Carnival Cruise Line will pause some of the onboard events and limit the number of guests sailing on some ships due to crew shortages. In a post on social media Carnivals Brand Ambassador John Heald said that the company is unable to bring more crew on time because “of the situation with the United States Government who are themselves short staffed,”
“We have a massive backlog of visas that the crew need to come to the US and on to the ships to work.” Heald said.
Crew Center received a message from a crew member who said that for processing of applications to renew a C1/D visa he needed to wait for a month.
“Newly hired crew wait for months for an interview in the US embassy, so it’s even longer process for them,” the crew member said.
This issue affects all crew members across the cruise industry. "I had applied for US C1 D visa renewal in September 2021. My application is under review from last 7 months. I am at home since the pandemic started in march 2020," says Celebrity Cruises crew member.
Crew Members who needed to join the ships in the UK are facing greater challenges. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government has closed some of its embassies and the crew needed to travel to the neighboring countries to apply for visa. Because of this, many have been re-assigned to ships based in the USA or EU. However, this was not an option for the crew who needed to join cruise lines operating in the UK such as P&O Cruises and Cunard.
Last month P&O Cruises canceled sailings on the Arcadia as a result of crew shortages across the fleet and transferred Arcadia’s crew to other ships in order to ease the pressure and workload.
“As you’ll be aware, the ongoing impact of COVID-19 in the UK and in the wider hospitality, service and airline industry has resulted in a temporary disruption to our fellow crew members availability to join our ships. P&O Cruises President Paul Ludlow said.
Crew Center has been receiving messages from crew members addressing the crew shortage, as well as crew being re-assigned from one ship to another, due to issues on all cruise lines.
During the pandemic, the crew was sent home without the certainty of when they will return to work. Many have found land-based jobs and decided to quit the ships, leaving the cruise lines to seek new crew in a relatively short period of time. Most of the cruise lines went on the global recruiting tour in hopes to find new recruits. However, the fact is that the experienced crew in all positions was hard to find.
Some cruise lines have seen the end of the Crystal Cruises, as an opportunity to recruit the highly skilled Crystal crew. The cruise lines, through their recruiting partners, send many offers on social media about new job opportunities giving priority to the Crystal crew. Windstar even offered a sign-on bonus of up to $1500 as an extra incentive to entice the experienced Crysta Cruises crew.
