Rather than lay up or scrap the empty cruise ships - can they be used for something else? Three common suggestions for alternative uses for Cruise Ships include:

1) Using the empty cruise ships as Hotel Ships,
2) Using the vacant cruise ships as Hospital Ships to treat patients during COVID-19 and
3) Repurpose the empty cruise ships as Cargo Ships to carry freight.

Let’s look at why using empty cruise ships for anything other than cruising is more difficult than it sounds!

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Using Cruise Ships as Hotel Ship:

Cruise Ships and Hotels share some similarities. But there are roadblocks preventing empty cruise ships being used as hotel ships – some of which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many countries are closed to cruise ships: Gaining access to cruise ports is difficult or impossible in 2020. For example - all ports in Australia and New Zealand are closed to foreign flagged cruise ships - utilising cruise ships as hotel ships is out of the question here.

Limited docking space: Laid up Cruise Ships are reliant on ports for provisions. Space at port is at a premium and filling berthing locations with hotel ships would block laid up cruise ships from access ports for provisions and personnel changes.

Cost: It is cheaper to anchor a cruise ship off the coast than it is to keep it alongside as docking fees for a permanently moored cruise ship would be extremely expensive. The cost to operate the ship as a hotel is a major hurdle. It takes hundreds – and in some cases thousands – of crew to run a cruise ship.

Demand: The coronavirus pandemic impacted global travel demand, while many economies around the world are now in the worst recession since the Great Depression. An empty cruise ship in layup is unprofitable, and cruise lines are losing millions in keeping their ships empty. But, it is even more costly to operate a fully manned cruise ship as a static hotel. Hotel ships would need to operate at close to capacity, or significantly scale back the service and offering on board, which would undermine the product offering.

Repurposing Cruise Ships as Hospital Ships:

In the past, passenger ships have sometimes been repurposed as hospital ships. But this hasn’t happened during the COVID pandemic. The cost of refitting the cruise ship, as well as the time it takes to do so are two likely obstacles to this idea.

Recruiting trained healthcare workers to run the cruise ship as a hospital ship, at a time when land-based hospitals are already stretched due to the pandemic, would have been a major challenge. Furthermore there are some purpose built hospital ships which are available for use should the need arise. This includes two hospital ships in the US. Navy.

Repurposing Cruise Ships as Cargo Ships:

Around the world we’ve seen passenger airlines utilising aircraft for cargo flights during COVID-19.
So why aren't the empty cruise ships making a living sailing as freighters, during the cruising shut down? That had to be better than sending the cruise ships to scrapping?

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in demand for transport of medical supplies + a boom in business to consumer goods through online shopping. This quick turnaround freight has helped airlines create a business case for utilising empty passenger jets as freighters to get goods around the world in a matter of hours.

The same can not be said for cruise shipping, which is a much slower mode of transport than airplanes.Cruise ships are also incompatible with the worlds containerisation infrastructure - which became the dominant form of sea transport following WWII.

Additionally, there are enough container ships in service to handle the world’s freight needs. Attempting to make cruise ships work as freighters simply doesn’t add up in the current environment.

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What other uses can you think of for cruise ships during 2020 and 2021? Share your ideas in the comments below!

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Image References:

My thanks to Andrew Sassoli-Walker ([ Ссылка ]) for access to his wonderful photos. Thank you to Rob Henderson & Doug Cremer for access to their wonderful Henderson & Cremer Collection.

Other image references:
- SuperStar Aquarius / Anna Frodesiak / CC0 1.0 - [ Ссылка ]
- MS Vesterålen / Aldebaran / CC-BY-SA-3.0 - [ Ссылка ]

Thumbnail arrow icon: Matt Scribner via Adobe Spark - CC. By Attribution.
Revised thumbnail (Feb 2020) photo: Alison Morton.
Revised thumbnail (Feb 2020) arrow icon: Anthony Ledoux CC. By Attribution via Adobe Spark.
Other images & video: Chris Frame & Rachelle Cross.

Music by: Youtube Audio.

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