I can say at the moment there’s really no movement of marine crew right now. I work for one of the largest global airline groups and I keep asking our marine business person if there’s movement. I figure this is one of the first signs that ships are getting ready to go. There has been some movement but not in the thousands that you would expect for all crew.
Now these are just assumptions but can also see it would be in Disney’s benefit to rehire experience staff. Who knows what the lead time is that they will need to get the crew back on board and able to work ( training completed). . I figure experienced crew would just maybe need to have safety requalification trainIng and on changes to new processes due to Covid. It’s less risk for Disney to rehire these people as opposed to starting completely new contracts with a longer training time. I don’t think there’ll be many weeks of planning/ training available before there’s a sail date. I would think that Disney would only have a month or two time to really decide now we can sail. As things are just so dynamic
Another assumption is I could see Disney paying crew to be furloughed and being on stand by in their home countries. I could see them signing contracts stating you’ll get this minimum payment but as a guarantee when we say go, you go. I would think the time, cost and process to completely rehire crews for all four ships is probably more than paying a minimal “stipend “ that keeps them afloat in their home countries.
Cost-of-living is very low n many of these countries and seeing how desperate things are, a few hundred dollars a month can keep many afloat. And a better option than what is available right now at home. Which is nothing seeing that many of these home countries are tourist destinations and basically no jobs at the moment. Many of these countries don’t have unemployment benefits like western countries.
It’s a bit OT, but crews are hurting right now in their home countries. And when I see what we are paying for some of these new sailings especially those in higher categories it would be a very nice, charitable thing to give more tip than required. It’s obvious that the Covid economy hasn’t hit many of us.