London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 05, 2025

How the deadly coronavirus brought an industry to its knees: The 'cruise lines 9/11'

How the deadly coronavirus brought an industry to its knees: The 'cruise lines 9/11'

The dramatic situation aboard Princess Cruises’ ships and the response by authorities has brought the entire cruise-line industry to its knees. Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corp.’s Princess Cruises were left with little choice but to suspend voyages last week. Carnival Corp.’s stock has dropped by nearly 60% while Royal Caribbean and Norwegian have lost more than 70% of their value over the past 30 days.

Jackie Ceren has seen a lot in 41 years working in the travel industry, but she’s never seen anything like what’s happened to the cruise industry since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

Passengers have fallen ill and died as cruise ships become the sites of epidemics. In response, ports have denied vessels entry, travelers have canceled trips and the largest cruise companies in the world have suspended operations.

“I’ve only ever seen them close cruise ports for like hurricanes or earthquakes,” said Ceren, a travel agent based out of Florida. “And I’ve been through SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu. I’ve seen it all.”

Every booking she had has now canceled. “This is like a travel apocalypse,” Ceren said.

Two of her clients were actually stuck at sea. Ray Cutro, 73, and his wife Arline ultimately made the decision to abort their four-month Viking cruise trip around the world.

They were just over two months in, Cutro said, and the ship was sailing around Australia trying to re-chart a course that avoided China, then the epicenter of the new coronavirus pandemic. It was the end of February, he said, and ports around Southeast Asia were turning the ship away, fearing a situation similar to that which occurred earlier in February when an outbreak spread aboard the Diamond Princess in Japan.

The captain called an all-hands meeting with the passengers, Cutro said, adding that the captain and company handled the situation well. The message was, “you can get off or you can stay on, but we don’t know where we’re going,” Cutro recalled. His mind was already made up.

“We were fooling ourselves to stay,” he said, so he and his wife flew home to Florida last week.

Cutro said he paid $100,000 for the four-month cruise that was supposed to be a celebration of him and his wife’s 50th anniversary. The Viking Sun voyage was supposed to set a record for the longest continuous passenger cruise trip ever. Cutro said the company is compensating them for at least some of the trip, but the decision to cut the trip short wasn’t easy, he said. As the virus continues to sweep across the world, he thinks he made the right decision.

“The whole world feels like a cruise ship now,” he said.


‘Death Blow’

It started with the Diamond Princess, a vessel operated by Carnival Corp.’s Princess Cruises. Its 3,700 passengers and crew were quarantined at a Japanese port on Feb. 4 after a previous guest, who didn’t have any symptoms while aboard the ship, tested positive for the virus after he returned to Hong Kong.

More than 700 passengers and crew on the ship ultimately tested positive for the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, and at least 8 died. The Japanese government and other nations eventually evacuated their citizens from the vessel.

Another Carnival-owned ship, the Grand Princess, was forced to moor off the coast of California when 21 people tested positive for the virus. After several days, California officials brought the ship on Monday to the Port of Oakland, where the last passengers disembarked Friday for transport to federal quarantine facilities. More than 1,000 crew remained aboard the ship, which is anchored in the bay.

Amid the rapid spread of the virus on ships and on-board quarantines, the State Department last week warned Americans against traveling by cruise ship.

“When the government came out and said don’t go on anymore cruises, that was it. That was the death blow,” Ceren said. “What they have created is fear.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is weighing cruise restrictions along the California coast as he awaits new federal guidelines for the industry. He said cruise operators should introduce aggressive requirements for travelers “at the peril of that industry collapsing.”

The fallout from the deadly Princess Cruises fiasco wasn’t limited to Carnival Corp. All three publicly traded cruise line companies, including Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean, were left with little choice but to suspend voyages as the authorities threatened to crack down.

Their stocks have collapsed, leading the market’s broader sell-off that saw the Dow lose over 20% of its value the past month. Carnival’s stock has dropped by nearly 60% while Royal Caribbean and Norwegian have lost more than 70% of their value over the past 30 days.


‘Cruise line 9/11’


Ceren compared the buckling of the cruise lines with the devastating impact of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the airline industry. The federal government shut airports after the attacks; passenger demand plummeted; and businesses suspended non-essential travel. According to Ceren, the coronavirus has been even worse for the cruise lines.

“Things happen, but nothing of this caliber,” Ceren said. “This is worse than 9/11 when they were canceling flights all over the place. This is the cruise lines’ 9/11.”

Despite federal relief efforts, several major American airlines declared bankruptcy in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Ceren, however, predicts the cruise lines will recover. They have already dropped ticket prices to entice customers on trips once the pandemic is under control.

Both Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruises have pulled on fresh lines of credit to weather the storm. Last week, Norwegian secured an additional revolving loan of $675 million and Royal announced it was increasing its revolving credit capacity by $550 million.

“These are extraordinary times and we are taking these steps to manage the company prudently and conservatively,” Royal CEO Richard Fain said.

The increasing debt is nothing to be concerned about yet, said Colin Mansfield, director at Fitch Ratings, who has experience covering the cruise industry. He added that if the outbreak is just a near-term shock to the industry, they’ll likely recover quickly once it’s under control.

“The cruise companies really have a lot of tools at their disposal,” Mansfield said, adding that cruise companies have a lot of flexibility in terms of reducing expenses to cover reduced cash flow.

“From that perspective having those options is a good thing,” he continued. “It would really only be a bad thing if this ends up being a more long-term shock than is expected right now.”


‘We don’t really know’


Customers, investors and authorities have a lot of questions about how Princesses Cruises was hit so hard by the virus and what it means for the the future of the cruise industry. Carnival Corp., so far, has few answers.

A company spokesman told CNBC that the cruise industry has taken proactive steps to provide a level of advanced screening, pre-boarding and on-ship health and safety protocols.

Leaders of the cruise industry including Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald, recently met with Vice President Mike Pence and health officials regarding steps forward.

“We want to work with the cruise line industry to ensure that when we come through this, that cruise lines and the medical services that are available for the passengers and all of the crew, that cruise lines are safer than ever before and can prosper for years to come,” Vice President Mike Pence said Friday at a news briefing.

On Saturday, Pence even hinted that the cruise lines could receive financial assistance from the federal government.

But Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz admitted there remain a lot of unanswered questions.

“We’ve been asked, and we’ve asked ourselves, why COVID-19 seems to be impacting Princess so heavily,” Swartz said. “We don’t really know.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
×