Royal Caribbean Cruises sheds 26% of U.S. workers as coronavirus cancellations continue

Miami Herald ^ | APRIL 15, 2020 | JANE WOOLDRIDGE AND TAYLOR DOLVEN

[SJackson]

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is reducing its U.S. workforce by 26%, with more than half of those workers in South Florida, the cruise line confirmed.

“Earlier today, we told our employees the difficult news that we were laying off or furloughing approximately 26 percent of our more than 5,000 coworkers in the US,” the company said in a written statement. “We earlier announced the early conclusion of many crew contracts. The circumstances of the pandemic made this action unavoidable, and it hurts to part ways with so many good and talented people.”

Most of the reductions are permanent layoffs, though some are 90-day furloughs with paid benefits.

[SJackson]

Yes, I know, these companies are not based in the US, nor save one are their ships registered here. Largely due to a regulatory system over a century old. With around 250,000 US employees, the industry isn't a powerhouse, still it's a lot of new folk on unemployment.

[Trump.Deplorable]

Cruise industry will be in the toilet for the next 4 years

[TexasFreeper2009]

I will never step foot on a cruise ship again in this lifetime after witnessing what can happen if you do during all this. And I LOVED cruises before this.

[kenmcg]

Good, maybe now they’ll take a hint and sanitize their filthy ships.

[puppypusher]

The Cruise liner businesses are going to be shut down for awhile because of the number of virus induced illnesses that have occurred on these ships.

It’s going to take months to clean these ships to the point their viral load is reminisced enough to prevent future ship borne illnesses.

After all that has happened,I don’t think they are going to have many clients for the next 8 months or more.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I did two Royal Caribbean cruises in the last 15 months, both aboard Oasis class ships.

They are engineering marvels and every crew member I met was incredible to their guests. I even chatted up with the captain of the Allure twice at Starbucks early morning in a week.

As much as Ioved the experiences and was more in love with the ship than the destinations I can’t see doing this again anytime soon.

Now this makes no sense, like there is no better time to fly than after a crash because... statistics. I’m sure they will be bending over backwards to be bringing back business. I’m sure prices will be slashed, upgrades easy to be had and ships sailing with fewer passengers. I’m sure the cleaning efforts will be doubled.

Yet, I will never be able to get the experiences of the Princess cruises out of my mind or the prospect of being a “plague ship” nagging me.

[BobL]

“I will never step foot on a cruise ship again in this lifetime after witnessing what can happen if you do during all this. And I LOVED cruises before this.”

Tell me about it. Been on a few cruises, always great. And we were about to go again, on the Norwegian Jade, leaving Singapore on Feb 6. But things were getting a bit heated in Asia in January, so by the end of the month, we pulled out - no Asia trip and no cruise. That particular cruise did go off as planned, and promptly was a disaster - no one sick (that I know of), but all the stops in Vietnam had to be canceled. Had we decided to go to Asia a week earlier, we could have very easily been caught on that Japan boat.

So, game over for us, for at least 4 or 5 years, and then only with balconies, and only if the ships change their ventilation system to bring in fresh air from outside, and only from outside. And no long cruises!

So now, instead, we’re taking a close look at camper life.