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Why Is the CDC’s Color Status for the Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the Seas Floating Hospitals and Quarantine Hotels Designated “Green” (No Reported COVID-19 Cases)?

This past week, I received lots of information from both crew members and cruise guests that several Royal Caribbean cruise ships are transferring crew members, who test positive or are ill with COVID-19, to one of two idle ships in the fleet (Vision of the Seas and Rhapsody of the Seas) which are being operated as floating quarantine hotels and/or hospitals at sea. There are many hundreds of infected and sick crew members on these two ships, which many crew are now calling “plague ships.” Yet, currently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designate the COVID-19 status of both the Vision and Rhapsody as “green” (“no reported cases of COVID-19”) on the CDC’s Covid Cruise Ship Color Status website.

(The term “plague ship” is a nineteenth century phrase commonly used to refer to a vessel filled with disease and pestilence. “Plague ship” more recently is a science fiction novel published in 1956 where crew members on a space ship become ill with severe headaches and end up in a semi-coma state. The crew discovers that they are considered to be pariahs and their rocket declared a plague ship).

I first learned this while communicating with a crew member on the Jewel of the Seas who explained that Royal Caribbean transferred twenty-one (21) crew members from the Jewel in order to avoid a Caribbean port regulation that bars ships which have more than 1% of the ship population positive for coronavirus. The next day after the Jewel transferred the infected crew members to the Rhapsody in Barbados, another twenty-five (25) crew members tested positive for COVID-19. The Jewel was scheduled to sail back to Miami at the end of its last cruise but it altered its course to stop in Coco Cay and transferred the 25 infected crew members to the Vision of the Seas which was anchored nearby. (The Jewel was just barred from porting this morning in Cartagena, Colombia because fifty-one (51) crew members are infected with COVID-19).

https://www.tiktok.com/@cruisingwithcovid/video/7048650306749484335?is_copy_url=0&is_from_webapp=v1&sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=7041616820562150918

Other Royal Caribbean cruise ships have made similar transfers of crew members who tested positive for the virus. On December 28th, the Symphony of the Seas tranferred what was described as “dozens of infected crew members” to the Rhapsody of the Seas due to COVID-19. In the last week, the Anthem of the Seas transferred forty-nine (49) crew members who tested positive for COVID-19 to the Vision. This past weekend, several guests videotaped a large number of crew members who tested positive for the virus transferring from the Harmony of the Seas to the Vision of the Seas. The videos were taken by passengers from balconies of the Harmony snd showed  many crew members with their personal effects and luggage walking across the dock and boarding the Vision of the Seas which was docked next to the Harmony. One guest counted 107 crew members. Another guest counted 108. A third guest counted 110 crew members. Whatever the exact number may be, conservatively over 100 ship employees walked over to the Vision from the the Harmony which I reported yesterday was experiencing a “super-spreader” event at sea.

All of these transfers occur at night apparently in the hopes that cruise passengers will not observe the spectacle.

A week ago, we wrote about forty-nine (49) Royal Caribbean crew members infected on the Harmony. Apparently, the cruise line transferred these crew members off the ship before it returned to Port Canaveral.

https://twitter.com/RHCap2014/status/1477594996710821892

At this point, we know that there have been a minimum of approximately three hundred  (300) infected crew members who transferred from the Jewel, Anthem, Symphony and Harmony alone to either the Vision or Rhapsody. Undoubtfully, at least a dozen more Royal Caribbean ships operating from the east coast of the U.S. transferred infected crew members in the same manner.

It is irrational for the CDC to designate these two cruise ships as “green:”

Transferring COVID-19 positive (and sometimes ill ship employees) to what some crew members commonly refer to as the “plague ships” is problematic on several levels.

It appears that these transfers are taking place to skirt around the 1% regulation of many Caribbean ports. Blocking cruise ships from calling at Caribbean ports is intended by these countries (which often have a low vaccination rate) to protect the health and safety of port residents. But from the cruise lines’ perspective, it causes disruption of the ship’s itinerary, results in the cancellation of shore excursions, and disappoints the fare-paying guests. Sometimes the cruise line also pay the guests $100 or so for the missed port.

There is a tremendous financial incentive to dump infected crew members into the company’s floating “quarantine hotels.” Land based hotels, like the Raddison, where Royal Caribbean is housing infected guests from the recent outbreak on the Harmony,  costs a few hundred dollars a day when you factor in the room and board. If you reasonably estimate that Royal Caribbean has anywhere from 60 to 125 infected crew members per ship on around a dozen cruise ships or so sailing in Caribbean waters, that’s around 1,000 infected ship employees. Quarantining crew members in South Florida would cost the company well over $1,500,000 a week in quarantine-related room and board, multiplied by at least a week of quarantine.  If the Omicron surge continues for another two months, the cruise line could well spend over $15,000,000 if they house crew members ashore.

Royal Caribbean appears to have decided to avoid these expenses by turning a couple of its dormant cruise ships into floating hotels.

Royal Caribbean also saves a lot of money by keeping its ill crew members on its ship under the responsibility of its minimally paid ship doctors and nurses. We know, from communicating with crew members on these ships, that some of them have tested positive and require medical treatment for a range of COVID-19 related symptoms which include sore throats, headaches, chills, fever and fatigue.

The biggest criticism we hear from crew members is that the company restricts their access to U.S. shoreside doctors (who are more likey to prescribe more extensive and expensive medical treatment) and prefer that the crew be treated by ship doctors who are inclined to hand out ibuprofen as the cure-all for crew members ailments.

It is highly questionable whether infected crew members should be quarantined on a cruise ship in the first place, putting the issue of saving money aside. Cruise ships are known for their poorly designed ventilation systems, which recycles air throughout the cabins. We have written several articles about the airborne spread of norovirus throughout the ship when guests or crew become ill with that virus. Read: Airborne Virus Transmission: Why Didn’t Cruise Ships Install HEPA Air Filters Long Ago? Is the company permitting quarantined crew members to stay alone in guest cabins with balconies? Or are they huddled together in balcony-less cabins on lower decks breathing recycled air?

COVID-19 after all is another airborne virus which also easily spreads through the air conditioning and closed ventilation systems, as leading epidemiologists have concluded.

The fact that the Vision and the Rhapsody have many hundreds of infected and ill crew members on he ships raises a number of questions regarding Royal Caribbean’s intentions and the CDC’s involvement.  Is Royal Caribbean accurately reporting these positive COVID-19 cases to the CDC? If so, why hasn’t the CDC assigned a “red” designation to these ships? Why on earth would the CDC designate these ships as “green,” meaning no reported COVID-19 cases?

The CDC’s designation of the Vision and Rhapsody as “green” (COVID free) subjects the CDC to ridicule. Unfortunately, it provides a basis to question all of the CDC’s findings, at a time when travelers need a reliable source of information about the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant.

 

https://twitter.com/SeasonneRose/status/1478220284490657799

The U.S. CDC has the authority to inspect foreign-flagged cruise ships which pose hazards to their passengers or crew.  Let’s hope that the federal health agency takes a hard look at these two Royal Caribbean cruise ships. The CDC should immediately designate them as “yellow” and begin an investigation. The CDC needs to investigate exactly how many infected and ill crew members are aboard these plague ships, and determine whether it is reasonably safe and appropriate to house ship employees in this manner.

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January 4, 2022 Evening Update: The CDC finally updated its Covid Cruise Ship Color Status website for the Rhapsody of the Seas, but only to “orange” which, per the CDC’s definition means “reported cases of COVID-19 are below the threshold for CDC investigation.”

 

 

January 5, 2022 Update: The CDC finally removed the “green” (no reported COVID cases) for the Vision of the Seas but replaced it with “orange” (reported cases of COVID are below the CDC’s minimal threshold). This is nonsensical because like the Rhapsody,  the Vision has hundreds of infected/ill crew members on board.

