Posted on 11/17/2020 8:25:10 AM PST by Capt. Tom
SeaDream released a press statement today to cancel the remaining voyages for SeaDream 1 in the Caribbean.
After 20 successful voyages during the pandemic and a wide range of measures implemented on board, it only took nine positive cases for the cruise line to have to cease operations.
While this is terrible news for SeaDream and the plans they had made for the winter season in the Caribbean, it could spell even worse news for the Cruise Industry as a whole.
Evaluate And Look For Possibilities While it was certainly expected that SeaDream would cancel some voyages after the media storm that erupted last week, six weeks of interruptions were not expected.
The line had made serious preparations for starting their Caribbean voyages and will now be looking at how to proceed. The company said in their statement:
“Seadream has decided to cancel sailings for the remainder of 2020 after positive Covid-19 test results. Multiple negative PCR tests were required before the guests boarded, but this was not sufficient to prevent Covid-19 onboard.”
“Seadream successfully operated more than 20 sailings during the pandemic without any cases, and further improvements were made to protocols before the Barbados season.”
The twenty voyages were made on the Norwegian Coast this summer, with Norwegian guests, without any COVID-19 infections on board. The strict measures the company had put in place for the Barbados season included multiple COVID-19 PCR-RT and Rapid tests to rule out any infection onboard. These measures went further than the measures implemented in Norway.
All guests have now been flown home after being tested and cleared by the Barbadian government. In a twist of fate, the cruise industry’s treatment was demonstrated when guests boarded their airplane. Sue Bryant, a reporter for The Times in the U.K. who was onboard Seadream 1 and the British Airways flight, had this to say:
“We had to take buses to a remote stand, and there was no social distancing on the buses or the queues to get on them. I saw two people with masks hanging off their ears and one woman sipping a rum punch out of a plastic cup on our bus, no mask.”
Others reported on Twitter: “And people think a cruise is bad, which is ridiculous considering how much effort goes in! No social distancing, condensed lines, people are knocking into us, masks around chins, crammed into airport trams like sardines! People not wearing masks on the flight!”
No matter what, it’s back to the drawing board for the small, two-vessel company. Initially, the plans were for Seadream 2 to join Seadream 1 if voyages proved successful. This will undoubtedly be put on the back burner for the time being.
What Does This Mean For The Cruise Industry? Seadream 1 in itself is not the standard for the cruise industry. It has more in common with a larger private yacht than a 3000 passenger cruise ship. The scary part is the overreaction from Mainstream Media and Government officials this week.
Multiple media outlets jumped at the opportunity to report on the 53 passengers in imminent danger onboard a cruise ship. This while U.S. government officials immediately called for reinstating the No Sail Order.
It does bring about the question, what awaits the main part of the cruise industry once they start sailing again? Unless a vaccine is readily available when ships start sailing, what can we expect to happen? Precautions will be taken, cruise lines will take measures, it will be as safe as can be expected, yet we will surely see infections.
Will ships be brought to a six-week standstill each time it does occur? If so, it could mean more bad news for the cruise industry. And could spell some serious considerations to be made by the major cruise lines. Sending 3,000 guests home each time there is an infection seems unlikely, yet has been brought a step closer with the shutdown of SeaDream 1.
This incident on the "Seadream" will help the anti cruisers to further kill cruises well into next year.
Depending on what happens on who is our President in January 2021,the fate of the cruise lines will be decided, as will ours. -Tom
A lot of “industries” will be reduced to a shadow of their former selves by next spring. This will affect everyone, and quite severely.
Want to fix this whole business? Vaccinate everyone, tattoo the injection site and mandate that the tattoo be visible any time you are in public. Nobody gets on the ship, or eats, or drinks, or does any business without this mark.
What, you say you've heard this story before? I really thought my idea was totally original...
Just demonstrates how futile these CV19 protocols are. CV19 spreads regardless of what we do. Might as well face it and ‘let her rip’.
A lot of “industries” will be reduced to a shadow of their former selves by next spring. This will affect everyone, and quite severely.
A lot of truth in that statement.
The big 3 cruise lines CARNIVAL,ROYAL and NCL, have been on the economic ropes for about 9 months now and will still be there longer into 2021.
AS Capt. Obvious would say, "downsizing the fleet numbers seems to be their future."- Tom
CDC is NOTHING but JEALOUS DEMOCRATS who want NOONE to have FUN!
"CDC is NOTHING but JEALOUS DEMOCRATS who want NO ONE to have FUN!"
At least some of the DEMOCRATS are looking to save you from COVID. /S -Tom ...........................................................
"Nevertheless, Congresswoman Matsui and Senator Blumenthal believe that sailing cannot be done safely and asked for a full stop to any efforts to start cruising from the U.S due to the ‘disturbing reports’"
Just who is looking at ‘THE TESTS’ ? Obviously the tests up in Norway were different than the Barbados ones ?
So what happens to those huge beautiful ships if they downsize?
So what happens to those huge beautiful ships if they downsize?
I mentioned downsizing the "number" of ships in the fleet.
Some of the Cruise Lines are getting new ships delivered and don't have an itinerary or passengers for them. So no income forthcoming, just more expenses.
This is a major problem for new Lines trying to start up.
The established Cruise lines can at least sell or scrap some of their older ships for income, as they have been doing.
IMHO The question is how long will their creditors let them keep this up?
Some creditors have already put some Cruise Lines out of business.
I guess those creditors didn't want to risk their money on a "Wait till next year philosophy."-Tom
the Democrats are already demanding that the CDC ban cruising again Senator Blumenthal etc ...
If Emperor Joe manages to cheat his way into the WH he’ll wreck every industry...
I NEED A CRUISE !!!
Yeah cruising bad for you...King Neptune has Wu Hu Flu cooties out there ready to jump on board the ship and get you...
riotin looting burnin good...special dispensation from the unicorn gods...the Wu Hu Flu cooties lurking on the city streets flee in terror...
I just cringe at the thought of those beautiful ships getting scrapped. I have become convinced that if the rats truly get the power they will sit on the COVID vaccine for God knows how long. They have become intoxicated with the control over the people this thing has given them. The cruise ships represent something many of those crazy bastards resent.
I have become convinced that if the rats truly get the power they will sit on the COVID vaccine for God knows how long.
Below, this news just came out on Cruise Industry News since we began this discussion
It might give us a time frame of 5 more months of frustrating the cruise lines to cause bankruptcies and reorganizations.
I am sure tomorrow the financial analysists will have something to say about NCLs move. -Tom
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Norwegian Cruise Line to Issue 40 Million More Shares November 17, 2020
With its stock closing at $22.06 on Tuesday, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced it would issue another 40 million shares of common stock to raise capital.
The 40 million shares, if issued at a price of around $20 per share, would equate to $800,000,000 in cash, giving the company roughly five additional months of operating capital in its current cash burn environment.
Looks like NCL has five months to live if they don’t get some lines running The amount of damage a virus with a mortality rate of less than 2% and dropping has caused is just staggering.
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