More than a dozen Carnival cruise ships arrived at Nassau Harbour on Saturday, November 28, to undertake embarkation of fresh crew on to a number of vessels, the Bahamas Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

The crew members arrived at 6:30 a.m. on a private charter flight from Amsterdam and complied with medical, immigration and customs requirements including the negative Covid-19 test prior to entry.  The crew was transferred from the airport directly to the harbour, where boats ferried them directly to their cruise ships.  The entire operation - from arrival at the airport to embarkation aboard their ships - took little more than eight hours, and has been completed in accordance with all the safety protocols.  In total Carnival Cruise Line has completed routine embarkation of 160 fresh crew members on to thirteen of their ships anchored off the coast of Nassau.

“Every aspect of the plan, from arrival of the individuals through to their departure, was reviewed and agreed with the Office of the Chief Medical Officer, the Port Department and The Bahamas Maritime Authority.  All measures, including hygiene, masking, distancing, disinfection, cleaning, were specified and compliance was carefully monitored.” Ministry of Transport said.

The transfer operation was for embarking crew only. And no one from the shipboard personnel was permitted to leave the ship or to have any direct contact with any shore-side personnel.