Image credits: Top – Vision of the Seas sailing into Coco Cay to pick up infected / ill Royal Caribbean crew members from the Harmony of the Seas – anonymous guests on the Harmony; various photos and videos – respective users on Twitter and TikTok.

Today the Harmony of the Seas finally returned to its home port in Port Canaveral after a disastrous week at sea.  Royal Caribbean transferred over a hundred (100) crew members, who tested positive for COVID-19, to the Vision of the Seas which the cruise line is using as a quarantine facility-at-sea and/or floating hospital. Based on dozens of messages from cruise passengers, around three-hundred (300) guests tested positive for the virus.

We last reported on the Harmony last week that there were nearly fifty (50) crew members who tested positive forr COVID-19 when Royal Caribbean called on port in Roatan, which unlike several Caribbean ports does not have a regulation prohibiting cruise ships from calling at  port with 1% or more of its total ship population (guests and crew) positive with COVID-19.

By yesterday morning, we received several emails and Facebook messages that there were many dozens of guests, including their children, who tested positive for the virus.  Several people complained on Twitter that there may be as many as three-hundred (300) passengers at this time who have tested positive.

https://twitter.com/SeasonneRose/status/1477457037479096329

https://twitter.com/Keubiko/status/1477501234370207748

https://twitter.com/WayVDreamer/status/1477519066348851200

In addition, many passengers observed over one-hundred crew members transferring with their luggage and personal effects to  the Vision of the Seas which Royal Caribbean is using as a floating hotel to quarantine their COVID-19 positive ship employees as well as a floating hospital for crew members requiring medical treatment.

We have heard from crew members on the Jewel of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas which both transferred COVID-19 positive and ill crew members to the Vision of the Seas this past few days.  Royal Caribbean is also using the Rhapsody of the Seas as a floating hotel / hospital for ship employees who test positive for the virus or are ill.

https://twitter.com/SeasonneRose/status/1477460366816948232

The cruise line saves substantial money by housing its positive crew members on its idle ships rather than hotels ashore. Royal Caribbean, which is legally responsible for providing medical treatment to its ill and infected crew, can also save lots of money by keeping the ship employees under the responsibility of its minimally paid  ship doctors rather than the more expensive, albeit vastly more competent, educated and experienced care of  U.S. physicians.

Similar to the Anthem of the Seas, the Harmony of the Seas also had a largely mask-less super-spreader event as the guests attended a New Year’s Eve sing-a-long.

https://www.tiktok.com/@cruisingwithcovid/video/7048674994913660206

Royal Caribbean is fortunate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDD) did not issue a red warning for this ship given the fact that it appears that over 400 passengers and crew have tested positive for COVID-19 so far.

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Image credit: Top – Harmony of the Seas – SIMON BROOKE-WEBB, SBW-PHOTO via USA TODAY

 

Today, the Harmony of the Seas arrived in Roatan, Honduras with forty-nine (49) crew members who tested positive for COVID-19. There was one guest who also tested positive, for a total of fifty people on this Royal Caribbean ship (I tweeted earlier, in error, that there were fifty crew members who tested positive). The actual number in fact is forty-nine infected crew members and one guest at the moment.

This information is provided by a Royal Caribbean employee who wishes to remain anonymous and employed. The employee is one of two crew members in the fleet who I have known for years and feel compelled to provide accurate information regaring the COVID-19 virus and related health and safety issues on Royal Caribbean ships.

This is the fourth Royal Caribbean cruise ship with a significant number of people infected with COVID-19 onboard. The Symphony of the Seas had 48 people test positive for coronavirus. The Odyssey of the Seas had what the Miami Herald initially reported as  55 COVID-19 cases as which later increased the number to at least 69. We reported that the Jewel of the Seas had at least 50 cases in the last two sailings with at least 45 of that total being crew members.  There have been similar number of positive cases, primarily involving crew members on Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) and Carnival owned Holland America Line (HAL) cruise ship.

Regarding the Jewel of the Seas outbreaks, many of the infected crew members are exhibiting symptoms and worked while they were symptomatic.  Often, cruise lines are quick to routinely state that 30 or 40 or 50 COVID-19 cases are somehow a “small number” allegedly involving only asymptomatic employees.

Royal Caribbean is using two of its cruise ships (The Rhapsody of the Seas and Vision of the Seas) as floating hospitals/quarantine hotels for its crew members. These ships have not yet been permitted to sail with passengers again after the industry was suspended  last year following the CDC’s no-sail orders,  The motivation seems to be that this will save Royal Caribbean money by not paying shoreside doctors to provide medical treatment for the crew or hotels, although it remains questionable whether prompt and appropriate medical treatment can be provided at sea like this. Most importantly to the cruise line, by using its idle cruise ships to quaratine crew members, this it will permit the company to skirt the COVID-19 reporting requirements of Caribbean nations which are protecting the health and safety of their port residents. Many ports will not permit cruise ships to dock in the even that more than one percent of the ship’s population (guests and crew) is positive for COVID-19.  By tranferring dozens of COVID-19 positive crewmembers from an infected ship to either the Rhapsody or Vision, Royal Caribbean is able to avoid the scrutiny of port health officials who might block them from their ports.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are continuing to surge, The CDC today released information indicating that althought infections involving the Omicron variant  continur to increase, the percentage of vases invilving this variant are not as high as initially thought, This is not necessarily good news, as it means that there is a higher percentage of cases involving the Delta variant which continues to cause more serious symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths.

According to the CDC, there ae at least 89 cruise ships currently with COVID-19 aboard. A month ago there was less than half this number. Two months ago there was less than a third of this number. Not only are the vast majority of cruise ships (which are sailing from U.S. ports and are under the CDC’s jurisdiction) under yellow or orange warnings, but the average number of positive cases per ship has increased from a few cases to an average of around 50 a ship.

Unfortunately, there are few reliable and accurate sources of information where families thinking of taking a leisure cruise during a pandemic can go to locate candid information which could affect their family’s health and safety.

The Harmony of the Seas departed from Roatan a couple of hours ago. It will now sail to Costa Maya, Mexico where it will arrive tomorrow. It is scheduled to stop in Coco Cay in the Bahanas on New Year’s Day and then sail bac to Port Canaveral on January 2, 2022.

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January 1, 2022 Update: A guest sailing on the Harmony which is now in Coco Cay this morning states that his minor daughter tested positive among others who have gone to the ship infirmary, including many children. He estimates as many as 300 other guests are infected.

Image Credit:

Harmony of the Seas – SIMON BROOKE-WEBB, SBW-PHOTO via USA TODAY

Christmas tree GIF –

Just a few days after the Symphony of the Seas experienced a COVID-19 outbreak which infected at least forty-eight (48) guests, another Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Odyssey of the Seas, today suffered a COVID-19 outbreak involving at least fifty-five (55) people, including fifty-two (52) crew members and at least three (3) guests.

USA TODAY first reported the outbreak on the Odyssey of the Seas. The newspaper initially reported an outbreak of fifty (50) people, involving three (3) passengers and forty-seven (47) crew members who tested tested positive for COVID-19. The cruise ship departed from Fort Lauderdale on Saturday for an eight-night cruise to the Caribbean.

There is a curious twist with the outbreak on the Odyssey of the Seas. The cruise ship quickly turned around on Saturday after it reached the Bahamas and returned to port in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday to disembark a symptomatic passenger, who was positive with the virus, and his close contacts.  It appears that USA TODAY then picked up the tweet and reported on this unusual development.

