Cruise ship employees finally departing ships!

On last night's Canadian news, they showed Princess ships with stranded crews on board.  Celebrity Caribbean and Royal Caribbean have put an incredible plan in place to repatriate their international crew.  The Canadian art dealer from North Vancouver who is sailing on a Royal Caribbean ship, will sail from Florida to Southampton and then return home on a charter aircraft!

Celebrity Cruises is preparing a major plan to send thousands of its crew members back to their home countries. In a letter sent to the crew, the President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises Lisa Lutoff-Perlo announced the repatriation plan of the shipboard employees from 60 different nationalities using cruise ships and charter flights. In the letter Lisa Lutoff-Perlo also said that in a spirit of doing everything possible for getting the crew home she signed the CDC letter, taking responsibility for the actions in order to secure approval for disembarkation.  I met Lisa Lutoff-Perlo on the Celebrity Edge.  She is an awesome CEO and a lovely lady.

Listed below is Celebrity Cruises current repatriation plan pending approval from various governments around the world, and rough estimated dates. The company will transfer certain crew members by nationalities onto Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise ships and proceed to ports where charter flights will be organized.

Celebrity Cruises crew repatriation plan:
Caribbean, Central and South American crew aboard Celebrity ships will be transferred to Vision, Rhapsody and Adventure.

Vision of the Seas will depart from Port Miami on May 15, and sail to St. Kitts, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, St Vincent and the Grenadines where the ship will end her repatriation voyage on June 7.

Rhapsody of the Seas will depart from Port Miami on May 13, and sail to Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize where the ship will end her repatriation voyage on May 23.

Adventure of the Seas will depart from the Bahamas on May 9, and set sail to Haiti and Dominican Republic, ending her repatriation voyage in Jamaica on May 23.

Filipino crew will be transferred to Celebrity Equinox.

After completing the transfer Equinox will sail to Barbados, from where Celebrity Cruises have asked to operate charter flights to Manila every three days, starting May 11.

Indian crew will be transferred to Celebrity Infinity and will set sail to Goa within the next two weeks. The ship is scheduled to reach its final destination in early June.

Indonesian crew members will be transferred to Explorer of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas.

After completing the transfer Explorer will set sail to Barbados, where company has requested permission to fly charter flights on May 9-12. Enchantment of the Seas will sail to Miami for the charter flight on May 15. All charters would stop in Jakarta and Denpasar.

Celebrity Millenium and Eclipse located on the US West Coast, Celebrity Cruises are looking into moving both ships to Puerto Vallarta in the next week to 10 days. From Puerto Vallarta, the company plans to arrange one charter flight to the Philippines and one charter flight to Barbados for the Caribbean, Central and South American crew, as well as flights based availability for European, Canadian and International crew.

US crew on Celebrity ships sailing close to US ports will be repatriated with private transportation beginning May 6. US crew from Asia will be repatriated home from the Philipines as soon as Manila airport reopens. US crew on the ships located in the Mediterranean will be flown by May 20.

Other International Crew:

Celebrity cruises crew members from Ukraine and Romania will be transferred to the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas which will arrive in Miami and charter flights will be organized for May 16.

European, Canadian, and all other nationalities on Celebrity vessels will be transferred to three Royal Caribbean ships Freedom, Empress and Majesty. All three ships will cross the Atlantic Ocean and sail to Southampton where charter flights will be organized for crew repatriation.
Empress and Majesty will depart Port Miami on May 15, and arrive in Southampton on May 28.
Freedom of the Seas will depart Port Miami on May 15, and arrive in Southampton on May 24.

For the crew onboard Celebrity Constellation, the company estimates that the ship will be in Athens on May 7, from there two different charters will be organized, one to London for European and International crew, and one for repatriation of the Indonesian crew.

For the crew still onboard Celebrity Apex the company is planning a charter from St. Nazaire to Barbados within the week for repatriation of the Caribbean, Central and South American crew. European, Canadian, and International crew will be sent back home on flights based on availability. The company is also working on options to send the Indian crew members back home.

In the letter, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said " on behalf of our entire Celebrity family, I continue to send you my thanks for your strength and positive, can-do attitude. We have always been there for each other, and we need that now more than ever".

Way to go Celebrity and Lisa!