All language subtitles for Ch4 Luxury Cruises From Boom to Bust 1080p.eng

Beautiful weather,
stunning locations,

the stuff luxury dreams are made of.

Welcome to the world of the cruise.

The ship really becomes
the destination

and you don't want to get off.

For many, it's been the holiday
of a lifetime.

You just wake up, look out of the
window and say, wow.

But for how much longer?

The pandemic has hit travel
and tourism harder than most.

It's been a train wreck.

It literally turned the taps off
and the cruise ships are

literally having to cancel cruises,
send people back home.

And cruise companies are struggling
to weather the storm.

Royal Caribbean, Carnival
and Norwegian are haemorrhaging

a billion dollars a month.

Their mega ships sit idle, waiting
for the green light to sail again.

I haven't gone this long
without a cruise for 20, 30 years.

So I'm delving into this
multibillion pound industry.

The company itself knows
that it can basically exploit

the little guy.

I'll discover how cruise operators
have sailed through a barrage

of criticisms and disasters.

I had friends on board.

Very sad, shocking.

Meet the people that have shaped
the way we cruise.

This was a mind-blowing project
to get involved in.

And find out if there is a future
for cruising

after Covid crippled the industry.

Is there a chance that the cruise
industry could go bust entirely?

I must admit there were times
when I thought that.

When cruises began, they were
the ultimate luxury holiday,

the preserve of the wealthy.

Since then, cruise lines
have broadened their appeal, selling

luxury cruises that cater
for all budget types and age groups.

And last year, over 300 ships
were cruising around the world,

making this one of the biggest
tourism success stories of our time.

I've actually been on somewhere
in the region of 85 cruises.

I lost count a while ago.
I am that cruise addict.

As of now, I've been to 34
countries and 22 of them

have been from cruising.

There's something about
being on a ship.

It is a bit romantic.

I mean, forget the fact
that I've married two husbands

from cruise ships,
but it is a romantic situation.

Each morning you wake up, you've got
a different vista, a different port.

You're not having to pack and
unpack, and you just wake up,

look out of the window and say, wow.

Last year, two million Brits
contributed

to a total of 30 million cruise
passengers travelling the world.

Before the pandemic,

the cruise industry
was worth over £100 billion.

Huge floating resorts
were continually skirting the globe.

From Alaska to Antarctica,
the Med to Mexico,

it was the sort of holiday
that cruise converts

kept coming back to.

But how a luxury trip on a ship
became a treat that many of us

could aspire to is an incredible
story of engineering and marketing.

The success of the cruise industry
was born from the brilliant insight

that the ship itself
could be the destination

rather than just the journey.

A veteran of more than 200 cruises
over the last 50 years,

maritime historian
Roger Cartwright's

knowledge of cruising
is encyclopaedic.

So, Roger, tell me about
the beginning of

the modern cruise industry.

In the late 1960s,

a Norwegian called Knut Kloster
built a small ship

that had entertainment spaces
on them.

They served good food and they ran
seven-day cruises

out of ports like Miami,

and from that little acorn,
a huge industry grew.

That was the start of Carnival

and it was the start of
Norwegian Cruise Line.

Drawing on the first class
experience offered by

ocean liners like the QE2,
cruise ships became a playground

for an older, wealthier set.

But the appeal of invitations
to dine on the captain's table

and play shuffleboard on deck
was soon dated,

and the luxury cruise struggled
with an image problem.

Cruising tended to be a bit stuffy.

You would get dressed for dinner
every night

when you weren't in port.

Entertainment was quite basic.

To make matters worse, in the UK
it was now competing with the rise

of affordable air travel
and cheap package holidays.

The idea of a pleasure cruise
had lost its appeal and its saviour

came from an unlikely place.

# The Love Boat. #

The Love Boat was a seminal American
TV series that travelled the globe.

Shown in almost 100 countries,
it revolutionised

how people saw cruises,
sparking a spectacular boom.

The dramatic storylines and big
hair emphasised the glamour

and romance of cruising.

It was the perfect advertisement
for the cruise industry.

It didn't cost them a penny,
but led to billions in revenue.

And rumour has it, that staff on
board even grew moustaches

like Isaac, the bartender,
to increase their tips.

Really, it said to ordinary people,
"This is a holiday for you...

"..and it is fun."

I did watch The Love Boat,
yes, I was addicted to it.

It was all fun... Sand, sea
and sex, dare I say it?

It just gave a whole different
aspect to cruising.