The popular Crew Center reported later today that the number of people infected increased to at least fifty-two (52) crew members and three (3) pasengers. Further, the port of Curacao refused to permit the infected cruise ship to dock. Crew Center reported that “the cruise ship was scheduled to dock at Curacao today, however due to the current status, the vessel was denied clearance by the port authority, and disembarkation of guests was canceled.”

https://twitter.com/LifeAsDodson/status/1473689344661770242

According to USA TODAY, the Odyssey of the Seas sailed with 3,587 passengers and 1,599 crew. The Crew Center report that the ship is currently sailing with 3802 guests onboard.

All crew and passengers who are twelve (12) years old and over were to be vaccinated. Children under twelve (12) were not required to be vaccinated,

https://twitter.com/hackwithirma123/status/1473748883314561027

There have been a total of over one hundred (100) people infetected with the virus on just these two (2) Royal Caribbean cruise ships, the Odyssey and the Symphony. 

Royal Caribbean Has 23 Cruise Ships Which It Operates and / or Owns With COVID-19 Aboard 

Of course, there are many positive cases on many cruise ships owned and operated by Royal Caribbean. The COVID-19 color code tracking report maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that there are fifteen (15) cases of COVID-19 on Royal Caribbean International ships operated by the company as well as eight (8) cases of COVID-19 on Celebrity and Silversea cruise ships which are owned by Royal Caribbean. The twenty-three (23) cruise ships is by far the most infected ships owned by a single cruise company.

 

More COVID-19 Cases Aboard The Jewel of of the Seas

We have reported on a steady stream of COVID-19 cases on the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas. The latest as of today is that the Jewel has six people on it who are positive for COVID-19 – three (3) guests and three (3) crew members. This information was provided by a knowledgeable crew member who wishes to remain anonymous.  This crew member also sent us a copy of an email from Royal Caribbean’s home office in Miami, which states in part:

‘ . . . With the uptick of positive cases and added concerns about variants . . . we’re adjusting our measures as needed, including requiring masks indoors on Royal Caribbean International ships, ensuring our crew members receive their booster dose as soon as they are eligible, and strongly recommending to our guests they too receive their booster dose once eligible to do so.”

Twenty-Eight on the MSC Seashore Positive for COVID-19

The popular Crew Center also reports that }twenty-eight guests and crew” on the MSC Seashore tested positive for Covid-19, “as the omicron variant surges in the U.S.”

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December 22, 2021 Evening Update: The Miami Herald reports on the outbreak: “Second Royal Caribbean ship has COVID-19 outbreak and it’s denied entry to Curacao and Aruba”

Image Credit: Odyssey of the Seas – Oldih CC 4.0 wikipedia / commons

The arrival of Royal Caribbean’s newest cruise ship, Odyssey of the Seas, in Israel was marred by news that a crew member ended his life as the ship was sailing toward Haifa earlier this week, according to several crew members who wish to remain anonymous.  The cruise ship’s master announced the crew member’s death yesterday via the ship intercom system. The ship employee’s name and details of death were not disclosed.

The unnamed crew member, who is reportedly from India, went overboard from the Odyssey of the Seas Tuesday night as the Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailed south of Cyprus en route to Haifa. The sole newspaper covering the sad event is a newspaper in Cyprus – KNEWS, the English edition of Kathimerini Cyprus, which publish an article this morning titled Cyprus Halts Search For Sailor Lost at Sea – Cypriot Authorities Fail to Locate Crew Member in the Water After Falling Overboard From Haifa-Bound Cruise Ship.

KNEW reports that “a crew member on a cruise ship bound for Haifa was last seen Tuesday night, according to the captain of the vessel, who said the sailor was last seen when the vessel was some 20 nautical miles south of Cape Gata on the southern coast of Cyprus.”

The search and rescue efforts by Cyprus’ Joint Rescue Coordination Center were unsuccessful and stopped today. The rescue center was first notified yesterday (Wednesday) shortly before noon.

The newspaper in Cyprus, where the Odyssey of the Seas will visit when it begins cruises from Israel in June, did not identify the name of the cruise ship or that it was operated by Royal Caribbean. It is not uncommon for governmental agencies and newspaper in countries which have commercial relationships with cruise lines to refuse to identify the name of the cruise line or cruise ship in cases of crew suicides to avoid embarrassing their business partners.

Two dozen Royal Caribbean ship employees have gone overboard over the past ten years. A couple of years ago, I wrote about the problem of crew members going missing from Royal Caribbean cruise ships without explanation. During a period of less than four years between 2009 and 2013, at least thirteen crew members went over the rails of Royal Caribbean (and subsidiary Celebrity) cruise ships, including the Majesty of the Seas, Monarch of the Seas (twice), Radiance of the Seas, Explorer of the Seas. Oasis of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Celebrity Constellation, Celebrity Eclipse, Celebrity Summit, and Monarch of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas (two). Most of these cases were never investigated by the flag state, which, it seems, could not care less.

The majority of the crew members appeared to have ended their lives intentionally and/or they disappeared mysteriously. The last Royal Caribbean crew member to go overboard was a 27 year old ship employee from Poland. Closed-circuit camera on the cruise ship showed him jumping from the Jewel of the Seas off of the coast of Greece last May.

A 35 year-old crew member from India went overboard from the Rhapsody of the Seas in September of 2019.

A  Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard from the Majesty of the Seas in January of 2019.

A young Celebrity Cruises officer hung himself on the Celebrity Millennium, on December 6, 2018.

Another Royal Caribbean crew member, a performer, age 20, of the United Kingdom, went overboard from the Harmony of the Seas the day after Christmas of 2018.

A Royal Caribbean crew member disappeared from the Adventure of the Seas at the end of November of last year.

A crew member went overboard from the Celebrity Reflection in October of 2018.

A Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard in an apparent suicide from the Vision of the Seas in December of 2017.

A Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard from the Liberty of the Seas in April of 2017.

A Royal Caribbean crew member went overboard from the Independence of the Seas in August of 2014.

A Celebrity crew member disappeared at sea from the Celebrity Constellation in January of 2014.

In all, at least twenty-four (24) crew members went overboard from Royal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise ships from 2009 to the present. Most cases involved suicides. Yet, Royal Caribbean does not employ mental health counselors on its fleet of cruise ships.

I previously described this sad state of affairs in an article titled Misery Machines and Crew Member Suicides.

Condolences to this unidentified crew member’s family and friends as well as his teammates who he left behind.

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Photo Credits: Odyssey of the Seas – Ynet newspaper; Helicopter search – Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center via KNEWS.

 

A Royal Caribbean ship employee died earlier today on the Harmony of the Seas, according to several crew members who wish to remain anonymous.

Crew member Mariah Jocson, who was described as a “new hire,” was reportedly found in her cabin this afternoon. There was an “Alpha, Alpha, Alpha” medical emergency broadcast on the ship’s PA system.  Later, the captain publicly announced that the crew member had died. Her family reportedly have been notified. There was no official announcement or explanation regarding her cause of death.

She was from Mandaluyong, Philippines.

The Harmony of the Seas is currently in Barbados with around 2,000 crew members still aboard waiting to be returned home, including many crew members who transferred from the Vision of the Seas, Majesty of the Seas, and Rhapsody of the Seas. She reportedly previously was on the Rhapsody.

The Royal Caribbean “Crew Repatriation Weekly Update” dated June 5, 2020 lists over twenty flights from Barbados to the Philippines in the next three weeks through June 30th.

This has been a difficult six weeks for many crew members who have remained on cruise ships during the period of cruising suspension which is now approaching 90 days. In addition to this incident, there have been eight other crew members who reportedly ended their lives and one employee who attempted to do so since May 1st.

