The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and Global Cruise Lines have reached an agreement to ensure that the crew stranded on the CMV ships continue to be repatriated over the coming days.
The German-based cruise operator Aida Cruises announced today they will extend voluntary pause of their sailings until August 31, 2020.
The Greek cruise operator Celestyal Cruises, with voyages through the Greek islands and Turkey, has announced the suspension of its operations until 2021. Celestyal Cruises announced they will resume cruises on the cruise ships Celestyal Crystal and Celestyal Olympia starting March 6, 2021.
The cruise ship Carnival Legend responded to a call for help from a catamaran that had run out of fuel off the coast of Bahamas. Carnival Legend delivered 25 gallons of fuel to the boat crew in order to make its way back to Jacksonville, Florida. John Heald, Carnival Cruise Line’s brand ambassador, shared Carnival Legend crew response to the call for help on his Facebook page.
Virgin Voyages cruise ship Scarlet Lady will depart from Port Miami today June 23, and set sail on a Transatlantic voyage back to Europe. Virgin Voyages is committed to repositioning the Scarlet back to Europe where she is expected to arrive on the 6th of July, at her birthplace Genoa, Italy.
About 700 Costa Cruises Filipino crew members will disembark from the Costa Mediterranea on 26-27 June. The cruise ship arrived this morning on June 22, at 7 am at the anchorage point off the coast of Manila.
Mauritian crew members stranded on the cruise ship Norwegian Epic for over 3 months, finally received good news about their repatriation flights back home. A crew member sent us an announcement attached on the crew notice board with details regarding the repatriation flight scheduled on June 28.
The cruise ship Costa Mediterranea arrived today off the coast of Jakarta to disembark the Indonesian crew members. Around 400 Indonesian crew members are doing disembarkation at 7 am on the morning escorted by the Indonesian navy and Coast Guard. The disembarkation procedure will take place 7 am to 12noon for all Indonesian crew members who will disembark today., and the ship will stay off the coast of Jakarta till tomorrow.
About 160 Indian crew members stranded for the past 90 days on the CMV cruise ship MV Astoria, has gone on hunger strike today. The crew staged a peaceful protest on the ship’s open deck asking their government and state officials to help them return home to their families. The seafarers further requested the government of India to immediately give an approval for a repatriation chartered flights.
Costa Cruises is preparing to restart a limited number of vessels in the upcoming month of August. According to an internal document obtained by Crew Center the company has addressed the crew who are still on board the ships asking them to continue, or extend original contracts and support this vital restart of operations. Several crew members mentioned that the company plans to restart first the cruise ships Costa Diadema and Costa Smeralda at the beginning of August.
