As the health situation related to COVID-19 continues to improve across the world, most cruise lines have started to relax the mask policy for the crew. Crew Center has talked to crew members working on several major cruise lines to find out what are the latest crew mask policies. Surprisingly most of them said that masks are now optional and not a requirement in all crew and guest areas.

Silversea’s crew members have presented concerns to Crew Center related to the despair between pay for the same positions. Silversea is a company which operates under Royal Caribbean Group, as a company has a long-standing consideration and business model that incorporates its crew members as they do generally understand the great importance of well trained, consistent, loyal and hardworking crew. And while Silversea does operate under RCCL, their policies can differ.

By: Mathieu Burnel

The other day my niece lost her first tooth and as tradition follows, I told her that the tooth fairy will leave her a dollar. She looked at me puzzled and started laughing. I became more puzzled and asked what is so funny. My niece responded with “the tooth fairy better learn about inflation as what am I suppose to do with a dollar, the rate for a tooth is $10 nowadays.” Well, I realized how much in trouble we are with my niece being 6 years-old and already knowing and understanding inflation.

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.

Russia's aggression against Ukraine has been going on for 55 days, sad and difficult situations has hit the country, and imagine how it is for the Ukrainian crew members who are on cruise ships and cannot fly home.

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 

As the world turns towards Ukraine with prayers and support, loyal cruise ship guests reach out to the cruise lines' Head Quarters with inquiries about the safety, support and concern of Ukrainian crew members. Each company responds to the cruise guests with understanding of their concerns, addressing the same and reminding that the companies are focused on the wellbeing and support of both Ukrainian and Russian crew members.

Some good news is coming from Royal Caribbean regarding the easing of the health and safety protocols for the cruise ship crew. With the latest announcement that masks will be optional for fully vaccinated guests sailing from U.S. ports, the cruise lines has also updated protocols for crew which will go into effect for new sailings, starting Friday, February 25.