Posted on 03/03/2021 3:38:25 PM PST by Capt. Tom
Royal Caribbean seems to be ramping up its efforts to start sailing, and it looks like the cruise line wants to do this sooner rather than later.
With an extended season in Singapore, due to the incredible success of Quantum of the Seas in the city-state and Royal Caribbean announcing this week it will homeport its newest vessel, Odyssey of the Seas in Israel, it looked like that would be it from the cruise giant. Not so.
Cozumel’s mayor revealed some interesting news this week; in an article on Riviera Maya News, the major said Royal Caribbean is in negotiations with Royal Caribbean Cruises to make Cozumel a homeport in just a few months.
What Did the Cozumel Mayor Say? Royal Caribbean has been finding some exciting solutions for sailing during the pandemic. The cruise line looking for a different homeport is therefore very much in the realm of possibilities. And with Cozumel soon opening its fourth dock, which can feature as a homeport, the facilities are in place.
According to Cozumel Mayor Pedro Joaquin Delbouis, Royal Caribbean had asked the port to act as a homeport. The major even went as far as stating that Royal Caribbean could move its base of operations to Cozumel since the United States government will not allow them to operate:
“A company has established a Plan B, that if in April there is no decision to sail, Cozumel would be its home port starting May,” he said. “We were consulted, and we immediately said yes.”
Cruise Hive reached out to Royal Caribbean regarding the comments made by the Cozumel mayor and we received the following response:
“While we suspended most of our global operations through April, our company is preparing for a healthy return to sailing. Protecting the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit remains a top priority. As we continue to navigate this pandemic, we’ve made continued progress on many fronts. We’re engaging with various stakeholders, particularly governments and partners in the travel industry worldwide, to evaluate the feasibility of returning to cruising from several destinations once it is safe to do so. No final decisions have been made regarding these efforts.”
Cozumel Looking To Reactivate Island tourism
As Cruise Hive reported in early February, Cozumel is incredibly eager to reactivate island tourism. The island’s government has been very proactive in contacting various cruise lines and offering them a homeport spot.
While most cruise lines would ordinarily speaking be happy with homeporting in the southern United States, the pandemic has changed that. As times roll by, it speaks for itself that cruise lines would start looking at other options. According to a statement from the island’s mayor last month, there have been talks between the island and MSC cruises:
“We are in talks with MSC, which managed an itinerary through the Caribbean without touching North American soil.”
Although MSC Cruises has been extremely successful with making cruises from Italy since August last year, and it would not be surprising to see MSC take on a new challenge, the fact remains that the European cruise line has already made plans for another vessel to resume sailings in May in Europe. So the focus could be elsewhere already.
Is It All Down To The CDC?
Whether or not Royal Caribbean will be homeporting in Cozumel does seem to be a decision influenced by the Conditional Sailing Order from the CDC, and when the CDC will finally come up with the details requested by the cruise line.
If Royal Caribbean feels it will be able to sail safely from Cozumel, as it has been doing from Singapore and the Canary Islands, and is planning to do from Israel, there seems to be little reason why the cruise line would not do so.
If they do homeport some of their fleet in Cozumel, Mex. I would expect MSC Lines to also get a homeport there.
Royal has been strung along for a year with our indifferent CDC rules and regs. (and so have we)
I wonder if some of the creditors who loaned ROYAL Billions of dollars might have had some input into this ploy. -Tom
I wonder if working on a cruise ship these days would be a good job or a bad job?
I hope not. That’s the only place in Mexico I visit. I have several friends and will spend weeks at a time. Everyone hides when a ship comes in then it’s all back to normal when they leave.
Vercruz is also making noise as a homeport. It has a bigger port.
I fear that cruising is over forever. Air travel and cruising always have been targets for the left’s climate crap. Now that the Green New Deal seems to be a thing, the future of travel seems to be grim.
According to the crew I have talked to it is a good job. Look up Chris Tang on youtube. He is a British guy that works on a ship and explains it pretty well
I will. Best to you!
Correction it is Cris Won’t, not Tang
Ripley Tench is an A meican who post up some video logs about working on a cruise ship.
I am sure other places outside USA will offer homeports to different cruise lines.
The Cruise lines like ROYAL-CARNIVAL-NORWEGIAN, make about 40% of their revenue from cruises originating from American ports.
But they are all billions in debt now, and must have an income stream.
Our CDC only toys with them as the Lines are forced to borrow more money to stay afloat, as the delays continue.-Tom
Exactly, all the prices go up when the cruise ships arrive, and then fall back when they leave, among other annoyances.
I wonder how they expect the passengers to arrive? Cozumel airport really isn’t that large. A better option would be to bring them down to Playa by bus from Cancun.
Direct (non-stop) flights to Cozumel (CZM ...
https://www.flightconnections.com/flights-to-cozumel-czm
United States is well-connected to Cozumel (CZM) with 10 airports around the country that have direct flights to the airport.
Most cruise lines pay little in American taxes; they hire mostly foreign crews; they build their ships abroad. So how do they bring in foreign investment? So how do they MAGA?
They would pay docking fees, they need supplies, food fuel for the ships,etc,
They would help out nearby American hotels American travel agents, and American workers who work ashore for the lines, and local American shuttle services, dockworkers and our airlines.
Undoubtable more, but that is my quick take.-Tom
The CDC is out to destroy America’s economy...
With RC goes American jobs, money from the passengers for airlines, hotels, restaurants, gas stations etc
Cozumel ???
I totally dislike Cozumel...
I prefer the Eastern part of the Caribbean...
Ships for our Navy are built right here in the US...including aircraft carriers ,,,,why cant we build cruise ships too ???
I managed a fairly big IT team for Royal/celeb.
I got to go on “work cruises” a couple of times per year while I had my teams doing installs or upgrades.
The quality of life on a ship depends on a lot of factors. There is a definite caste system, based on job function - which also happens to coincide with nationality.
Regardless of your job, your sleeping quarters suck. But, the crew bar is super cheap.
If you are young and want to party - work as a show/dancer, shore excursion or casino staff member. I would add the kid club staff to that. They are a little off, but fun good people.
But it is an extension of college life in a lot of ways. Groundhog Day: work hard, party hard. The money stinks.
Cruising is big business and tens of thousands of US jobs are at stake. Support staff hundreds of small US businesses depend on them.
Actually about 180,000 direct jobs. Not including preriferal jobs like restaurants, shops and hotel jobs. It's significant. And they build their ships overseas because cruise ships aren't built in the US. Probably cost issues there, along with the fact that experienced shipyards are all overseas. Not to suggest a US shipyard couldn't build one, they build military and cargo vessels for the domestic market, but the talent isn't here. And century old laws prevent the market from developing.
Would make sense. I’ve been on cruises which dock at commercial ports. You don’t have the commercial sites onsite, but that’s not an issue with shuttles to the center of towns. It would be necessary to build large embarkation/disembarkation buildings, but that’s doable. And local commercial facilities would follow. Direct flights would be a problem many places, but I suspect one that would quickly be remedied with 2,000 to 5,000 potential airline customers per ship.
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