A week ago, a long term employee from the Philippines died suddenly on a Crystal Cruises ship. Two weeks ago, a Filipino crew member died on the Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady. Shortly before that, a crew member on the Vasco da Gamma cruise ship reportedly jumped from deck 12 of the ship and landed on a cargo container located on the pier of the Tilbury Docks in the U.K. It was last reported that the Cruise and Maritime Voyages (CMV) ship employee is in the hospital in London. A Filipino galley employee on the AIDAblu also died. A Chinese crew member hired as an assistant waiter on the Mariner of the Seas  was found dead by his colleagues. Royal Caribbean stated that the crew member, a young man, reportedly died of “natural causes,” although it did not release an official cause of his death or provide any explanation. On that same day, a Ukranian waiter from the Regal Princess jumped overboard while the ship was in Rotterdam. The day before, an assistant shore excursion manager died on the Carnival Breeze which was sailing to the U.K. from Bahamian waters. A post mortem report by a pathologist states the preliminary cause of death as hanging, according to a publication in the U.K.  The first suicide involved a Polish electrician on the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas jumped from the ship south of Athens around the first of last month.

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June 10, 2020 Update: A newspaper in Barbados reports that the “Barbados police confirm they are treating the death as a suicide and identify the victim as a 28-year-old assistant waitress.”

June 11, 2020: Crew Center reported that there was a prayer tribute by crew members of the Harmony of the Seas Tuesday evening for Ms. Jocson (photo right) who was hired as a waiter.

Photo credit: Top – Harmony of the Seas – By kees torn – UNION BEAR, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons / wikimedia; middleHarmony of the Seas in Barbados – middle – Nation News by Shanice King; bottom – Mariah Jocson – Facebook via Crew Center.

Today, crew members aboard the Majesty of the Seas protested Royal Caribbean’s latest failure to follow through with its  repatriation of its crew members. Several hundred crew members congregated on the pool deck making signs protesting Royal Caribbean’s refusal to follow through with plans to send the crew members home. The repatriation plans have reportedly changed at the last minute on five occasions, including three times dating back to last month.

The crew members chanted “send us home” and erected signs saying “Do You Sleep Well Mr. Bayley” (right) referring to the CEO of Royal Caribbean International Michael Bayley who was quoted earlier by the Miami Herald stating that flying crew members home via private charters was “too expensive.” Mr. Bayley collected around $25,000,000 in compensation in the last four years. A second sign (below left) stated “How Many More Suicides Do You Need?” This sign was created in reference to the Death of a Polish engineer who apparently jumped overboard from the Jewel of the Seas and the recent death of a Chinese assistant waiter who died on the Mariner of the Seas earlier this week.

The protest was covered by Miami Herald reporter Taylor Dolven who has closely followed Royal Caribbean’s dilatory conduct.

https://twitter.com/taydolven/status/1261345635678248961

I have written about the failure of cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, to repatriate their crew members in a timely manner several times.  Every major newspaper has covered the story of 75,000 to 100,000 crew members stuck at sea, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Quartz, The Cut, SFGate, Guardian,  Fortune, USA TODAY,  ABC News,  CBS News, CNN, NBC News, Daily Mail  and even FOX News.

The Miami Herald has done an outstanding job of covering this issue and has written about Royal Caribbean’s refusal to acknowledge and agree to comply with the CDC’s guilines for repatriating crew members, Royal Caribbean’s false accusations blaming the CDC for keeping its crew trapped on its ships, Royal Caribbean executives agreeing in principle to the CDC’s terms for repatriating the crew, and its ongoing refusal to repatriate its crew.  The Herald has covered the hunger strike which took place on the Navigator of the Seas due to Royal Caribbean’s unreasonable delays.

As of three days ago, Royal Caribbean had agreed to the CDC’s guidelines and  signed the required acknowledgments for only 20 crew members, all of them U.S. nationals. As of yesterday, Royal Caribbean had increased the number of CDC approved repatriations of only 557 crewmembers, from the U.S., U.K. and the Philippines.

https://twitter.com/taydolven/status/1260265640599924741

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Photo credit: Anonymous crew members

A crew member employed on the Mariner of the Seas was found dead earlier today by his colleagues. He is the third crew member to have died in just the last two days, and the fourth ship employee to have died in a little over a week.

The crew member is a Chinese national according to several crew members who wish to remain annymous. His fist name is “Wenji.” He apparently is a new hire and worked as an assistant waiter. It is less than clear why he was still aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship at this late date, almost two months after crusing was suspended.

There is a debate affecting crew members whether the delay in repatriating crew members is due to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the cruise lines in refusing to sign acknowledgents that they will comply with the CDC guidelines, or a combination of the both.

The Miami Herald published an article ten days ago that Royal Caribbean has been lying to its crew members for the past month by claiming that it is the fault of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that crew members are stuck at sea.

The Herald first published an article stating that cruise lines refuse to acknowledge CDC terms to repatriate crew, calling transportation  via air charters to be “‘too expensive.” Later, the Miami Herald explained why crew members were being kept at sea. In an article, titled Royal Caribbean falsely blames CDC for keeping crew trapped on its ships, agency says,  the Miami Herald stated that the actual reason was that the CEO’s refused to sign an acknowledgement that the company will comply with the CDC guidelines. Fearing potential criminal liability, the company decided against having its  CEO’s or the chief compliance officers and chief medical officers sign the acknowledgement. The Miami Herald reported that “in an about face,” Royal Caribbean’s Michael Bayley and Celebrity Cruises’ Lisa Lutoff-Perlo announced they would sign the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s terms for disembarking crew.

Unfortunately, it appears that notwithstanding comments to the Miami Herald, Royal Caribbean is still refusing to sign the CDC acknowledgement.

A crew member who contacted me from a Royal Caribbean ship said: “it’s the saddest thing that endless waiting is taking the lifes of innocent and hard working crew members.”

This death comes on the heels of the death today of a crew member from the Regal Princess. Yesterday, an assistant shore excursion manager died on the Carnival Breeze which is sailing to the U.S. from Bahamian waters. Eight days ago we reported that a Polish electrician on the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas went overboard south of Greece.

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Photo credit: Gregory Varnum – CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia.

A passenger on a cruise ship visiting Alaska last week had the measles, according to health officials at the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, prompting concerns that other cruise passengers as well as air travelers may spread the virus.

The Juneau Empire newspaper reports that a teenager from Japan boarded the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship on August 6, 2018 for an Alaskan cruise, after flying from Tokyo to Vancouver a week earlier.

The cruise guest reportedly sailed aboard the Jewel which docked in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Glacier Bay before the cruise ended in Seward, Alaska.

The newspaper states that before the cruise, the girl experienced a rash, fever and cold-like symptoms after she travelled to  Thailand. She apparently had not been vaccinated for measles, mumps, or rubella.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reportedly warned health care providers to look out for measles-like symptoms (rashes, runny noses, fevers, white spots and/or red eyes) from other passengers who may have contracted the disease.

The initial news accounts did not identify the cruise ship or cruise line with some accounts, like Radio Canada, mentioning only that an unnamed ship operated by Norwegian Cruise Line was involved.

The cruise passenger had flown to and from Portland before she went on the cruise from Vancouver.

Health officials stated that they believe the girl boarded the cruise ship with her parents on the fourth day after her symptoms began, which suggests that she was not highly contagious. The disease apparently has an incubation period of 7-21 days. Anyone who may have contracted the virus is expected to show symptoms before August 27th.

The Centre for Disease Control in British Columbia noted that measles is a highly infectious airborne disease, although transmission is reportedly unlikely.

Four years ago, a crew member aboard an unidentified cruise ship sailing to Alaska developed measles leading to concern that he may have infected cruise passengers.  A cruise passenger contacted us, indicating that she and other passengers aboard the Norwegian Pearl may have been exposed to the virus.

Earlier, a measles outbreak has occurred on the Costa Pacifica cruise ship; an Italian newspaper reported that that dozens of cruise passengers were probably infected with the virus that causes measles.