It was eye opening.

You know, every day they used
to go to bed and then get up

in another place.

And I just thought, "Wow!"
It really made me think

that that was what I wanted for my
future, to be on a cruise ship.

With the help of The Love Boat,
by 1980, passenger numbers

had tripled to nearly 1.5 million
a year.

But even though its popularity
was increasing, it was still

an expensive holiday.

Cruise operators knew that to
expand, they would need to make

that holiday more affordable
beyond the very rich.

And so the mega ship was born.

In 1988, Royal Caribbean
commissioned the largest

cruise ship ever built
at that time.

It was called Sovereign of the Seas.

She was a floating resort.

I think I once heard it described
as a horizontal Hilton.

It took five years to design
and build and cost

175 million US dollars.

Stuart Phillips was part
of the design team that created

the extravagant interior spaces
that would become the future

of the cruise system.

So, Stuart, could you tell me
what your brief was

for the Sovereign of the Seas?

Well, they were after
a five-star, glamorous,

luxury hotel at sea.

How did you create that
five-star opulence?

We used marble and all sorts
of high-quality materials

in the shopping mall.

The champagne bar
is an Art Deco theme,

etched glass designs on the windows.

Leather seats, very, very
high, high class.

What you would expect
in a luxury hotel.

Did you feel that you were part
of the beginning

of something extraordinary?

This was a mind-blowing project
to get involved in.

Now everybody talks with such
reverence about Sovereign

as the first great mega ship.

To capitalise on the success
of Sovereign,

two even larger sister ships
were launched.

Royal Caribbean had found
the blueprint

for the future of cruising.

The success of the first mega ships
sparked a kind of space race

between the cruise companies.

The more popular cruising became,

the more possibility the operators
saw for expanding even further.

As a world-leading cruise industry
analyst, Tony Peisley, understands

exactly how the cruise operators
were able to sell luxury

to the masses.

And it all comes down to
economies of scale.

If you've got one ship,
2,000 passengers...

..one ship, 4,000 passengers,

you've still only got one captain,
one head of department,

one chief engineer, propulsion
doesn't cost twice as much

for a bigger ship than a ship
half the size.

So automatically,
you're cutting your costs.

And it worked.

By the 1990s, an astonishing
3.8 million people

were holidaying on cruise ships.

The industry was booming.

Cruise companies needed more ships
to keep up with demand.

In just ten years, the number
of ships on order had tripled.

They were built with more pools,
more bars and more restaurants.

Jim Evans has been responsible
for buying, refitting

and launching these giants
of the seas.

Jim, can you tell me, how are
cruise ships built?

These days, they're assembled piece
by piece inside a big dry dock,

which is often inside
an enormous hangar,

bigger than an aeroplane hangar.

And has it got quicker over time
to build ships?

Very much so.

The old QE2, built in the 1960s,
took about three and a half years.

She was 70,000 tonnes.

Some of these monsters we're
building now, 200,000 tonnes,

take 18 months, two years
at maximum.

Move over Sovereign of the Seas.

This is the world's largest
cruise ship today,

Symphony of the Seas.

With 16 passenger decks,
22 restaurants,

four pools, an ice rink
and a water park,

this modern mega ship makes the size
and cost of Sovereign

look like it was built on a budget.

Symphony cost almost £1 billion
to build,

which means that just
one berth comes in

at a cost price of £150,000.

And that's just the tip
of the iceberg.

There's $60 billion worth
of ships on order

over the next seven years.

The mind boggles at how
cruise lines finance just one

of these billion-pound vessels.

How long does it take to recoup
that money?

In the recent good times, it's
probably taken five or six years.

Wow! I'm really surprised by that.

How long will a ship
be in service for?

Typically about 40 years.

And you assume it's a ship
with about 3,000 passengers.

That's about 26 million profit
in a year.

To put that in perspective,
before the pandemic, the cruise

sector was the fastest-growing area
of the travel industry, at almost

twice the rate
of land-based tourism.

Coming up, we take a look at how
cruise ships found ways to entice

more passengers on board
than ever before.

I think because it's now become
such good value for money,

it's almost a resort holiday now.

And how they squeeze our wallets.

On board excursions,
speciality restaurants...

..photography, the spas,
they will try and get

money out of you in many ways.

In the early 1970s, cruising
was a neat holiday

for the wealthy elite.

A handful of purpose-built cruise
ships, often well-to-do passengers,

activities like shuffleboard,
masquerade balls

and bridge tournaments.

