A Handy Guide to Making the Most of Quarantine for Newly Embarked Crew

Cruise lines are cruising and things are more and more looking like normal. There are still ships sitting at anchor awaiting restarts and… crew still have to quarantine when they join a ship. (Even when passengers can go between ships one after the other and well, this is confusing to me). Regardless though, quarantine is a part of working on a cruise ship right now. This can be a bit of a mental challenge so it’s important to be prepared for it. This guide will give you some ideas on how to make the most of quarantine.

Ships continuing to restart and cruising getting back to normal is good news for the cruise ship crew that have been awaiting work and good news even for the minimum manning crew that have been onboard throughout the last 2 years keeping the ships going. Life onboard won’t be quite the same for crew joining the ship, and the first and most apparent among these differences is a mandatory quarantine upon embarkation for crew members.

This post was originally written in April of 2021, it was updated in March of 2022.

Basics on What To Expect:

How Long is the Quarantine?

Quarantine for crew throughout the pandemic has typically been one or two weeks depending on the local requirements of where the ship is located or requirements for where the ship is hoping to sail (looking at you, US). The corporate office may have also made a blanket requirement for all of it’s ships regardless of location, adhering to the strictest of required options.

The cruise line will let you know prior to leaving home how long you should expect to stay in quarantine. Originally cruise lines were requiring either a strict two week quarantine or a one week quarantine, but after a negative COVID test being released to go to work (but not meal times), and then after a week of “soft” quarantine being able to be out on the ship.

In March 2022 quarantine lengths tend to be 4-5 days assuming that you test negative for COVID. If you test positive you should plan on a longer quarantine.

At this point it’s best to plan that it could be 10 or so days and then be pleasantly suprised when you get out after 4 or 5.

Don’t Expect to Leave Your Cabin At All

While how strict the quarantine is can be dependent on where in the world the ship is, don’t expect to leave your cabin at all. Ships that are in the waters around the US (trying to work with the CDC) require a full quarantine for two weeks upon embarkation. This means there is no designated time to go for a walk on deck, you are in your cabin for two weeks straight. Other countries might have different regulations, but it’s best to plan on two full weeks of full quarantine.

What Will My Cabin Be Like?

Right now it has become fairly standard across the cruise industry to have quarantined crew in one section of the ship (away from the other crew) in balcony cabins. This at least allows the crew member to get fresh air and enjoy some daylight. It is largely dependent on the cruise line.

As these cabins are in a designated area of the ship you should expect to move into another cabin after your quarantine is over.

This still seems to be the industry standard a year into cruise ship restarts on ships with passengers and ships that are waiting to restart.

Meals & Drinks

When you are in hard quarantine onboard all meals will be brought to your room. On some cruise lines you are also able to order drinks (including alcohol) and snacks from the crew bar to be delivered to your room on a daily basis. The amount of alcohol sold/served is regulated – so don’t plan on having too exciting of a party. Drinks and snacks ordered from the crew bar would be charged to your onboard account.

A big thing that crew members have been glad they brought onboard with them was snacks. While this might not be the case for every cruise line, it sounds like bringing onboard a few snacks makes a huge difference.

Wellness Checks

During those first couple weeks onboard you will likely talk to the medical team more than nearly anyone. They will check all of your paperwork upon joining and will check on you daily to find out about whether or not you have any symptoms. Some ships have self-reporting of temperatures (you take your temperature inside the cabin), while others may have medical personnel go cabin to cabin to check temperatures. Regardless, plan on talking to the medical staff each day.

Human Resources may also check in to see how you’re doing, and likely at some point your boss will check in to see how you are doing on your courses.

There Is Some Work

Anyone that has worked on a cruise ship before is familiar with the computer courses required of all crew and those specific for your job. They range from fun things like Crowd Management Training to Environmental Awareness and pretty much everything in between. While they feature important information they are not always the most engaging of activities. Luckily in this modern day and age a laptop with access to these courses will likely be made available to you during your quarantine to get all those pesky courses out of the way.

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Ideas to Stay Busy and Make the Most of Quarantine for Crew:

Keeping yourself busy and having different things to do is paramount to those first few weeks in quarantine. While the various computer courses will keep you a little busy, it’s certainly not two weeks (or even 10 days) worth of busy. It’s also good to have other things to keep yourself busy and to mix in with all of the computer trainings. That’s why being prepared prior to boarding is imperative.

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• Schedule phone calls with friends/family
  • Most cruise lines are including more communication services for crew. This includes things like WhatsApp video chat, text, and voice calls. Let your family and friends know you are in quarantine and would love to catch up! Been meaning to video chat that friend but just haven’t had the time? No excuses now! Get to it!
  • Pro Tip: Update your apps prior to leaving home. Installing updates over the ships internet can be frustrating at times and potentially costly depending on the file size!