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Photo credit: By A.jo Public Domain, commons / wikimedia.

Child Porn Royal Caribbean Monarch of the SeasThe Orlando Sentinel reported this afternoon that Federal authorities arrested an Idaho man who took a cruise from Port Canaveral earlier this month with more than 1,000 images of child pornography on a laptop he took on the cruise ship.

According to a complaint filed in Orlando federal court, authorities were inspecting cruise passengers onboard Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas cruise ship on December 10, 2012, when they discovered that the laptop computer of cruise passenger Gary Lee Reed, of Blackfoot Idaho, had around 1,162 images and videos depicting child pornography. 

The images included sexual abuse of toddlers and babies.  Reed reportedly admitted that he has viewed child pornography for many years. He was arrested and subsequently indicted by an Orlando federal grand jury on a child pornography charge. (Anyone have a link to his mugshot?)

Cases like this may be surprising to some families who like to cruise but the arrest of cruise passengers and crew members is not uncommon. Consider the following arrests which we have blogged about here on Cruise Law News for just the last three years:

Cruise Child Porn Paul Trotter Paul Trotter, age 34, is the most prolific cruise child porn king known to the public so far. He worked for Cunard for seven years as a child supervisor aboard the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. He would take the children to areas not covered by surveillance cameras and physically and sexually abuse them. A real sicko, he would film himself sexually molesting the children to watch later. This was ultimately what got him caught. Someone tipped the police off in the U.K. where he lived. A police search of his computer revealed not only child pornography but his own videos of his crimes against the kids he was entrusted with on cruises. One newspaper reported that he supervised the "play zone" on 295 cruises over his seven years with Cunard. He admitted to abusing thirteen child probably because he was caught with images of 13 victims, is my suspicion. 295 cruises and several thousand children. A play zone of his own with no one supervising him while he abused the customer’s kids. A pedophile’s dream. How many more victims are there?  

Edward Brillantes Mangubat, age 40, is another pedophile who worked for Cunard. He was arrested in Halifax when Canadian Border officer searched his laptop computer and found sexually explicit video featuring children. Mangubat worked as a stagehand on Cunard’s cruise ship Queen Mary 2. He worked on cruise ships for seven years.

Did he know Trotter and exchange porno tapes? Border agents went to Mangubat’s cabin and discovered that his laptop contained several videos showing “what can only be described as sexual assault of children,” including children under 12.” He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.

Amado Nicholas Hernandez, age 31, (left) is a pedophile who was employed by Celebrity Cruises as an Child Porn Celebrity Cruise Ship audiovisual manager and provided onboard guest-entertainment services aboard the Constellation cruise ship.

Hernandez was arrested after police determined that his computer contained 450 photographs and about 250 video files of child pornography portraying a total of 44 different victims. The criminal complaint filed against Hernandez alleged that upcoming cruises included several stops in Mexico.

Hernandez, in documented online chats, reportedly had bragged that he had bought young boys for sex in Mexico and “almost offed one,” the criminal complaint alleges.

Nyoman Putra, age 26, an Indonesian working as an assistant room steward on the Carnival Glory, allegedly had child pornography on a laptop computer. Canada Border Services Agency officers were inspecting crew members getting off the cruise ship when they nabbed the Carnival crew member at Pier 22 in Halifax.

Canada’s border agents do a good job catching crew members who try and enter the country with child Cruise Ship Pornpornography.  Putra was an assistant cabin attendant. It should concern any parent who cruises with their children to think of pedophile cabin attendants coming into the stateroom.

Jay-Ar Ramos Trilles, age 23, of the Philippines pleaded guilty in Halifax provincial court to charges of possessing and importing child pornography. Canada Border Services Agency officer arrested an assistant waiter on the Costa Atlantica on Tuesday as he was getting off the cruise ship at Pier 22 in Halifax. Two sexually explicit videos of children were found on both a USB flash drive and a laptop computer. One of the videos depicted a boy and a girl between the ages of 10 and 12, while the other showed a six-year-old girl being sexually abused by a man. The prosecutor in Canada stated that the border agency is determined to keep such "abhorrent" material from being brought into the country. Trilles worked with Costa Cruises for three years.

Menandro Lim Lanzar, age 31, from the Philippines was arraigned in Halifax on a charge of importing child pornography. Mr. Lanzar was employed as a quarter master on the NCL cruise ship Norwegian Jewel.

Hendri Dharmawan, age 29, was working as a pastry chef on the Carnival Triumph when he was arrested in Halifax.  The crew member was caught with pornography on his iPhone as he returned to the Carnival cruise ship. The border police then accompanied him back to his cabin where they discovered over two hours of child pornography on Dharmawan’s laptop and external hard drive. The footage depicted girls as young as eight and boys as young as 10 being abused.

Cruise Ship Porn PassengerTimothy David Webb, age 32, (left) was arrested after he disembarked Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Grandeur of the Seas as a passenger at the Norfolk cruise ship terminal. Webb is a convicted sex offender and has a prior conviction sodomy in the state of Virginia. The customs agents pulled Webb from a line of passengers disembarking the cruise ship and searched his laptop, which contained child pornography videos. 

Senad Djedovic, (right) from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested earlier this year after he boasted about engaging in sexual relations with a 16 year old girl who sailed on NCL’s Norwegian Star cruise ship with her parents. After the cruise ended, Djedovic exchanged emails with the underage girl and received a number of sexually explicit photographs. Other crew members on the NCL cruise ship observed the photos and learned the girl’s age and reported Djedovic to NCL which contacted the FBI. A search of Djedovic’s computers revealed child pornography. Under a sub-folder entitled "scandals" there were several videos depicting sexual acts with 12 to 15 year old girls. NCL employed Cruise Ship Porn - NCLDjedovic from 2005 to March 2012 aboard a number of different cruise ships.

After Djedovic was arrested, a number of crew members and friends came to his defense arguing that he should be acquitted because sex with a 16 year old is not a big deal and this kind of conduct is not illegal in most countries. Djedovic was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

These type of stories should serve as a wake up to parents who take their children on cruises. Yes, there are sexual deviants and predators on cruise ships. A cruise ship presents the same dangers as your home town.

The stories above mostly involve child porn, not sexual assault. We have discussed all types of cases on this blog about men abusing children, such as a Carnival waiter raping a 14 year old girl, to a youth counselor abusing at least 13 boys on Cunard cruise ship, to a 71 year old man from the Pittsburg area traveling down to Miami to molest a 6 year old boy on a Royal Caribbean ship. 

Our advice? Parents watch your kids. Yes, the U.S. federal agents and Canadian authorities will occasionally nab a child porno sicko with images on his iPhone or laptop but that’s probably a fraction of the child porn coming on and off cruise ships. With 16,000,000 people sailing each year there are many thousands of sick perverts out there on the high seas. 

12.7% of the 838 passengers aboard the Viking Neptune cruise ship are experiencing abdominal cramps, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nearly 2% of the crew are also experiencing these symptoms of gastrointestinal illness (GI). Cruise lines are required to report GI cases to the CDC whenever 3% or more of the passengers experience symptoms.

The Viking Cruises ship is currently in Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada and is scheduled to arrive in the United States ( Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey) on Tuesday. (The Viking ship actually arrived at Pier 90 on Manhattan’s west side for her 2023 summer cruise season from New York City).

As we previously reported, there has been a substantial increase in the number of GI outbreaks (thirteen) on cruise ships in the first six months of this year, compared to previous years. There have been an average of around eleven outbreaks per year for the three year period before the pandemic: 2019 (10), 2018 (11) and 2017 (11).