Since then, the ships have quadrupled
in size and number,

and the industry is now worth
over £100 billion.

At the beginning of this year,

there were around 300 cruise ships
touring the globe.

And thanks to economies of scale,

the modern mega ships have made
cruising affordable,

broadening the appeal of a luxury
cruise to all kinds of people.

Even on one ship, you would
have people like...

..well, like us, really -

working in a call centre
and having, you know, basic jobs,

to multiple millionaires -

and we all mix in together,
having a laugh together.

When we started cruising, most
people were cruising to be cruising,

but I think, because it's now become
such good value for money,

it's almost a resort holiday now.

There's now a cruise for every
budget and taste -

single cruises, couples' cruises,
adventure cruises,

even ballroom dance cruises.

Taking inspiration from resorts
on land,

cruise ships were designed
with cinemas on board,

mini golf courses, water slides...

There's just so many things
that you can do on the ship,

whether it's physical activities

like rock climbing
or ice skating on board.

You can have ziplining across
the ship, and surfing simulators.

You can pretend to surf on the ship.

I think mega ships are going
to be the future of cruising,

because you're always going to want
that next activity

and next adventure to go on.

Those mega ships
really do have the wow factor.

They are designed to keep passengers
entertained 24 hours a day.

I've been an entertainer
of all kinds - singer, dancer,

on all the different lines.

Year round from January
to January, it's been fantastic.

We've seen some top class
performances, haven't we? Yeah.

Big stars on board, haven't we?
Over the years.

Yes, we have. We've seen
Ronnie Corbett, Claire Sweeney...

Gary Wilmot. Gary Wilmot.

Ooh, Tom O'Connor's been on board.

The ship really becomes
the destination,

and you actually don't want to leave
it to go into port,

because there's so much to do
and so much to see and experience

that, actually,
you don't want to get off.

In the last 20 years, passenger
numbers have tripled to 30 million.

The cruise companies
have positioned themselves

so they've manage to please
all of their customers all the time.

There are mainstream brands,
premium brands, luxury brands.

And different operators
target different countries.

For example, Carnival Princess
appeals to the American market.

P&O is aimed at us Brits,

and Costa Cruises
targets the Italians.

So, as the industry grew,

they really could offer
something for everyone.

You might call it accessible luxury,

and these brands are owned

by a surprisingly small number
of operators.

The lion's share,
around 70% of the market,

is made up of just three cruise
lines -

Carnival, Royal Caribbean
and Norwegian.

Combined, they bring in nearly
40 billion US dollars a year -

and out of the big three, Carnival
has developed a bit of a reputation

for eating up the competition

to broaden their reach
into different markets.

Everyone knows P&O.

Well, they were bought
by Carnival in 2003.

Cunard, bought by Carnival,

Holland America, Carnival,

and, yep, Costa Cruises, Carnival.

These brands might be owned
by the same three cruise companies,

but prices vary enormously.

The general rule is the lower
the ticket price,

the more little extras
you'll pay for on board.

So as the prices have come down,

some of the little special
little things that used to have

have also gone with them -

things like free ice creams
at certain times of day.

They'll be selling you all sorts
of excursions and drinks packages,

and...even to go on an on a tour
of the ship costs money these days,

which it never used to.

And drinks on board can actually
end up costing more

than the cruise price itself.

So, you just have to be careful

about what you're doing on your
cruise and just budget for it.

They try and sort of to sell to you.

It's very quick, very easy.
They are experts in doing it.

Onboard excursions, speciality
restaurants, the photography,

the spas - they will try and get
money out of you in many ways.

The reason being is,
you're on the ship -

you are a captive audience.

So, when I go on a cruise,
I happily pay for speciality dining,

things like shore excursions,

and I also like to spend
money in the spa.

So, I always do spend quite a bit
on a cruise.

And all these costs soon add up

and become a significant revenue
stream for the cruise lines.

In just one day, a ship with 5,000
people on board

could make over £50,000 in profit
from a shore excursion.

Academic and advocate for a more
transparent cruise industry

Professor Ross Klein has been
studying the revenue generated

by cruise ships for decades.

They're going to hold back 50%
or more of what you pay

as their commission
for selling it to you.

They're going to get kickbacks
as high as 40%

through their shopping programme

from the stores
they advertise ashore.

Add this to the ticket price

and, on the larger ships,
profits could be over £1 million

in just one week.

Over £150,000 profit a day.

