Ships Ahoy: Gearing up for the return of cruise

On Monday, 21 March, the Disney Magic, with its iconic Mickey Mouse silhouette emblazoned on its funnels, is scheduled to sail into George Town Harbour, becoming the first ship to arrive here in two years.

In the days following that, 20 more ships are expected to arrive. In total, the 21 ships could bring as many as 74,208 passengers to Grand Cayman.

To get the passengers to shore, two vital components must be in place – the port must be ready to receive the ships, and tender boats must be on hand to transport the thousands of tourists from the ships to the terminals in George Town.

David Carmichael, business manager of Caribbean Marine Services, which operates the tender boats that take passengers from the cruise ships to shore and back, told the Compass that staffing levels at the company mean it can currently only handle about 3,000 passengers a day.

“Like everyone else, we’ve been closed since 12 March 2020,” he said. “We kept on eight or nine of our crew on maintenance work.”

With the government announcement that the ban on cruise ships would be lifted on 21 March, Carmichael said the company is in the process of hiring more staff, and as employee levels increase, more of its 15 tenders will return to service.

“Equipment is not the problem,” he said. “Staffing is the problem.”

He added that Caribbean Marine Services will have to sort out insurance, fuel supplies and staff issues before taking passengers on board its tenders. “It’s like starting a company from new,” he said.

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, for months, has been calling on companies that rely on the tourism industry to start staffing up – with a focus on hiring Caymanians rather than bringing back workers that had been on work permits. The tourism minister told the Compass that he believes companies have been given plenty of notice to prepare for the return of tourists, both by sea and air, and hopes the tender company will have more staff on board to operate more tenders by 21 March.

Caribbean Marine Services’ large tenders are open-air vessels, unlike the smaller, enclosed boats that some cruise ships carry, so it may be easier on those tenders to maintain COVID safety protocols that are likely to be implemented for the transportation of passengers.

The numbers of cruise passengers arriving into Cayman on some days in March and April look likely to far exceed 3,000 people. On 6 April, for example, which according to the Port Authority ship schedule will be the busiest day of the first phase of cruise resumption, three ships carrying up to 11,494 passengers are slated to arrive, including the Carnival Vista with a capacity of 4,977 passengers.

Bryan said on days when the local tender company cannot accommodate the numbers, the ships will be requested to use their own boats.

Port is ‘ready and waiting’

Meanwhile, Port Authority Director Beth McField says the port is “ready and waiting” to start accepting the ships.

She said she is awaiting Cabinet’s decision on the specific protocols and arrangements that will apply to the incoming cruise liners.

She also clarified that a ship schedule on the Port Authority’s website is not the finalised schedule for vessels that are expected to arrive in Cayman. The site, throughout the pandemic, has continued to run the schedule for ships that had applied to stop here long in advance of Cayman closing its borders, and each cruise ship since 12 March 2020 has been marked as a ‘missed port’ call.

Cline Glidden, chairman of the Port Authority board of directors and a former tourism minister, said because of good management of human resources by McField, the current director, and Joseph Woods, the former acting director, the port did not need to add staff to welcome back cruise ships this month.

“It’s common knowledge that the revenue from cruise to the port would have been significant,” Glidden said. “Without that for the past two years, the port has still been able to remain financially strong and hasn’t had to do any major layoffs. That management has been of great benefit to the country. There is no real significant upstaffing needed.”

He said that the port had been ready to receive Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam, carrying 1,600 passengers, which had been scheduled to arrive on 28 Dec., as a trial run for the return of cruise ships. That stop was later cancelled as the more contagious Omicron COVID variant spread around the world.

“We were ready to go at that stage,” Glidden said, adding that as the port was already in operation, receiving cargo, and was fully staffed, it was easier to welcome back cruise passengers than many other businesses that cater to the cruise industry.

“Some of the operators, like the tenders, the taxis, the tour bus operators, … getting insurance and getting staff back would have been very difficult for them for just one day, for one ship,” he said.

Arrival numbers likely to be lower than max capacity suggests

Bryan told the Compass that while the maximum capacity for passengers is listed in the ship schedule, released on 1 March, not all ships will be carrying that many on board. “Industry trends are going towards 70-80% of capacity,” the tourism minister said, “so those numbers don’t necessarily reflect the actual [passenger load].”

He said once Cabinet finalises the regulations regarding the health and safety protocols for the ships, passengers and crews – likely to be done at Cabinet’s next meeting on Tuesday, 8 March. – a press conference would be held to release more detailed information.

On Friday, Bryan revealed on the Compass and Rooster 101’s ‘Beyond The Headlines’ that unvaccinated cruise ship passengers, 12 years and older, will not be allowed to disembark while in Cayman, even if they have a medical exemption.

The resumption of cruise tourism in Cayman is being done in two stages, with the first phase lasting from 21 March to 17 April.

In a press release announcing the cruise arrival dates, Bryan said his ministry was releasing information at this point on what ships would be arriving, and when, because he wanted to ensure that industry partners and stakeholders were provided “with as much time as possible to plan for the return of cruise passengers and prepare their operations accordingly”.

He added, “Cruise tourism makes up a significant portion of our tourism industry and the return of cruise passengers will bring welcomed relief to many Caymanians who depend on this industry for their livelihoods. Every cruise call that brings passengers to our shores is helping to support Caymanian employees and business owners that have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The last ship to arrive here was on 12 March 2020, when reports of COVID-19 on cruise ships put a sudden halt to Cayman’s booming cruise tourism industry. In 2019, 1.83 million cruise passengers came to Grand Cayman.

This week’s announcement of the resumption of cruise to the island is the culmination of recent talks between the Cayman Islands government and the cruise industry.

Representatives from the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and various cruise lines were here last month for face-to-face discussions.