For the first six months of 2023, Royal Caribbean has been the GI leader with four outbreaks on its cruise ships (Jewel of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas and two back-to-back outbreaks on the Enchantment of the Seas). Celebrity Cruises has had three outbreaks (Celebrity Summit, Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity Constellation), as did Princess Cruises (Grand Princess, Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess), followed by Holland America Line (Nieuw Amsterdam), P&O Cruises (Arcadia) and Virgin Cruises (Virgin Neptune).

Regarding this latest GI outbreak on the Virgin Neptune, the CDC was unable to determine the “causative agent.”

The Washington Post covered the increased number of cruise ships GI cases two week ago in Stomach Viruses Are Back Up On Cruise Ships, With Hundreds Falling Ill.

The cruise industry’s trade association, the Cruise Lines International Association (“CLIA”), says incidents of gastrointestinal illness are “quite rare” on ships. Cruise lines typically say the symptoms are often mild and resolve quickly. Another talking point of CLIA is the argument that GI outbreaks are always caused by guests failing to wash their hands.

Despite what CLIA says, the fact of the matter is that both the CDC and the Federal Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) concluded long ago that contaminated food and/or water are the main explanations for norovirus outbreaks.

Recent federal studies show that sick employees were behind a majority of food contamination and foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. The CDC found that among outbreaks where a contributing factor was identified, 41% were caused by food contamination from ill or infectious employees.

“If a food worker stays on the job while sick and does not wash his or her hands carefully after using the toilet, the food worker can spread germs by touching food,” according to the CDC’s website. Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States.

The CDC report concluded that only around 43% of businesses provided paid sick leave to sick workers, resulting in many employees working while contagious.

In the cruise line context, many waiters and food handlers, who are paid almost exclusively by tips, are often reluctant to go to the ship infirmary when they are ill. No cruise line, to our knowledge, provides paid sick leave to their crew members. Unfortunately, there’s an incentive to work while sick on a cruise ship in order to be paid. Two weeks ago, we were contacted by a HAL officer who confirmed that HAL food handlers don’t receive tips (their main source of income) when they are ill. That creates an obvious disincentive to report to the ship doctor and creates the danger of contaminating food being contaminated.

Expect CLIA and the cruise lines to downplay the foodborne illness explanation for this norovirus outbreak and to encourage cruise fans to think that it’s actually their unwashed hands which are to blame.

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June 20, 2023 Update:

Image Credit: Viking Neptune – Viking Cruises; CDC logo and artwork – CDC.

At least two-hundred and nineteen passengers and crew became ill, experiencing vomiting and diarrhea, from a gastrointestinal illness aboard Princess Cruises’ Ruby Princess which has returned this morning to Galveston, Texas following a cruise to the Caribbean.

199 of 2,881 (6.61%) of the passengers reported ill during the cruise, as well as 20 of 1,159 (1.73%) of the crew members on the ship.

The Centers for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) has not come to a conclusion as to the “causative agent” behind these gastrointestinal illnesses (GI). The CDC data regarding this GI outbreak indicates that “epidemiologists and environmental health officers” are now boarding ship to begin an investigation once the cruise ship is back in a U.S. port.

The Ruby Princess was the site of an early major outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia when infected passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney in 2020. At least 900 passengers and crew later tested positive for COVID-19, and 28 people died.

There have been four GI outbreaks on cruise ships which meet the CDC’s reporting requirements in 2023, including the cases on the Ruby Princess. Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas and the Brilliance of the Seas had GI outbreaks in late January of 2023 involving a total of around one-hundred and fifty passengers and crew. Over 100 passengers and crew members on P&O Cruises’ Arcadia experienced vomiting and diarrhea which the CDC attributed to norovirus. The CDC could not determine the “causative agent” for the GI outbreak on the Royal Caribbean cruise ships.

Unfortunately, the CDC is never able to conclude the precise mechanism of infection regarding shipboard outbreaks like this even if they eventually determine that norovirus was involved. I am not aware of a single time when the CDC has pinpointed the precise cause of a cruise ship disease GI outbreak. The public is left with the “blame game” of wondering whether the cruise ship food or water was contaminated, or the outbreak was caused by a sick galley worker, or was brought aboard by sick passengers and then spread because of inadequate hygiene and poor cleaning procedures.

Several years ago, Time magazine published an article entitled The 13 Worst Norovirus Outbreaks on Cruise Ships. The overall winner of Time’s top 13 list was Princess Cruises which had five outbreaks on its brand alone: Crown Princess (January 2010) with 396 ill; Crown Princess (February 2012) – 363; Ruby Princess (March 2013) – 276; Coral Princess (February 2009) – 271; and Sun Princess (July 2012) – 216.

 Princess and Holland America Line historically have the sickest cruise ships in the cruise industry’s fleet.

If the cruise lines don’t flat out accuse the passengers of being the problem, there will always be an implication that the passengers must not have washed their hands.

The amazing thing about the cruise industry is the frenzy activity when the ships come to port. A tremendous amount of provisions are brought aboard at every port, literally hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef, chicken, pork, fish and shellfish as well as every fruit and vegetable under the sun. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water are pumped into the ship. The crew members get on and off the ship and of course the passengers do as well.

Was the food and/or water served to passengers on the ship contaminated? Did the passengers or crew eat contaminated food ashore?  Were the hands of a crew member involved in food preparation infected?

Proving exactly how the virus appears on a cruise ship is a difficult scientific process. But no one is engaged in such testing. Yes, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) test to determine whether the gastrointestinal illness is due to noro or e-coli, but that’s where the testing stops.

Whoever is to blame, the crew members, of course, always pay the price, by having to wipe and scrub and spray everything in sight for long 12+ hour days to try to disinfect a ship longer than three football fields.

Irrespective of the blame-game, don’t call us if you get sick on a cruise. Proving where the virus came from, or that the cruise line was negligent, is virtually impossible to prove, especially since the CDC conducts no epidemiological analysis and sometimes can’t even figure out whether the outbreak is due to norovirus, e-coli or something as exotic as shigella sonnei or cyclospora cayetanensis. 

Have a comment or question? Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

We suggest reading Norovirus Nightmare: Cruise Industry Plays the “Blame-the-Passenger” Game.

March 8, 2023 Update:

Travel Weekly (Australia) coved the story and cited Cruise Law News:

March 8, 2023 Update:

The CDC now reports that there were over 300 passengers and crew members infected during the cruise.

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As of this weekend, 100% of the cruise ships tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sailing with cruise guests and/or crew members who have tested positive for COVID-19. The Cruise Ship COVID-19 Dashboard maintained by the CDC shows that of the ninety-six (96) cruise ships tracked by the CDC, six (6) cruise ships have cases of COVID-19 which are below the threshold for CDC investigation and eighty-eight (88) cruise ships with cases which have met the CDC’s threshold for investigation.

The CDC’s dashboard shows zero cruise ships with no COVID-19 or COVID-19-like cases. To repeat, there are absolutely no cruise ships designated as “green” by the CDC.

The threshold for investigating COVID-19 on cruise ships sailing with passengers is 0.3% or more of total passengers and/or crew.

As the popular Cruzely web site reports, well over half (nearly 60 ships) were green as recently as mid-March.

Not coincidentally we have heard from dozens of passengers and crew members who have reported that they have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks during their recent cruises, involving Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, MSC, Virgin Voyages and Princess Cruises.

Jewel of the Seas

At the beginning of last week, on the Jewel of the Seas, which is currently sailing on a 12 -day cruise through Norway from June 20 to July 2, 2022, thirty-six (36) of 1,438 guests tested positive. In addition, twenty-four (24) out of approximately 780 crew members tested positive.

A week earlier, forty-six (46) guests of the 1,750 passengers tested positive for COVID-19.

Previously, the ship’s officers expressed their concern that there was an increasing trend of positive COVID-19 cases on the ship, and reminded the crew that they were required to wear masks on the ship. The situation aboard the Jewel of the Seas illustrates a common situation on many cruse ships with the  crew ordered to continue to wear masks while the company does not require masks for guests.

