The Italian cruise line Costa Cruises plans to resume sailings on seven of it’s cruise ships by the end of January 2021. According to the presentation, in the first phase of the plan only Italian guests will board the cruise ships, with limited occupancy and strict health and safety protocols. The first ships to resume cruising will sail round trips to Italian ports and with a possible stop in Valleta, Malta, according to the plan.

During the International Maritime Summit on Crew Changes hosted by the UK yesterday, government representatives from 12 countries express their appreciation to seafarers and pledge to urgently resolve issues that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and crew changes.

200 Indonesian crew members from the Costa Cruises ships anchored off the coast of Manila bay were repatriated yesterday evening.

After setting up an inter-functional task force composed of in-house experts in the sectors of medical services, public health and sanitation, hotel services, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), on-board engineering systems and technology IT and logistics, MSC Cruises also made use of the support of a group of experts from Aspen Medical to further implement its health and safety protocol.

Carnival UK announced today that their much-loved cruise ship Oceana will leave the P&O Cruises fleet. In a letter sent to all colleagues, business partners, travel agents suppliers, port agents, and guests the company shared the announcement that the cruise ship has been sold to undisclosed buyers.

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.