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in this cruise update i want to cover
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one of the most underreported
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but significant things going on in the
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world of cruising and that's the
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departure of cruise ships from u.s
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waters over the last few months
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as cruise lines pull their ships out of
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the u.s what's going on
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why they're doing it and what does it
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mean for you and the return
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to cruising in the u.s at the beginning
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of the pandemic over 120
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cruise ships were selling or entering
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by the time that hit august there were
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only just over 30 ships
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in u.s waters what exactly is going on
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and what does it mean
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i think there are five critical things
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that you need to know about that
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triggered the polar ships from the
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united states the first big trigger
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was the need to repatriate crew
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the cdc the center for disease control
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and prevention in the u.s
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introduced some new rules not long after
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the shutdown which prohibited
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cruise lines from repatriating and
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removing crew off those 120 odd ships
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they were in u.s waters bringing them on
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land using commercial transport and
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commercial flights so the only real
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option that cruise lines had was to sell
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and there was a dramatic removal at that
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of ships out of u.s waters carnival
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group which includes obviously carnival
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holland america princess
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seabourn they sent over half their fleet
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all around the world to repatriate crew
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they took home 40 000 crew members
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that was the first big trigger for a lot
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leaving u.s waters the second big
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for ships leaving was some rules which
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followed not long after where the cdc
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put in some really strict regulations
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and rules around crew who were on the
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remaining ships in u.s waters
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crew members had to be given their own
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cabin which is fine so they weren't
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but there was strong pressure to keep
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crew when they weren't working
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in their cabin so basically they were
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kind of quarantined and stuck in their
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and there was restrictions on the amount
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of social activities they could do
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things like the fitness centers should
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be closed there shouldn't be bars
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there's going to be social events
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and some of the cruise lines took the
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view that this was a really bad idea
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for the health and welfare of their crew
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so carnival corporation
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at that point in time made the decision
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to take all of their ships
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out of u.s waters so they didn't have to
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follow those rules around
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their crew many of them just moving into
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the caribbean but some of them further
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afield into europe and
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further beyond those two first key
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the amount of ships that by june had
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reduced from 120 ships to just
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50 ships the third big trigger which
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caused more cruise lines to pull ships
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after june was the cdc introduced
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another rule and this is where they
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introduced the color coding system
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which was designed to track and report
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either suspected or actual outbreaks of
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on those ships still within us waters
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the system when it came was pretty
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controversial disputed a lot by the
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cruise lines only one
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ship and one cruise line got a full
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green early on and that was actually the
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bahamas paradise language at that point
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many more ships started to leave so when
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that system came in in june there were
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but by the beginning of august 18 ships
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were left there was only 32 ships in
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u.s waters the two reasons that
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cruise lines used for pulling out was
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not so much the tracking of the ships
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two other things so the first thing was
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cost related so norwegian cruise line
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had 20 ships in u.s waters
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they pulled 17 of those out and sent
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to europe and what they argued at the
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time is with the ships now in cold layup
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and with cruising suspended for in a
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definite period of time
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was they needed to find the cheapest way
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of keeping those ships
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in limbo as it were and they argued it
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was much cheaper to move those ships
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to places like europe because the costs
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were lower in quad layout but also there
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was more flexibility about
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as created their various assignments and
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contracts they could get them
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off in those sports and get new crew
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the next big trigger was the need to
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to the shipyards to do for its
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maintenance work and update so for
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virgin sent their scarlet lady back to
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genoa where it went through some updates
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for example introducing the whole
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filtration system to improve their whole
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air conditioning what's interesting is
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there's only three cruise lines that
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ships in u.s waters remaining and the
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first of those is the royal caribbean
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they actually have 22 ships still within
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mostly their royal caribbean lion ships
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and their celebrity cruise ships
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msc cruisers has kept their four ships
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that are based out of the us in u.s
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waters and the bahama paradise line
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has one ship so what does this mean
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for us as cruisers and this dramatic
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pulling out of ships out of the us
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all the cruise lines have said and we've
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seen this in europe as well is that when
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ships do return to service
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they're likely to be looking at what
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artillery are going to be running out of
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and how many ships and which ships so
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ultimate flexibility they are unlikely
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to come back with existing itineraries
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and they would like to come back with
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the full fleet they don't need all of
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ships close because i think it's
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as the cruise line's telling us that
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when cruising is given the go ahead in
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it's going to start with a big bang it's
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going to dribble back
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with various trials as we've seen happen
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with a few ships at a time so ships
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leaving the u.s waters is probably less
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from the cruise lines perspective than
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perhaps as us as cruisers who are
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expecting cruising to perhaps start
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with a big bang there has been a
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of ships out of the us those are the key
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for that and what i think it means for
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us remember i have frequent cruise
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updates so why don't you watch others of
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those now certainly make sure you
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to the channel to watch the updates as
