Cruise ships

[Bugatti]

Texas .. i thinl our government have gone above and beyond to assist these cruise ships as indicated by this article :

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-04- ... fmredir=sm

Can't think many of other countries would have allowed the cruise ships to dock in the first instance let alone putting in the effort to assist in the logistics of sorting out the crews so they can actually can get home to family and friends.

Whatever your political persuasion, the government's at all level have done a dammed good job in uncharted territory - of course there are things that could have been done better but overall we are lucky to be here than many other places overseas.

What's your opinion ????
Cheers Gra

Totally agree

A little perspective, The Ruby Princess gets all the publicity BUT isn't the only Cruise Ship embroiled in this:

Unbeknown to me at the time, friends had gone on a cruise on "The Ovation of the Seas" (I just thought it was a holiday in Sydney). They were similarly allowed to disembark in Sydney, on Wednesday 18th March without checks. My Son and I came in contact with their Son on Friday. On Saturday the family (and all passengers) were contacted by the Cruise Company that a positive COVID-19 case was reported and they had to self-isolate for 14 days and look out for symptoms.

I only found this out, in a passing conversation with my Son on Monday. I rang the Dad, got the low down. I rang the COVID-19 Help-Line and the "guidelines" were that only people with direct contact with a positive case were required to self-isolate, no guidelines for us, who were secondary contacts. Rang my Doctor, who said it would be prudent to self-isolate, rather than wait for the possibility that their Son was positive to COVID-19 to then self-isolate AND then to have to trace all the contacts we had in that time.

12 of us (whom we came in contact with from Friday to Monday) self-isolated till yesterday, which was when our friends were given the all clear, hence we were too.

There were/are 4 high risk and another 2 very high risk people in our group of 12. So even little Ol' Adelaide was affected.

There were/are 80 positive cases so far from The Ovation of the Seas (not including any that they have passed it on to).


The Biosecurity Act of 2015 (in the wake of SARS) was formed to protect Australia, including the health of its Citizens. Most Countries have something similar. New Zealand has, that's why The Ovation of the Seas was not allowed to dock in New Zealand, because their Ports, by then, were closed.


As VooDoo said, all that could be done for the Ships was done and it is all uncharted territory , , , , unknown far reaching possibilities. Our Gov is doing a great job given the mammoth situation.

Cheers, Bugatti , , , , crapped his pants for 14 days

[re-tyred]

This is all complicated by the international SOLAS (safety of lives at sea) agreement. It states that if there is an emergency involving a vessel then all ship in the area must assist and the vessel is allowed, if able, to proceed to any port or safe place until the emergency has been resolved.
The captain, or another onboard if he/she is disabled, is the sole person who can declare an emergency. Once the emergency is underway the local RCC (rescue coordination centre) takes charge. RCC in Australia is water police for state waters and AMSA Canberra for the rest of the areas.
So in effect until there is no longer an emergency the ship can go where ever the the captain wants. It cannot be forced to leave until the RCC has responded in a manner that means there is no longer a danger to those onboard. This is the crux of the matter. When have those in danger been taken out of danger. In the case of a ship that has no passengers and a medical problem you could speculate that once sufficient medical supplies and personal are onboard then all necessary steps have been taken and it is no longer an emergency.
If things were really out of control and we had no isolation beds left then these ships would likely be commandeered to provide isolation beds. The real issue as to why they want them to leave is so that those onboard aren't added to our statistics. If they were sitting at the wharf isolated with medical supplies provided they would not represent any danger to the public.

[4liters]

Ships in general seem to be terrible places to have a virus outbreak. It’s currently running wild through a US aircraft carrier, and over the weekend they accidentally sent a bunch of corona patients to a hospital ship in NY so it’ll probably be rife in there too in a week.

[SteveoTheTiger]

One thing is for sure I will never go on a cruise ship in my lifetime incubators of diseases be it cronid19, gastro or some E. coli thing

I do agree with what you say, however i have been on a few cruises and am currently booked for another early next year if it goes ahead and i have never been sick or been on one where there has been any sort of outbreak. I have always felt like the cruise companies go to well above most hotels and especially work places in cleaning and sanitisation. Its like an air line crash, when one happens it makes the news everywhere but the hundreds or thousands that go without any problems are not reported.

I also agree with what you say about the working conditions for a lot of the crew. They do get paid poorly compared to what they could make here and they certainly work very long hours, but its no worse than what a hospitality worker would get in the US. And lot more than they can make in their home country. As i have said before, i am a chef and i know a few people who have worked on the cruise ships and they loved it, signing on for multiple contracts.

One guy i work with used to work for Carnival. He was with them for almost a decade, completing hundreds of cruises in that time. We were talking about this a few weeks back when the cruise ship was stuck in Japan and he said in his whole time he never witnessed an outbreak on a ship.

[purple5ive]

I would love to go on a cruise ship some day, ill wait till all this corona catastrophe is over first i recon..

[SteveoTheTiger]

I would love to go on a cruise ship some day, ill wait till all this corona catastrophe is over first i recon..

Im booked for mid January but we have the option to cancel without losing our deposit.

[Troy McLure]

I’m with Nude up, wouldn’t go near a cruise ship even if tickets were free.

[Bugatti]

This is all complicated by the international SOLAS (safety of lives at sea) agreement. It states that if there is an emergency involving a vessel then all ship in the area must assist and the vessel is allowed, if able, to proceed to any port or safe place until the emergency has been resolved.

And to add more complications to it.

The PM also mentioned unilateral courtesy & obligation with other Governments (Countries) on how they all treat each other's Citizens. As in, how Australia treats other Country's Citizens in Australia, is how we would expect Australians abroad to be equally treated.

This goes further reaching than just Cruise Ships, it also encumbaces foreign nationals over here (working & holiday visas, backpackers etc)

A very complicated issue, that's for sure

Regards, Bugatti

[ango]

I went on a cruise late last year, to be honest, the whole thing was a bit boring so I had no intention of going again, and current events further reinforce this. If you want to go there will be some bargains once this has blown over.
Cheers
Ango.

[purple5ive]

I went on a cruise late last year, to be honest, the whole thing was a bit boring so I had no intention of going again, and current events further reinforce this. If you want to go there will be some bargains once this has blown over.
Cheers
Ango.

any particular reason you didn't enjoy it mate?