At the end of last month, a number of senior officers on the Jewel of the Seas tested positive for COVID-19, including the master as well as the the ship’s staff captain and chief safety officer.

As with other other posts regarding this particular cruise ship, a Royal Caribbean crew member who wishes to remain anonymous provided this information to the firm.

Island Princess

From an infected guest on the Island Princess:  “On June 13, 2022 between 200 and 250 passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 were disembarked from the Island Princess in Southampton. We were required to be quarantined for five (5) days in a hotel at Heathrow Airport. We were provided a meal allowance and no further help. This was on back-to-back cruises, including an 18-day Ft. Lauderdale to Southampton cruise (departing May 27, 2022) and a16-day Southampton to Norway round trip cruise (departing June 13, 2022).”

MSC Seashore

A guest from the MSC Seashore who sailed on the June 18 to 25, 2022 cruise, and tested positive for COVID-19, indicated that “half of the cabins” on deck 10 had guests with COVID-19 (left).

Celebrity Beyond

According to a crew member who wishes to remain anonymous: “Celebrity Beyond crew have a high number of Covid cases onboard right now. Over 3% of the 1200 crew. People being told to work extra shifts and extra work to pick up for the crew that are in isolation. The cases are rising everyday still.

The company closed all crew spaces so there is no where for the crew to go. Free shore leave has been taken away, now letting only 150 crew at one time off as long as numbers don’t continue to rise if they do all shore leave will be stopped.

Guests from the previous cruises also had a high number of cases . . .

The company set a 15 minute period of time to eat meals photo right).

Celebrity do not disclose the case numbers to guests or crew at any time. We’ve all had to find out by word of mouth.”

Valiant Lady

At least 120 guests were reportedly infected on Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady, according to a passenger who organized a group to travel on the cruise ship earlier this month and tested positive right after the cruise.

All Cruise Lines Are Affected As COVID-19 Surges Across the Cruise Industry

We have received over a dozen messages from passengers and some crew members regarding COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ship, including s. Unfortunately, there is no central database and neither the cruise lines nor the CDC disclose this basic information.

The cruise lines are all trying to eliminate restrictions in order to increase the occupancy of their ships and create income while the reality is that COVID-19 is surging on their ships.

The CDC Should Disclose The Number of Guest and Crew Members Infected with COVID-19

As we pointed our earlier this month, cruise passengers deciding whether it’s safe or prudent to take a cruise with their family on a particular cruise ship which just had an outbreak, should be able to go to an official source for accurate information. They should not have to scour the internet or search through cruise chat rooms trying to find out basic public health information already reported by a cruise line to a federal health agency but not disclosed to the public.

The U.S. public pays for the services of the CDC and deserves transparency. The last thing the public needs is for the CDC to act like a non-transparent cruise line (which pays no U.S. income taxes because of its foreign incorporation and registration of its ships outside of the U.S.) and keep such public health hazards secret.

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The MSC Meraviglia arrived in Port Canaveral early this morning with what  one ship officer characterized as a massive number of people infected with COVID-19. According to this officer who wishes to remain anonymous and stay employed by MSC, as of last night were one hundred and sixty-nine (169) crew members and at least sixty guests (60) who tested positive as this cruise ship which ended its its seven day cruise to ports in Mexico.

At least one ambulance was waiting at the dock when the MSC cruise ship returned to port this morning.

The MSC Meraviglia is one of numerous cruise ships with a large number of crew members and guests positive with COVID-19. We reported yesterday that Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, which is returning to PortMiami today, has 163 crew members positive with COVID-19. The Explorer of the Seas, which arrives in San Juan today, had 110 infected ship employees, many of whom were transferred off the ship yesterday to the Vision of the Seas which Royal Caribbean is using as a floating quarantine hotel / hospital. The Harmony of the Seas recently transferred a similar number of infected crew members to the Vision of the Seas as well. The Vision of the Seas also returned to port in South Florida (Port Everglades) this morning.

Read: COVID-19 Cases Explode on Cruise Ships: 163 Positive Crew Members on Jewel of the Seas as the Cruise Industry Sputters . . . . to . . . a . . Stop?

Ten days ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned the U.S. public against taking a cruise (irrespective of their vaccination status) given the risk of the Omicron variant.

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Image Credit: Top – ambulance and paramedics at Port Canaveral – anonymous MSC officeer; MSC Meraviglia – Estormiz – CC0, wikipedia / commons.

The Mexican Secretary of Health for the Eighth Health Region blocked the HAL Koningsdam from disembarking any of its 1,137 guests or 873 crew members into the port of Puerto Vallarta yesterday due to a COVID-19 outbreak involving at least nineteen of  its crew members.

The HAL cruise ship arrived at Puerto Vallarta yesterday but reportedly left port after two hours after no one was permitted off the ship. There were initially a swirl of rumors in the Mexican port suggesting this was due to a COVID-19 outbreak involving either passengers and / or crew members on the ship. Later, it slowly leaked out that there were, in fact, a number of crew members infected with the virus.

https://twitter.com/phfbookspub/status/1474083535463976982

A media source in Mexico, Rodrigo López Becerril, reported on his Facebook page today that:

“To avoid the risk of infection to the population and the passengers itself, the Secretary of HEALTH JALISCO through the Eighth Health Region, prevented passengers and crew of the KONINGSDAM cruise from landing in Puerto Vallarta, after that an active outbreak of COVID-19 was detected in the boat, possibly of the ÓMICRON variant reported Dr. Jaime ÁLVAREZ ZAYAS, Director of the state dependency.

It is reported that at one start there were THREE crew members who were positive for COVID, and the next day SIX, and the next NENEENEEN, that is called an active outbreak.

In this sense, Dr. Jaime Alvarez Zayas reported that the outbreak that was made on the boat was possibly from the Omicron variant.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has  already indicated from a prior cruise that reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation.

This HAL ship is one of many cruise ships which have experienced recent significant COVID-19 outbreaks, including the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas (48 infected) and Odyssey of the Seas (55 infected), and Jewel of the Seas (14 infected), NCL’s Norwegian Breakaway (20 infected), Carnival’s Carnival Freedom (Carnival refuses to disclose number of infected), Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 (10 infected). and MSC’s MSC Seashore (28 Infected). We are also investigating reports that there are 30 infected on Princess” Ruby Princess. There are over seventy U.S. based cruise ships which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently is investigating or monitoring for COVID-19 as reflected on the CDC’s COVID-19 color report.

The public should expect these types of outbreaks to steadily increase as the Omicron variant continues to spread.

Have a comment or question?  Please leave one below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

December 24 2021 Afternoon Update: “Koningsdam are stuck on cruise ship as Mexico refuses to allow them to disembark after 21 crew test positive for COVID-19:”

  • A total of 1,035 passengers aboard a Holland America Line cruise ship were not allowed to disembark in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Thursday
  • Mexican authorities turned the MS Koningsdam away from the resort city of Puerto Vallarta after 21 crew members tested positive for COVID-19
  • The ship sailed from San Diego on Sunday, making stops in Cabo San Luca on Tuesday and Mazatlán on Wednesday
  • Paulette Laussane York shared a photo of Puerto Vallarta’s beach shore on Thursday and said that the cruise ship was returning to the sea
  • The ship, according to an itinerary shared by passenger Beverly Carver-Percival, suggests they were expected to return to San Diego on Sunday.

December 25, 2021 Update: HAL refuses to acknowledge the number of crew infected (at least 21 at this point) but is admitting only what is characterizing as a “small number” of infected crew members,  This is the style of Carnval Corporation-owned cruise lines, like HAL, which characterize all COVID-19 outbreaks as limited to a “small number” whatever that actual number may be.

