Could cruise ships provide liner travel with quarantine?

[squizzler]

I understand the UK is considering a 14 day quarantine for anybody arriving from overseas.

With many cruise ships lying empty, perhaps we could have the opportunity to recreate the great days of ocean liners from days past? If you wanted to go from Europe to Australia, the boat will take that long anyway so you could walk right off when it docked. The transatlantic captains (on NYC route, at any rate) would purposely have to avoid smashing the blue riband, and would probably have to hang about outside the harbour for a week, even after slow steaming, but at least there would be all amenities on board.

The record of cruise ships in the outbreak has proved patchy so far, but with the opportunity to configure them appropriately prior to entering service (the Cunard ships were reconfigured as troop carriers for the Falklands War), maybe they could be made reasonably safe. The passenger areas might be compartmentalised for instance, just like is already done with the structure for flooding and fire safety.

 

[Bantamzen]

I understand the UK is considering a 14 day quarantine for anybody arriving from overseas.

With many cruise ships lying empty, perhaps we could have the opportunity to recreate the great days of ocean liners from days past? If you wanted to go from Europe to Australia, the boat will take that long anyway so you could walk right off when it docked. The transatlantic captains (on NYC route, at any rate) would purposely have to avoid smashing the blue riband, and would probably have to hang about outside the harbour for a week, even after slow steaming, but at least there would be all amenities on board.

The record of cruise ships in the outbreak has proved patchy so far, but with the opportunity to configure them appropriately prior to entering service (the Cunard ships were reconfigured as troop carriers for the Falklands War), maybe they could be made reasonably safe. The passenger areas might be compartmentalised for instance, just like is already done with the structure for flooding and fire safety.

And what about the crews?

 

[squizzler]

Ships are more spacious than planes and it should be easy to adapt them to separate the crew from customers for most routine functions.

For instance, land based food counters have worked out how to dish up meals with minimal interpersonal contact. Passengers might be expected to make their own beds and put out used linen and towels for collection. And the mission-critical crew might be kept in their own bubble. The ships could also keep a large section of cabins unoccupied and equipped for use as a sanitarium if there was an outbreak on board.

 

[JonathanP]

As I understand it, despite their vast size, todays's cruise ships have comparatively thinner hull thickness, smaller engines, lower freeboard, and their hull shape prioritises port access over stability in rough weather compared to the Ocean Liner's of the past. Consequently the strategy of Cruise Ship captains when faced with bad weather is to slow down or divert somewhere else. So I'm not sure a year round transatlantic service using regular cruise ships would be particuarly popular.

 

[Bantamzen]

Ships are more spacious than planes and it should be easy to adapt them to separate the crew from customers for most routine functions.

For instance, land based food counters have worked out how to dish up meals with minimal interpersonal contact. Passengers might be expected to make their own beds and put out used linen and towels for collection. And the mission-critical crew might be kept in their own bubble. The ships could also keep a large section of cabins unoccupied and equipped for use as a sanitarium if there was an outbreak on board.

What about functions such as cleaning cabins, toilets etc? And then there is the small matter of cost. Sailing around the globe would be massively more costly than flying, and as such would exclude all but the richest from travel, something I'm not sure we should be advocating when there are simple mitigations that can be applied to air travel. You are far less likely to be infected on a flight or combination of flights over a number of hours than you are in what is effectively a floating hotel that would take up to 16 days to get there.

The quarantine idea is basically the government thinking about shutting the stable door long after the horse has bolted.

 

[squizzler]

As I understand it, despite their vast size, todays's cruise ships have comparatively thinner hull thickness, smaller engines, lower freeboard, and their hull shape prioritises port access over stability in rough weather compared to the Ocean Liner's of the past. Consequently the strategy of Cruise Ship captains when faced with bad weather is to slow down or divert somewhere else. So I'm not sure a year round transatlantic service using regular cruise ships would be particuarly popular.

I agree that compared to liners of yore, modern cruise ships are a joke. And worse, butt ugly too. However, whereas liners back in the day took less than a week, people would need two weeks quarantine if they came from the States, and a faster passage just means sitting longer off port.

You are far less likely to be infected on a flight or combination of flights over a number of hours than you are in what is effectively a floating hotel that would take up to 16 days to get there.

What is the practical difference between a fortnight in a floating hotel versus a day flying and thirteen days confined to a hotel room under the airport flightpath? I certainly know which I would prefer

 

[Bantamzen]

What is the practical difference between a fortnight in a floating hotel versus a day flying and thirteen days confined to a hotel room under the airport flightpath? I certainly know which I would prefer

Well for a start whilst you are inflight, your air will be changed on average every 3 minutes, you will get to your destination sooner, you'll pay less, you won't have to suffer night after night of 'B' grade entertainment, you won't have to spend half the journey with sea sickness, you won't get one of the multitude of illnesses that plague long cruises…

 

[edwin_m]

Judging by the spread of Covid on cruise ships, a lot of things would have to change to make this possible, and probably even more things to make it acceptable to the average traveler. Far easier, probably, to modify airport hotels so people can take their quarantine there after flying.

 

[Gostav]

Don‘t forget when ocean liner just a people moving machine, only 1st and 2nd class passenger had single person cabin, 3rd class passengers only had very base small multi-person cabin. Today crusie ship is different than a liner, they can't carry a lot of goods (important income in the past) and entertainment facilities take up too much space which means it is uneconomical to use cruise ships as real transportation.

 

[Jozhua]

The issue is, this idea is based around those infected with COVID-19 presenting symptoms before arriving in a country, or having the infection clear.

Which means people will fall ill at sea, on a slow moving ship, 1000's of miles away from land. Better have good med-evac plans in place.