Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas has finally been allowed to dock in Jamaica after issues between the government and the cruise line.
Adventure of the Seas Able to Repatriate Crew Members in Jamaica
The Adventure of the Seas cruise ship has finally been allowed to dock at the Falmouth cruise port in Jamaica. This comes after the government and Royal Caribbean could not come to an agreement to allow crew members to disembark for repatriation.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica has released a statement on the matter and they have had formal exchanges with the cruise line since April 21 to get crew members back home including a 14-day quarantine. The final correspondence was on May 15 and up to that point, no date was agreed for repatriation.
Adventure of the Seas had taken on crew members from other vessels in the fleet however the ship had a long wait before being allowed to dock in Jamaica. Also, even though the ship has docked, over 1,000 crew members are not being allowed to disembark until Thursday.
The prime minister also stated “The Government of Jamaica has noted postings on social media and press statements from the Opposition regarding the cruise ship coming to Jamaica by a particular date. If it is true that the ship intends to sail into Jamaican waters without formal approval or even courtesy of notice, while discussions are still ongoing, then this would represent a serious departure from good maritime practices, and a serious breach of good faith and the cooperative nature of the dialogue we have been having on this matter. Indeed this would not be in the spirit of the good relations Jamaica has had with RCCL over the years.”
The statement has gone on to mention “We note a previous instance on May 1, 2020, where a purported employee of RCCL was reported in the media claiming that the Government of Jamaica had requested the cruise ship to pay a certain amount for the quarantining of Jamaican ship workers to be repatriated. No such request was ever made and it was subsequently denied by RCCL.”
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The government has hinted that it has been tricky to make sure the resources are in place to deal with the large number of crew members that will need to under quarantine and to disembark them in a safe way with no risk to others.
After a lack of clear dates and agreements, Royal Caribbean and Jamaica are now working successfully on getting the crew back on land now the cruise ship has docked.
The plan is to disembark around 200 crew members every 48 to 72 hours. The will be a safe zone around the cruise port to conduct testing and while awaiting for the results a local hotel will be used.
There is a huge repatriation effort underway by Royal Caribbean with several vessels sailing to different parts of the world to repatriate crew. We’ve seen cruise ships anchored in Manila Bay already to get the crew back home there. The cruise line has suspended cruise operations through June 11, 2020 with the first sailings set to begin from June 12.