Image credits: HAL’s Koningsdam: top – kees torn – CC BY-SA 2.0, commons / wikimedia.

There has been a recent explosion of COVID-19 cases on cruise ships, led by the major U.S. based cruise lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). None of these companies are being transparent with members of the public who are largely reliant on whisle-blower crew members and concerned cruise guests to tell them the truth about the virus.

NCL’s Norwegian Breakaway

Two weeks ago, NCL’s Norwegian Breakaway experienced a COVID-19 breakout which initially affected  “nine crew members and eight passengers.” The public learned of the outbreak via tweets by the Louisiana Department of Health which, unlike the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealed precise information regarding exactly how many coronavirus cases there were on this cruise ship and the number of guests and crew infected before the ship even returned to port in New Orleans. This state health department even informed the public that one crew member was infected with the Omicron varient.

Meanwhile, several publications reported that guests on the NCL ship had no idea that a single passenger or crew members on the ship had tested positive including the Omicron varient. NCL falsely claimed that the outbreak intially involved only a “handful” of cases when the actual count is now at least twenty infected guests and crew members.

The information was obviously taken seriously enough by a large number of passengers who were scheduled to board the NCL cruise ship that they decided not to board the ship. One guest estimated that as any as four hundred guests decided at the last moment not to cruise, whereas a crew member estimated that one hundred and fifty guests changed their minds. Whatever the actual number, the prompt, accurate and precise reporting by the Loiuisiana Department of Health illustrates the importance of transparency of health departments regarding matters of public health. The transparency of  the Louisiana health department is to be sharply contrasted with state health departments like that in Florida, which has been effectively muzzled by Republican DeSantis for selfish political purposes.

We subsequently reported that an additional three crew members (a recreational staff member, a stateroom attendant and a musician) on the Norwegian Breakaway tested positive for COVID-19 during the initial couple of days of the next cruise, based on information from a trustworthy NCL crew member.

Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas

The Jewel of the Seas, which has a history of guest and crew member COVID-19 infections since last July, again experienced a group of passengers testing positive for the virus. Unfortunately the CDC’s COVID-19 color code reporting system erroneously showed a “green” designation (no cases) whch we pointed out on Thusday in our article titled Additional COVID-19 Cases Aboard Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas. By Friday, the CDC had changed its designation for the cruise ship to “yellow”indicating that the “reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation.”

The utility of the CDC’s color code system is rather limited as it does not indicate whether there are two or twenty or two hundred positive cases (if it accurately indicated the presence of COVID-19 cases on the ship at all).

We have subsequently received additional information from a trustworth shipboard employee on this Royal Caribbean cruise ship indicating that:

“Another 4 PCR Covid positive guests detected today, making a total of 8 positive onboard. All these guests are moved to the “red zone” till tomorrow morning, when they will be disembarked in Miami. Contact-tracing guests are isolated in their staterooms till the end of the voyage as well.”

The crew member additionally commented:

“The Hotel Director, F&B director and restaurant operation manager are isolated for 10 days (contact tracing identified them in close contact with some top tier guests, who are Covid positive).

We are short of staff onboard in certain departments, mainly in front of the house, it was a challenge this week to handle 1600 guests and tomorrow we are expecting more then 2000 guests here.

The ship is definitely overcrowded, as one of the main things to prevent outbreaks is the social distancing and we have way too many people spending their time in lounges, especially restaurants and queing waiting to be seated to My-Time dining area (main dining room area with flexible timing for dinner).
It’s certainly not a good idea to cruise nowadays on the ship which is almost fully booked.

Also, we stay today together with Symphony of the Seas in Coco Cay. As per our colleagues from Symphony, there are around 30 positive Covid guests onboard!”

Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas

Yesterday, a passenger on the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas stated via Twitter that there are as many as 36 COVID-19 cases amongst the guests, based on information received from a crew member. This guest’s family member was infected and he was complaining that she was largely unattended by the medical staff while attepting to find infomation about the testing procedure for him and his family.

https://twitter.com/connorwitha_no/status/1471846033491730438

https://twitter.com/connorwitha_no/status/1471948208666513422

https://twitter.com/connorwitha_no/status/1471846029100294147

Another Twitter user tweeted this morning as new passengers were preparing to board that there were over 50 COVID-19 cases on the Royal Caribean cruise ship:

https://twitter.com/SnarkyGrandpa/status/1472197359492907009

Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Panorama

Meanwhile, guests aboard the Carnival Panorama stated yesterday, via Twitter, that Mexico will not permit passengers from the cruise ship to disembark the cruise ship in Cabo because there reportedly are COVID-19 cases involving guests onboard. As usual, Carnival Cruise Line refuses to disclose the number of positive virus cases, whether crew members are also infected, and whether there are any Omicron variant cases involved.

https://twitter.com/Aintropy/status/1471663434257375232?fbclid=IwAR22Vyol3EHZHIEnTauudS_M28sETtE8kotg8RpD31sLLE0DqyBNbkBCwfo

https://twitter.com/Adventureman661/status/1471556887028158472?fbclid=IwAR1ftI-lgXhWWtCJ6ZRenkYtHyyCdiW-lOvwoEKcfBbdUR_7UNFUPqzIOAQ

There are forty cruise ships leaving from U.S. ports with COVID-19 aboard, including nineteen cruise ships operated and owned by Royal Caribbean.

https://twitter.com/Keubiko/status/1471930398007566339

With the Omicron varient spreading throughout the U.S., there is every certainty that this highly contagious COVID-19 varient will cause havoc on cruise ships leaving ports in Florida and other U.S. states. Omicron found its way onto NCL and Royal Caribbean cruise ships over two weeks ago. It is probably on Carnival Cruise Line ships as well, although Carnival is the last cruise line which would voluntarily release such information.

A shout out to the brave crew members and the conscientous guests who have provided the above information. Thanks to them we now know what is actually happening at sea on these largely lawless cruise ships.

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December 18, 2021 Evening Update: According to one of the guests, Royal Caribbean has sent some of the infected guests to a Holiday Inn in Miami.

https://twitter.com/connorwitha_no/status/1472243998504988687

December 19, 2021 Update: The Sun Sentinel newspaper reports that there were at easr forty-four positive COVID-19 cases on the Symphony of the Seas, which departed yesterday on another cruise from Miami.  Stay tuned for additional news.

Image credit: Symphony of the Seas – top – Darthvadrouw – CC BY-SA 4.0; Norwgian Breakaway – Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/ Axios.

Today, a popular video blogger, Gary Bembridge, mentioned cases of COVID-19 which are apparently on the Seabourn Ovation cruise ship which he is sailing on. The exact number of positive COVID cases are currently unknown. It is quite common for most cruise ships sailing today to experience breakthrough infections from a few to a dozen caases per cruise.

The Seabourn Ovation is currently sailing to a port in Cyprus. The cruise ship is currently on a two week cruise around the Greek Isles after leaving Piraeus, Greece on September 25, 2021.

Seabourn requires its guests to be vaccinated. Guests are required to have a negative PCR test at least three days before the cruise and a negative antigen test at the cruise terminal right before the cruise.

The company encourages Seabourn-organized shore excursions but permits its guests to go on independent shore excusions. It appears that guests left the cruise ship on excursions which were not under the control or protocols of Seabourn.  A copy of the company’s COVID protocols are here and here.

Seabourne is not the only cruise line sailing in the Agean Sea which is experiencing guests with breakthrough COVID infections. This weekend, we reported that in the last two weeks alone, Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas has at least thirty-three guests who have had breakthrough COVID infections. There were also positive COVID cases of six guests and two guests on prior cruises earlier this summer.

We reached out to Carnival, which owns this cruise ship, but have not received a response.

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Image credits: Kahvilokki – CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia.