Most cruise lines, if not all, have stated that they’re planning to get their crew members vaccinated ahead of a full restart.
But how are the vaccination discussions happening from the crew’s point of view? Cruise Industry News has found out directly from the crew by speaking to the employees of Disney Cruise Line, Viking Ocean Cruises, AIDA, Carnival Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.
Almost all crew members who talked to Cruise Industry News on the grounds of anonymity have stated that they’d been asked to get vaccinated.
An employee from the Disney Cruise Line said that the cruise line is not officially requiring the crew to be vaccinated but is offering vaccinations onboard to everyone working there.
“On the ship where I am now located, in Europe, we have been offered AstraZeneca, while crew other ships, in the USA, are now (offered) Pfizer,” the employee said.
AstraZeneca was the most popular vaccine among the crew members Cruise Industry News spoke with. An employee with Viking said they were offered this vaccine too.
“They already started doing vaccination on our sister ship, and once we arrived to (redacted), we start the vaccination as well,” the crew member said.
A Carnival Cruise Line crew memeber said that they were asked to get the vaccine in their country “if it’s available,” but if not, vaccines will be offered onboard. The employee noted that the vaccine available in their country is likely to be AstraZeneca, too.
A crew member with Norwegian Cruise Line shared that the crew members will be getting their vaccines onboard after the 14-day quarantine. They added that because they have not yet received the vaccine, they don’t know which brand it will be.
As of April 19, Norwegian Cruise Line accepted eight vaccine brands for crew onboard the ships that operate outside of the U.S.: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Sputnik, and Covaxin.
All the crew members Cruise Industry News spoke with said they were happy with how vaccination matters have been handled by their employers.
