arAdjusting to Cruising and Life in the 'New Normal' world By Dallas Sherringham - Editor in Chief, CEO Cruise Magazine
Steve McQueen once said : 'Motor racing is living, the rest of the time is just waiting". These words may well sum up the life of the most cruise passengers. Life ashore is spent waiting for the next time we go cruising..and start living, again! The Covid-19 and Delta strain pandemic and has been the longest wait of all . Most of us try to enjoy at least one cruise a year, many readers are lucky enough to do several. However, the last 20 months have been the worse time of our cruising lives. I think it is time for cruising to return in Australia. The Federal Government needs to appoint a Special Minister for Cruising and get things moving. There is no reason why, if we are all vaccinated, that we can't start cruising in Australia and bubbles like New Zealand. In our magazine you will read about the many ways cruise lines have adjusted to the 'new normal' overseas and have successfully relaunched their itineraries. Crews have been vaccinated and ship life and food service reworked to make it safe as possible to cruise. The cruise industry received a very bad coverage last year by the maniacal mainstream media, particularly Channel 9 and shows like 60 Minutes. That biased reporting shouldn't be allowed to cloud the judgement of the Government in its plans for cruising to return. The Ruby Princess is a beautiful ship that became embroiled in the Covid-19 outbreak which deflected from the fact that the Government was allowing thousands of untested visitors and returning citizens to pour in via flights. Cruising unfairly became the convenient 'whipping boy' for media commentators and politicians including the NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. They failed, or refused, to recognise that this was a much bigger problem than one cruise ship. These people also failed to consider the devastation the disappearance of cruising caused to our island friends in Vanuatu, New Guinea and Fiji. And what about the billions of dollars it pours into ports like Sydney, Cairns and Brisbane? Clean Cruising chief Dan Russell has been calling for the Government to get their act together and get cruising going again. It is easy to arrange Australian and New Zealand itineraries that don't visit major ports. And there are plenty of deserted islands in New Guinea and Vanuatu to visit in a 'bubble' if locals are worried about Covid being imported. Put in some temporary docks and use the tenders to go ashore. We all deserve a firm date when it will start again - and longest wait of all will be over.
The ill fated Ruby Princess in Samoa, 2019
Time for the ships to return
Selected islands could be placed in a cruise bubble.