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.”

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. announced a partnership to create the “Healthy Sail Panel,” a team of cross-disciplinary experts enlisted to guide the cruise industry’s way forward in response to COVID-19.

The German shipyard Meyer Werft has released a few photos from the construction site of Odyssey of the Seas at Papenburg that show the giant cruise ship was moved about 150 meters. Odyssey of the Seas is now positioned just in front of the gate in Hall 6 of the Meyer Werft shipyard.

With the disembarkation of the last group of Italian crew and supervisors which was finalized yesterday, the cruise ship Costa Mediterranea has finally completed repatriation of all crew members on board. After disembarking the Indonesian crew in Jakarta, Costa Mediterranea arrived in Manila Bay on June 22, to repatriate around 700 Filipino crew. 

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.