Crew Repatriation During COVID-19 Crisis: Successes

Wow, I haven’t written anything for a while now. I guess several lockdowns don’t help finding the right motivation 😀

After the challenges, let me tell you the successes we accomplished when we organized our crew repatriation during the COVID-19 crisis. Because, despite all the challenges we face every day, we manage to repatriate our crew.

I joined my ship on the 13th of June and started to work on repatriation, after my mandatory quarantine (you stay 14 days in your cabin and don’t have any contact with anyone, just to make sure you have no symptom), beginning of July. At the end of my contract, I think I contributed to the repatriation of around 250 crew members. When I say “contributed”, it actually has different meanings. You can easily imagine that the crew repatriation involves a lot of people, not just me. Sometimes I organized the repatriation, sometimes I just coordinated or supported the plan. In all cases, it involves a lot of discussion with our crew and logistics’ skills.

“250 crew members… That doesn’t seem a lot”. No, indeed, you’re right, it’s not a lot. Because cruise ships can easily welcome 1000/1500 crew members on board (sometimes even more!).
However, when I started to work on repatriation, most sailors already found a way to go back home because my colleagues have done a fantastic job. In July, we still needed to find repatriation options for our crew members who lived in closed countries… The difficult ones I would say. In addition, we also have to organize the crew rotation with some “easier” countries. Flights were not available, routes and countries were closed. But I told you all of that in my previous post about the challenges.

And we managed to send them home, and I am very proud of it. I am also very happy I could be very close to my time and keep the highest morale on board. But life on board during the crisis will a topic for a next post 😉
So, I won’t write a full post this time, I will let you enjoy a video that my fellow Princess friends were able to make, and a few photos 🙂

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The author is a cruise ship officer and loves travelling around the world. He started the expatriation adventure in 2016. He is passionate about learning new cultures, about local food & beer. *Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my current employer or my previous employers*

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