Cruise ships return – so is it safe to go back in the water?
They were an unfortunate poster child for the dangers of coronavirus but cruise ships are now putting out to sea again. Luke Rix-Standing reports.
OF ALL the industries decimated by coronavirus, cruise ships must be among the worst hit. Enclosed, communal and often isolated for long periods of time, there’s no doubt Covid can wreak havoc on a liner should it manage to sneak aboard.
During the early days of the pandemic, the Diamond Princess became an international news story when she was quarantined for almost a month off the coast of Japan.
Of the 3,711 people trapped on board, at least 712 became infected with the virus and at least 13 died.
Later, and despite all its passengers and crew remaining healthy, the
Magnifica, dubbed “the last cruise ship on Earth”, was stranded in the South Pacific when the world’s borders began closing and was forced to sail for 40 days without landfall to reach its final destination in Marseille.
Last month, the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office urged British people not to travel on cruise ships and that remains the Government’s position, albeit under ongoing review.
The UK’s biggest cruise line, P&O Cruises, has suspended all sailings until mid-October.
Many analysts have found it difficult plotting a course for the industry through a post-Covid world but the first cruise ships have once more started to brave the waves – albeit on limited itineraries. In Germany the TUI Cruises liner Mein Schiff 2 (literally, My Ship 2), was first out of the blocks, setting sail from Hamburg on July 24 for a weekend voyage in the North Sea.
The ship did not stop at any ports and was restricted to 60 per cent occupancy – eventually welcoming 1,200 passengers out of a normal maximum of 2,900.
Customers and crew filled out health questionnaires and had their temperatures taken before boarding, and were required to observe 1.5-metre social distancing at all times.
Masks were mandatory in communal areas and passengers were banned from serving themselves at the ship’s buffet.
And 9,000 kilometres and seven time zones away, another cruise company dipped a toe in the water with an island-hopping tour of Taiwan.
Setting sail on Sunday July 26, the Genting Hong Kong’s Explorer
Dream received some 900 domestic holidaymakers (only a third of capacity), all of whom were required to socially distance.
The sweeping safety measures on this trip included equipping the
Explorer Dream with 22 designated Covid-19 wards to isolate passengers if any fell ill and a 21-day health-screening process completed by the ship’s 500-strong crew before boarding.
Dining tables are divided by screens, client-facing crew have been decked out with masks and gloves and the casino and spa have been closed.
Germany and Taiwan have both seen success in their efforts to curb the virus and for both liners it’s so far so good. But the cruise industry will ultimately live and die on consumer confidence.
With many cruise ships still laying idle alongside jetties, a former head of the Navy recently came up with a tongue-in-cheek idea of how one liner could be used in the wake of Boris Johnson’s proposal that MPs and peers move to York while renovation work takes place at the Palace of Westminster.
Labour’s Lord West of Spithead, an ex-chief of the naval staff, said it seemed to be the “season for crackpot ideas” so he was suggesting Parliament transfer to an idle cruise ship and tour the UK.
“Couldn’t both Houses embark on a ship and operate from there, visiting all parts of our islands?” he asked fellow peers, not altogether earnestly.
But the serious matter of reopening a massive industry may require a good deal more real seafaring to convince swathes of the general public that it is safe to go back on the water.