A Scottish author and Ex Crew Member on one of the world’s best known Cruise lines, has been taken aback by the positive reviews of her debut book that she began writing 20-years-ago when she left life at sea and completed during lockdown. 

Gejay Logdat is a 28 years old, Costa Cruises Barboy and Owner of Jay’s HomeMade Longganisa. After he was repatriated back home to the Philippines, Logdat and his wife decided to open a business in Las Pinas and overcome the global crisis together. The family business is now selling and making delivery of a wide range of products, such as chicharon, suka, atchara, and sisig and homemade kimchi.

Royal Caribbean Group has come a long way since the start of the global pandemic and suspension of all cruises. The company faced unprecedented challenges during the repatriation of its crew members, however, they managed to overcome all travel restrictions and health protocols established by many countries and safely return crew members back home.

Diamond Princess Captain Gennaro Arma was honored with the recognition of Magister of Amalfi Civilization for the Byzantine New Year for his role as a leader of the ship that was quarantined for nearly a month in Yokohama, Japan. Known as "The Brave Captain" among his crew and passengers, Captain Arma demonstrated incredible leadership at the helm of the Diamond

While we are all aware of the challenges and fears that the COVID-19 pandemic has bestowed upon all of us in the same sense it also shows us what truly is important.

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.

When life gives you COVID 19 pandemic while working on a cruise ship, there are those who cry you a river and those who turn towards some form of creative awakening while rising above the power of the pandemic fear. One such amazing man is David Oscar who joined Carnival Cruise Lines in 2017 boarding his first ship with a sketch pad and thirst for experiences, friendships and travel.

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.

If there is an industry that is incredibly doing all the ways adapting to the COVID-19 crisis, it’s the Cruise Industry. As Kent William said, "Seafarers are conditioned to hardship". Adapting which requires being more careful with our interactions. Adapting means being more deliberate in our sanitation protocols. Being more cognizant of how our interactions affect other crew members.

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.