by Nancy Soulé

Every day seafarers seeking jobs online fall victim to fraudulent emails, texts and ads from scammers pretending to be legitimate manning agencies. This trend has increased during the pandemic when thousands of seafarers were left without jobs. 

The Italian cruise company Costa Cruises is organizing a Digital Recruiting Event, which will take place on the 1st and 2nd September 2021. This online event is aimed at recruiting crew on Costa cruise ships in the catering, hotel, hospitality and entertainment departments.

Last year while many people were experiencing their own repercussions of a worldwide pandemic, Krista Thomas and Thais Marques de Souza were focused on an issue that the cruise industry was facing. Crew were stranded at sea as the world shut down its borders and although they were mainly safe onboard, their mental health became a key focus for the social media advocates. Today, Thomas and Marques de Souza are the founders of the not-for-profit organization, Sea Me Crew Wellness Foundation.

Good Morning and Happy 4th Of July to all onboard the cruise ships sailing out of the USA and around the world. And what a happy day is today as we have some great news coming from the Carnival Cruise Line crew. 

During the past year, the crew was not allowed to go out in ports and most of them haven’t step foot on land for the entire length of their contract. However, with the recent developments and vaccination of the shipboard employees, things are slowly starting to move in the right direction. I spoke with my fellow crew members to find out if the crew is allowed to go out in ports and if the cruise lines organize protected shore excursions for them. 

No doubt the internet is one of the most important things for crew working onboard the cruise ships. The net is the window to the outside world, connecting the crew with their loved ones back home.

Carnival Cruise Line released detailed instructions and rules for crew members who received a Letter of employment and expected to join the ships. As the company prepares to restart cruise operations Carnival wanted to help the joining crew set the right expectations by presenting more information for the joining crew on the new way of crew life on board.

Costa is crewing up their ships for the upcoming Mediterranean season with four vessels set to restart cruises this summer. Crew from all over the world already started boarding assigned ships in Italy with high hopes and determination. You can simply feel the energy among the sign-on crew happy to get back on board and once again to be part of the global Costa family. The road back to the ships was not an easy one, as many encountered challenges and hardship on the way.