An international team of researchers from the University of Queensland (Australia), Royal Holloway University of London (UK), the World Maritime University (Sweden), and Uppsala University are working on a survey for international seafarers during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a research project.

With the restart of cruises in Germany, and the final preparations by the cruise lines in Italy, hopes are high amongst the crew who are back in their home countries eagerly awaiting their sign on dates. In Italy, Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises are ready to initiate voyages on 4 ships as soon as they receive the green light from the Italian government. Final efforts have also been made for staffing cruise ships with a sufficient number of crew.

As some of the cruise lines are already making plans to set a small number of cruise ships back in operations and implement new safety protocols in order to do so, many crew members are wondering what the “new normal” will look like for them once they join and assume their daily duties and life back on board.

During the International Maritime Summit on Crew Changes hosted by the UK yesterday, government representatives from 12 countries express their appreciation to seafarers and pledge to urgently resolve issues that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and crew changes.

Every question about the damage done by the coronavirus and when things will get back to normal for the cruise industry will be hard to answer. The following text is an honest opinion from a crew member sharing his thoughts about the future of cruising.

Today, July 6, Scarlet Lady arrived at her birthplace Genoa, Italy, where the ship will spent the next 20 days at the Fincantieri shipyard for routine maintenance work. During this time some of the remaining crew onboard will be repatriated. Virgin Voyages announced on June 24, that Scarlet Lady left her home port Miami for “a quick trip across the Atlantic to help us make sure more Crew can make it home safely and get things shipshape before setting sail this Fall.”

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 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.

About 450 crew members of the cruise ship Seven Seas Navigator docked at the port of Barcelona are quarantined after one crew member showed flu-like symptoms. According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, the ship arrived at the port of Barcelona on Thursday, and one female crew member with mild symptoms on board had been isolated.

It breaks my heart to read of the ongoing struggles ship crew are facing right now. I read that most ships and cruise lines are doing what they can to look after crew and to keep you safe. Those ships that are not doing what they can and will be remembered when cruising starts again. It is sad that Governments appear to be guilty of keeping many of you from being with your loved ones and family.