from three Caribbean ports because a Filipino crew member who had recently joined the ship had come down with a case of influenza, but it was not the only ship to be impacted.
Costa Crociere’s 113,000-gt Costa Favolosa (built 2011) was denied docking in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) port of Tortola last Thursday as authorities there were concerned about the high number of Italian passengers the vessel was carrying, as well as several reported influenza cases aboard.
The BVI government said it was not willing to take the risk of allowing anyone from the ship ashore.
“It was reported that a number of passengers had flown directly from Italy and had joined the ship in Guadeloupe within the last six days. This period is within the 14-day incubation period of COVID-19. It was also reported that 5 passengers had fallen ill with 3 testing positive for the Influenza A Virus, and are isolated on board the ship. It was determined that the ship was unable to conduct the test for the presence or absence of COVID-19,” the BVI government said in an official statement.
Costa’s 85,600-gt Costa Mediterranea (built 2003) appears to have gotten off slightly better than its fleetmate when it docked at the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius on Saturday.
The Mauritian government refused to allow some Italian citizens from the country’s coronavirus-hit northern regions who had flown to the island to join the ship to enter the country unless they agreed to be quarantined, while other Italian passengers and crew already onboard were not allowed to disembark.
The Seychelles, meanwhile, refused to allow Semester at Sea’s 22,500-gt World Odyssey (built 1998) to dock on 26 February over concerns that the educational cruiseship had recently called at ports in Asia. The ship will be allowed to dock in Mauritius, but only on 3 March.
Royal Caribbean International’s Australia-based 138,000-gt Voyager of the Seas (built 1999) was also denied entry into ports in Vanuatu and New Caledonia due to some crew reportedly displaying flu-like symptoms.
The cruise lines may be up in arms over these itinerary disruptions – MSC Cruises described the measure taken against the MSC Meraviglia by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands as being “born out of fear, not best medical practice, and caused unnecessary and unjustifiable anxiety” in a statement sent to media, but authorities in the many small and developing countries that cruiseships like to visit say that they have to be extra-cautious given their limited capabilities of dealing with a large virus outbreak.
One cruise industry executive, who did not want to be named as he was not authorized to make statements to the media, told TradeWinds that the situation for cruise lines is extremely tense.
“Its getting to the point where the whole cruise is under threat if somebody so much as sneezes or coughs in front of a port official,” he lamented.