It's big business.

in terms of takings,

around 70% of the revenue that makes
it into a cruise company's coffers

is from ticket sales.

The other 30% is made up of
all those little extras

when we're on board -

and every penny of revenue counts,

because this is an industry
with very high fixed costs.

Just staff wages can add
up to over £100,000,000 a day.

Then there's the food, the fuel,
maintenance - the list goes on.

So, it's little wonder cruise lines
are doing away with small luxuries

to cut their costs.

Back in the mid-1990s,

Royal Caribbean stopped providing
chocolate on the pillows at night,

a turndown service,
to save $50,000 annually.

But cutting back on freebies
isn't the only way

cruise companies save money.

They can maximise profits
by incorporating their businesses

in tax havens, and by having their
ships fly a flag of convenience.

Can you tell me how cruise operators
use flags of convenience?

Yes, it's actually very similar to
offshore financial centres. Right?

So, if you register with
this offshore registry,

with this flag of convenience,

you have really
a whole different idea

in terms of what
you're paying for taxes.

So, it really can, and allows,
for tax avoidance.

Take Carnival. Although their
headquarters is in Miami,

they have ships flying
the Panamanian flag,

the flag of the Bahamas
and the Maltese flag -

all tax havens - and the company
itself is incorporated in Panama.

So, that's why Carnival Corporation

can earn $3 billion net profit
and have paid no income tax.

They're registered in Panama.

A big fat zero - zero tax?
And Royal Caribbean, the same thing.

They're registered in Liberia.

They pay no corporate income tax.

NCL is registered in the Bahamas,

and they, again, pay no
corporate income tax.

It's the beauty of being registered

someplace other than where
you're actually operating from.

Incredible.

The cruise lines say that
the countries they visit

benefit from the port
and maritime fees

that they have to pay
around the world.

During 2018, in the US alone,

the cruise industry contributed
over $50 billion to the economy -

but, over the years,
the operators have come under fire

for other ways they reduce
their running costs.

Coming up, we take a look at
the disasters and PR nightmares

that could have rocked
the cruise industry.

From poor working conditions...

They'd be packed into cabins,
possibly six to cabin.

The company itself knows that it can
basically exploit the little guy.

..to sinking ships.

I had friends on board.

It's very sad. It's shocking.

The rise of the cruise industry
is one of the most extraordinary

boom stories of our time.

But of all the Covid casualties...

..it's one of the most spectacular.

Since the 1970s, when just a handful
of purpose-built ships

carried 500,000 passengers a year,
it's ballooned to a fleet

with over 300 ships carrying
30 million holiday-makers,

it's now an industry valued
at well over £100 billion.

It boomed by making luxury
affordable to everyone.

But at the heart of luxury
is outstanding service,

which requires a high headcount
of staff to pamper

and attend to our every need.

This quality of service is the main
reason why the satisfaction levels

that cruise holidays command,

have always been among the highest
of anything in the tourism business.

People come away thinking
they've had more,

they've had their
expectations exceeded.

And to keep the passengers pampered,
the larger ships can have

over 2,000 staff on board.

They work very hard.

And not only that, not only
do they work hard,

but they're always pleasant.

On one of the cruises I went on,

I would order at midnight
a hot chocolate every night,

and that just ended up
being my thing.

And one day when I called room
service, he answered, saying,

"One hot chocolate, anything else?

And I said, "You got me,
you know what I like,

"nothing else, like,
that's perfect."

You meet a waiter on one cruise and
you might turn up in the dining room

up to a year or more later,
and they actually remember you,

and they'll come over and hug you

and show you photographs
of their children,

and I think that is brilliant.

But the luxury of doting staff comes
at a lower cost

to the cruise operator
than you might think.

They're well known for hiring
workers from developing nations,

and thanks to the use of flags
of convenience,

cruise ships aren't necessarily
bound by the same workers' rights

that you have in the UK.

Some crew can expect a seven-day
working week, 12 hour shifts,

cramped living quarters
and low wages.

We have a lot of Filipino
cruise members,

we have a lot of Indonesians.

People from all over the world

are working on board the cruise ship

and they're away for six, seven,
eight, nine months at a time.

We've bought presents for their
children when we're in ports,

that they could take home.

One of them had a brand-new baby
he hadn't even seen yet,

which is... Which is really sad.

David is a former cruise
ship photographer.

So, when I was working on the ships,
they had to go away

from the passenger areas during
the... When they weren't working.

They'd have a crew bar,
but they'd be packed into cabins,

possibly six to a cabin.

