The issues faced with air travel have been widely documented in recent weeks, with bottlenecks occurring at airports’ check-in and security desks up and down the country. But it's not just airports that have struggled.
The cruise industry has also been badly hit by staff shortages. Capacity reductions and cancellations are ‘ruining’ holidays for many Brits.
The primary reason for an insufficient amount of staff has been cited as a knock-on effect from the Coronavirus pandemic which saw experienced crew members forced to find new employment while the industry lay dormant. The past few months have seen a growing list of cruise liners negatively affected by these shortages and forced to take action.
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Here are some of the changes, cancellations and limits being imposed by cruise companies on voyages this year:
P&O pulls cruise ship out of service
In a move to allow the company to redeploy staff to the other five ships in its fleet, P&O Cruises took the decision to pull Arcadia out of service for seven cruises until 5 July.
“The impact of Covid upon airlines and general disruption has necessitated the cancellations as we need to move crew from Arcadia to other ships in the fleet,” P&O said in a response to disappointed passengers.
Cunard caps capacity
This summer will also see Cunard Line cap the capacity through withdrawing staterooms on numerous Alaska cruises aboard Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria’s voyages to the Mediterranean, Northern Europe and Norwegian Fjords.
Inevitably, these measures have equated to some passengers being notified of their bookings being cancelled due to the disruption. However, Cunard hopes that this wider impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality industry will be relatively short-term.
'The wider impact of COVID-19 is affecting hospitality and disrupting airlines and as such this is impacting the number of crew members we are able to get to our ships,' Cunard said in a statement.
'We naturally want to ensure that all guests across the fleet experience the high standards of service onboard that they would expect from Cunard and which we are committed to delivering. We are therefore limiting the number of guests sailing on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria as we build crew numbers back up. Unfortunately, this means that we need to cancel a number of existing bookings.'
Cruisers ditched from their Cunard voyages will receive full refunds, as well as 25% of the fare paid in the form of a future cruise credit, which must be used to book a new sailing by the conclusion of 2024.
Carnival Cruise Line shuts restaurants
Carnival Cruise Line is also limiting dining options across its 23-ship fleet after struggling to keep its ships fully staffed, particularly impacting its culinary team.
Alongside the pandemic, their reasons given for a lack of numbers include the extended time it takes to onboard crew members as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Carnival was forced to cancel their Diamond parties, events put on for passengers who have achieved the Diamond level in the loyalty program, with members instead receiving $50 of onboard credit.
Its Cucina Del Capitano Italian restaurant, as well as the elite Chef’s Table dining experience, will also be closed through to the end of June, if not longer.
In a statement, Carnival told Cruzely : “In order to maximize the guest experience and our guest service, we are making modest adjustments to some of our service offerings for sailings departing through June 30. Most of these will have a negligible impact.
“Our rapid and successful restart has required us to bring back thousands of crew members in a very short time, which has increased the number of resources needed for government officials to process the large number of visa applications and slowed down our ability to fully staff some of our functions, including our culinary team.”
Other cruise companies
Rival liner Royal Caribbean International, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group, has also experienced intermittent crew shortages.
Further afield, due to the lack of staff, Norwegian Cruise Line were forced to reduce the dining options aboard the Pride of America, which sails exclusively around the Hawaiian Islands. It was reported that they were operating with a 500-fold crew, despite usually operating with more than 900.
Holidaymakers respond
Dozens of people have taken to social media to complain about cancellations, changes and delays to refunds.
Honestywins wrote: "How to ruin your vacation in two words - Holland America! Worst experience ever! Everything we booked was canceled! Twice! Our one in a lifetime cruise to Alaska has been destroyed! Beyond insulting. We are crushed."
Jos Bacon tweeted: "We were cancelled off our June Alaska cruise by Cunard. Feeling like second class citizens as we understand that the cruise continues - but not with us. Wonder how they decided which passengers to drop…"
Andrew Kane wrote: " @cunardline Why was my cruise on Queen Victoria cancelled so late in the day we were looking forward for our June cruise"
