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My family is a huge fan of cruising. Just a few months ago, I sailed on my 10th cruise (a Very MerryTime cruise on the Disney Dream). My kids love the freedom that comes with a cruise vacation—unlimited soft serve ice cream, kids’ clubs and a plethora of yummy food choices. My husband and I love that we can relax and have some alone time while our kids have a blast. Everyone is happy!
However, the cruising industry has really taken a big hit with the coronavirus pandemic. First, the Diamond Princess had a coronavirus outbreak of over 700 people. The ship was quarantined for weeks while the cases increased. Other ships soon developed on-board cases, and Caribbean ports started denying cruise ships the right to port. Holland America’s Zaandam is still trying to port somewhere with sick people on board, and even cruise ships that are floating with no passengers on board have coronavirus spreading to crew members.
Some die-hard cruising fans are raring to get back on the open water ASAP. However, many experienced cruisers and new cruisers have soured on cruise vacations because of the recent events. Even my family, who loves cruising, is wary about going through with our next scheduled cruise.
Cruise lines won’t recover from this downtrend unless they make some changes to win back customers and assure people that cruise ships aren’t floating petri dishes. Here are some areas that must be addressed.
Eliminate Buffet Risks
As much as people wash their hands, food buffets still present a health risk. You can wash your hands upon entering the buffet, but then everybody touches the same serving utensils. It’s the perfect place for germs to spread.
Cruise ships could reduce the risk by having gloved crew members serve everyone instead of having a self-serve buffet. Or, cruise lines could turn buffets into more of a cafeteria-style set-up where people walk to stations with pre-portioned bowls/plates of food.
Improve Air Filters
Cruise ships should invest in HEPA or UV air filters to help stop the spread of viruses. Scientists from Purdue University studied the issue of air flow on cruise ships and discovered that current air filters are not adequate.
Increase Cleaning/Sanitizing of Public Areas
When the travel industry starts to crawl again, cruise lines need to invest more money in cleaning public areas. While crews clean these areas daily, cleaning them even more often and letting customers know about the increased cleaning frequency will help ease consumer fears.
Invest in Additional Touchless Technology
Cruise ships have many opportunities to replace current technology with new touchless technology. Elevators, soda machines, doors, and bathrooms could all be improved with automatic touchless technology to help reduce the spread of germs.
The Biggest Obstacle
The biggest obstacle cruise ships need to overcome to win guests back is something hard to control: the ability to port in different countries. Nobody wants to go on a cruise expecting to lounge on a tropical island but instead be stuck floating at sea for days/weeks because of sickness on board. Cruise ships will need to have a track record of healthy guests as well as quick and easy health screenings in order to ensure that islands will still let them come to their ports.
Bottom Line
Cruise lines have an uphill battle after the coronavirus pandemic. How quickly will travelers feel comfortable cruising again? Will the cruise lines invest money into making changes to control sickness on board? So many questions, so few answers right now.
Has your opinion on cruising changed in the last few months? What do you think cruise lines should focus on to earn business back?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I don’t think any business will be requiring all customers be vaccinated and they also wouldn’t be equipped to keep track of it anyway. As a cruise travel agent I think cruise lines should do away with self service buffet’s and only offer food that is safely handled by staff. This is a big reason Norovirus has been an issue for years on cruise ships. They should warn people that alcohol based sanitizers like “Purell” don’t kill all viruses. The main thing cruise ships will need to do going forward is use temperature scanning at embarkation. In addition they should lower the cost and impact of going to see the on board medical staff. The average cost to go to the ship medical center rivals what it cost to set foot into a land based hospital ER. It can be thousands of dollars where it should be more like $100. It shouldn’t be a cost center.
If the cruise lines are actually interested in the welfare of the passengers and crew, they should be requiring vaccinations for known diseases, as well as to have a more comprehensive action plan for new diseases. Despite the fact that they keep telling us that they are compliant with CDC recommendations, they are in fact only following parts of it.
Cruise ship company’s register in places like Panama and Liberia to avoid US taxes and labor laws. That’s one of the reasons they are ineligible for any of the relief in the current bill. So when their ship full of sick and infected passengers approaches Florida passengers do well to look up and remember they are not on a US ship. The US is under no obligation to help them. If you want some reassurance the next time you cruise, look for a company that behaves ethically towards the environment and it’s employees. You are more likely to get saved.
@Emily Yeah, it’s complicated for sure. If the cruise ships were to register in the US, their entire model would need to change.
Personally, I will not get on a cruise ship (Any cruise ship) until there is a vaccine for this virus. I was planning to book a cruise for next Thanksgiving, so if it’s available by then, we will go. I will wait to book it until that’s the case. Also, if there is a successful treatment that doesn’t require hospitalization, that would be a game changer. But I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
I think you are bringing up some good points. BTW, Holland America already handles their buffets in the manner you describe. Unfortunately, this virus is extremely contagious, and a cruise ship is a perfect environment for spreading it.
@Leana Interesting about the way Holland America already handles the buffets. DCL and RCCL do that too, but only when there are elevated cases of norovirus on board. Most of the time it’s self-serve.
One thing cruise lines should do is to manage known risks better. Here is one example: CDC is strongly recommending both crew AND passengers to receive annual influenza vaccine. As far as I can tell, most cruise lines are mandating the annual influenza vaccines to their crew, but there’s nothing done about the passengers…no suggestion, no recommendation, nothing. I guess they love anti-vax money too much. If the cruise lines want to show that they actually care about keeping their passengers AND crew as healthy as possible, they should put their money where their mouth is and at least strongly recommend (and ideally mandate) all recommended vaccinations with no loopholes except for legitimate medical ones. We can never be completely prepared for an unknown disease, but it is just embarrassing that the cruise lines are not exactly prepared for even one known disease.
And this current coronavirus outbreak might be a good motivator for both the cruise lines and the customer base to be much more aware of what we can do to keep us healthy.
Here’s the CDC recommendation on influenza vaccination on cruise ships:
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/management/guidance-cruise-ships-influenza-updated.html
@Naoyuki I agree. But, I wonder if cruise lines can get away with requiring passengers have vaccinations from a PR standpoint. In the past I would say it’s bad PR, but in the post-coronavirus world things are changing and it may be the new norm.
It depends on what we define as “bad PR.” Losing business from customers who refuse to vaccinate themselves and their children might look like a bad thing, but I personally think that is a wonderful outcome in respect to disease prevention. And I hope that everyone should feel less uncomfortable about talking about this topic.