Starting on June 5, 10,000 Jamaicans will be hired to work on cruises abroad, says Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.

Recognizing the need for its crew members to stay connected with family and friends and receive a quality internet service, Carnival Cruise Line has invested in additional bandwidth for the fleet. The company announced a major increase of the current data volume by 50% per crew member, compared to before the pause in operations.

On May 18 the first-ever International Day for Women in Maritime started its maiden festivity honoring women seafarers with a seminar covering the areas where improvement is needed.

At the beginning of the COVID pandemic when cruise companies were sending the crew members back to their homelands as the industry was slowly shutting down with time related uncertainty of when it will be able to re-start its voyages, many crew members addressed the concern related to companies sending them home without compensation.

Crew Pages is a maritime professional network built with one mission - to create equal employment opportunities. This unique platform is designed to bring together all recruiters and crew at one place, making every CV seen. 

Nowadays, working on a cruise ship next to a COVID-19 situation is not easy. Various measures have been introduced and again there is the fear of what happens if you get COVID-19 on a cruise ship.

Health and Safety Measures 

“Take your food, consume it, and leave.”

The first Azamara crew shop was officially open aboard the cruise ship Azamara Pursuit. The onboard management together with Captain Antonio Francisco Toledo and Hotel Director Heike Berdos welcomed crew members to the new and well stocked corner which is very important especially during these times when they have limited access in ports.

Finally, the news we have all been waiting for since the resumption of cruising. It’s official, Carnival Cruise Line will allow all of its crew members who are fully vaccinated to go outside in any ports, at any time, for independent shore leave. This is such a great news for thousands of crew members currently onboard Carnival Cruise Line ships, who can finally step foot on land and enjoy the beautiful ports in the Caribbean, Mexico, and the Bahamas, as well as the US home ports.

by Nancy Soulé

I’ve endured this adventure three times so far. It seems to be the norm as the new starting point for any contract, so better get used to it for a while. My first experience was on one of the first ships out in November of 2020, and that one was especially spooky. It was sailing out of Singapore and the precautions were extensive.