Did the cruise industry restart too soon?

News that Project Hygiea, a Covid-19 response plan for passenger ships, received a stamp of approval by class is timely after the worrying virus outbreak on Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen. 

It’s been a difficult time for cruises ever since they became, for many, synonymous with coronavirus after hundreds of Diamond Princess passengers came down with COVID-19 in February.

The cruise industry stalled with ships and crew stuck at sea and the very idea of going on a cruise any time soon seemed improbable.

The world has changed much in the six months or so since then as the virus became a pandemic and raged onshore.

Yet the challenge for the cruise sector is how to get going again safely so that people have the confidence to return to cruising and ships and their crews are gainfully employed. Operators need to rebuild trust and get back to their commercial business.

Norwegian operator Hurtigruten was among the first to restart its cruises in early summer with anti-COVID measures in place, but was it ready?

That answer came in July. The state of the art, hybrid-powered MS Roald Amundsen was on a week-long voyage to Svalbard when dozens of passengers tested positive for the virus and some ended up in hospital. It wasn’t the only vessel to discover coronavirus onboard again, but the scale of the outbreak was much bigger.

Why did coronavirus break out on MS Roald Amundsen?

Hurtigruten has hired DNV GL to conduct a full investigation but likely causes began to emerge quickly.

CEO Daniel Skjeldam apologised, with the company saying it had uncovered “deviations from procedures, for example when it comes to quarantining foreign crews” who may have brought the virus with them, and poor communication. Guests onboard should have received information at an earlier stage, it admitted.

The full report will explain more. Meanwhile, Hurtigruten cancelled cruises for now at least and will assist the Norwegian authorities with their investigations.

Project Hygiea to the rescue   

There is better news for the sector with a new development at Project Hygiea, launched by Foreship in May to limit the presence, spread and potential impact of coronavirus and other pathogens on ships.

It is, said Foreship Business Development Director Mattias Jörgensen (pictured) at the time, “a strategy that tackles the crisis on four fronts”: interception, prevention, mitigation and evacuation.

Foreship Business Development Director Mattias Jörgensen

Project Hygiea already met the latest IMO advice on the restarting of cruise ship operations, but its four-step COVID-19 passenger vessel response plan has now been verified by classification society Bureau Veritas (BV).

Now, just three months after launch, Project Hygiea has been deployed on an undisclosed cruise ship to support its return to market.

Following a verification process which included Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP), Andreas Ullrich, Global Market Leader of Passenger Ships & Ferries, commented: “Bureau Veritas has a thorough risk assessment process based on stringent criteria. In these unprecedented times, our high standards are perhaps more important than ever in helping clients and stakeholders reduce risk and increase safety margins.

“Foreship’s Project Hygiea has fulfilled our requirements from a classification certification perspective to be able to provide a highly effective and important service to the cruise sector.”

Now, just three months after launch, Project Hygiea has been deployed on an undisclosed cruise ship to support its return to market.

“We launched Project Hygiea as a way of getting the cruise industry back on its feet, so to have our first success story just three months on brings us a great deal of satisfaction,” said Foreship’s Mattias Jörgensen, a key figure in developing Hygiea.

TUI: Taking it slowly

Things will eventually get better for the cruise sector. Those, like TUI, part of the global tourism group with 21m customers, are taking a measured approach, saying “the health and safety of our customers and crew is our absolute highest priority” and have planned an extensive range of measures onboard, such as extensive cleaning and social distancing guidelines, to help minimise the risk of infection.

Unlike Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen, there is no rush. A TUI UK spokesperson told Marine Professional that “due to the ongoing uncertainty around travel restrictions, we have taken the difficult decision to extend our pause in operations for Marella Cruises until 15 November 2020, and hope to launch TUI River Cruises on 25 November 2020. We’re continuing to monitor the situation and will always follow Government advice.”

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