• Books/ Kindle
  • Anyone that follows along on this blog knows how into my Kindle I am. It was among the best birthday presents I have gotten and has really changed my travel life. You can load a whole lot of books onto it, it doesn’t take much internet to download more, and sitting on a balcony reading a book can almost make you forget that you are actually in quarantine.

• Exercise Equipment/Plan
  • When you can’t get out of your cabin to even go for a walk it is pretty easy to let even the most basic level of exercise kind of go by the wayside after two weeks in quarantine.
  • Make a challenge with a friend at home to do 20 push-ups a day.
  • Download ahead of time a few Zumba videos or exercise classes.
  • Set goals for yourself! Try to do one more push-up or sit up each day. See how much you can improve over two weeks!
  • While for the most part you won’t want to bring much with you for exercise equipment (due to lack of space in the cabin and in your luggage), something simple like calisthenic bands can make a big difference.
  • Once out of quarantine most cruise lines have the passenger gyms available (socially distanced and all that jazz) for crew to use.

• Gaming Console such as PlayStation or Ninetendo Switch
  • Pro Tip: I have a family member that joined a ship somewhat recently and forgot to check for updates on his games prior to boarding. He got onboard and pretty much nothing worked like it should and it was going to take a lot of internet to get it up and going. Before you head out to the airport check to see if there are any updates that need to happen on your gaming console and/or install any online game features that you need to before hand.
  • Side note: Make sure you have necessary cables – such as HDMI – to plug your devices into the TV

• Download a language App
  • What a great time to start learning a language! Download a language app and start doing some lessons. Bonus if you download some movies in that language and watch those, too!

• Things to Watch
  • Pick a show you haven’t ever seen before or have thought about but were like, “ehh”. Okay, figure out how to download it. A lot of streaming services have options where you can download a certain number of episodes to a device. Digital downloads are also a thing. Regardless, bring things to watch. Then bring some more.

• Sudoku/Word Search/Crosswords/Puzzles/Adult Coloring Books etc.
  • While I might go short of actually bringing a puzzle onboard (maybe not? I would trade a PlayStation for a good puzzle), bringing something like this to do can make a big difference.
  • While for the most part I am all about digital downloads of things and apps – not only does it take up less space but it reduces our paper usage, spending too much time on devices can be draining instead of mentally invigorating. Splurge for a pocket size book of your favorite puzzle game, sit on the balcony, and enjoy getting that brain to work.

• A daily to-do list
  • This is less to keep yourself entertained and more for mental health. Make a short to-do list each day and then work your way through it. It will help you do more than just binge watch entire seasons of TV in one day.
  • Example items to put on the list could be as simple as:
    • 10 push-ups
    • Sit on the balcony for an hour
    • Take a shower (yup, put it on the list just so you can cross it off)
    • stretch
    • Call/text a family member
    • Think of different work questions you have and write them down
    • Do one work computer course

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If You Are Having a Hard Time – Say Something!

Crew welfare has been a huge challenge over the last two years. Balancing public health concerns with the mental welfare and life of the crew has also been a challenge. 2020 with all of it’s uncertainty led to a lot of crew suicides. While a lot of the initial challenges and uncertainties of 2020 and 2021 are behind us, we are still in a pandemic and challenges are still there. Having a long time in quarantine and idle time can be incredibly challenging mentally.

Cruise lines are working hard to ensure that their crew are doing okay – or at least the best they can be in this situation. Quarantine and a contract at anchor is not the exciting life at sea most crew dreamt of, but the cruise lines are trying hard to make sure it’s still a decent experience. The good news is that more cruise ships are sailing than aren’t and even more will be coming back to regular service in the next few months.

There are still some basic social activities (which are now more and more “normal” with less social distancing requirements), and enhanced access to communication (WhatsApp, internet cards, etc). In addition, all major cruise lines have confidential numbers that you can call to talk about any issues that you are having (and is available in multiple languages), and every major cruise line ship has a Human Resources Manager onboard (even during the pandemic). It could just be that you’re a bit bored in your cabin – let the HRM know. “Hey, any chance you could print off some puzzles for me or something?” If you find yourself having a hard time, reach out to a friend or use the available resources.

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Quarantine for Newly Embarked Crew Isn’t Necessarily Fun… But, You Can Make the Most of It.

Quarantine – especially on a ship – really isn’t all that much fun. It’s isolating and can be lonely. The more prepared you are – both in what you pack, but also mentally prepared and planned for it – the better off you will be. You might even come out of quarantine having gotten something done! Remember, much like this pandemic, this too will pass. Those four days or ten days or even two weeks aren’t the most fun by any means, but you can make the most of quarantine as a crew member by packing and preparing for it. You will get through it – we will all get through it – and we will keep going towards the better times ahead!

Wondering more about crew life? Take a look at our page on Cruise Ship Crew Life for information on everything from frequently asked questions to shore leave and how many hours crew are actually allowed to work.