I wondered about the status of the cruise ship industry. We're starting to imagine the post-pandemic society and in my imagination, cruise vacations are equivalent to the black plague. But that might not be the case for others.
The princess.com website says nothing about COVID-19 - it has lots of deals for Mother's Day and recommendations for vacations. If you click on the tiny strip at the top that says travel advisories, it said yesterday that it is extending the pause of global ship operations for the remaining 2020 summer season.
What's the status of cruise ships now? There's a Wikipedia entry for that. It says as of May 2nd, there were over 40 cruise ships with confirmed positive cases on board. One cruise ship remains at sea - the Artania, with 8 passengers scheduled to disembark at the end of May. There are 100,000 crew members on ships with many unable to be repatriated because cruise lines refuse to cover the cost.
Yesterday the Ruby Princess arrived in Manila Bay to let 5,000 Filipino crew members get tested before disembarking. There are 16 other cruise ships at anchor there. In all there are more than 17,000 Filippino workers on ships who have returned home - to quarantine. This is the ship that caused Australia's biggest cluster - a quarter of Australia's 97 deaths can be traced back to the Ruby Princess.
Cruise ships are still booking travel and people are still booking their vacations for next year. Supposedly that is because of generous cancelation policies. I haven't heard any CBC interviews on the cruise ship industry post-pandemic. CBC did look at air travel yesterday. It interviewed experts on what air travel will look like in the future. Expect long and complicated procedures in airports. Perhaps the Economist's pessimistic headline says it: Imagine the post-pandemic misery of business travel.
I was out photographing orchards yesterday and took this picture of this cute house in Grimsby. It is at the Lake where the Chautauqua community originated. The little lanes of colourfully painted houses are known as Grimsby Beach.
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