And after working for five years
on cruise ships, Nick,

part of the sports team
and Kenner, a dancer,

know first-hand the huge
discrepancies in pay

and working conditions for crew
on cruise ships.

The system that's put in place
on the cruise ship

are set, you know, ranks.

You've got no stripes,
which is, you're bottom.

Working crew in the engines,
we call "Blue Boys",

obviously because they wear
blue overalls all the time.

Then it kind of goes up from
there, like restaurants, bar.

As you get higher you're getting
into the entertainment

side of things, which is where
we come into play,

which is a huge stripe position.

Below, too... There's a difference.

There's a difference the way
they get treated.

Also in terms of living
accommodations...

..so you have deck zero,
which is basically where all

of the dancers, the ice skaters,
the ice cast, the cruise division,

all of those people are staying.

And then you have the Blue Boys
who are on the tween deck.

So that's the deck below.

So deck zero is about sea level.

And the tween deck
is completely underwater.

It's horrendous.

And then we don't think that
the cabins could get smaller,

but they literally get smaller.

They get a job on a cruise ship
and it's really good money for them.

It's - even though they're getting
paid very minimum

of what they can get paid.

So they're really grateful for that.

But the company itself knows

that it can basically exploit
the little guy.

Seafarer's Help, how may I help you?

For 15 years, Chester Quintal
has been on the front line

at the International Seafarer
Welfare and Assistance Network,

managing helplines that take
calls from crew

concerned about
their working conditions.

So, as helpline manager,
I've seen anecdotal evidence

from our cases of seafarers,
from the Philippines, from India,

groups of seafarers working
18, 16 hours per day.

And they say to us that they
are pressured to log...

..a shorter number of hours per day,

instead of logging the correct time.

But for many workers from developing
countries, the pay on ships

will be far more than they
could earn at home.

Clearly, there is mutual
advantage here.

The corporation gets the labour
and the employee gets

financial benefit on it.

However, if that is not done
correctly, not done fairly,

that means that the employee
actually can get harmed.

So that can be in terms
of working conditions,

in terms of the type of expectations
of their labour.

You know, what sort of hours
are they working?

What sort of conditions
are they working in?

And also an issue of remuneration.

So, how much are they getting paid?

In the developed world...

..we like to go on cheap holidays.

We like to buy...

..cheap goods.

I think, until that change...

..there will always be seafarers
out there...

..who will most likely, erm...

..suffer.

The rights of crew have improved
significantly in recent years.

In 2013, industry
watchdogs implemented

the Maritime Labour Convention,
setting minimum standards

for workers on ships, including
set hours for work, and rest,

payment of wages and repatriation
at the end of contracts.

But paying low wages isn't the only
way the cruise lines

minimise running costs to make
cruising affordable to the masses.

When ships aren't bound by
the strict laws enforced

in some countries, operators
can be tempted to save money

in other areas, like their
environmental obligations.

In 2017, Princess Cruises,

owned by the largest of the cruise
operators, Carnival,

pleaded guilty to deliberately
polluting the ocean

by using a so-called magic pipe
to syphon off oily engine waste,

dumping it into the ocean off
the coast of Southampton.

They were fined $40 million,

which might just be the biggest fine

that's ever been handed
to a cruise company.

But it isn't a one-off.

Over the last ten years,
there have been 78 cited cases

of environmental violations
by cruise lines.

Last year alone, Holland America,
Maritime Executive and Carnival

were handed out fines
with a combined worth

of over 20 million US dollars.

The reality is, that these huge
floating hotels, by nature,

also have to be floating
rubbish bins.

Everything that is consumed on board
eventually ends up as waste.

Well, if you take one of
the largest ships afloat,

the ones that Royal
Caribbean operate

that have about 6,000 passengers,

that single ship
in a one week voyage

is going to produce 15 million
litres of grey water from showers,

from sinks, from the galley,

from - they empty
the swimming pool...

All the water except the water
from toilets...

..is going to produce 1.2 million
litres of...

..of sewage or black water.

It's going to produce food waste,
cardboard, bottles,

everything else that gets packaged.

That is a phenomenal amount
of waste, isn't it?

A cruise ship with 6,000 people
is a small town,

and it produces
all the same problems.

As an ex-cruise photographer,

David has seen first-hand how cruise
ships used to discard their waste.

Cruise ships were far more
polluting back in the '80s,

and I personally witnessed the bin
bags being hurled off the back deck,

erm, hundreds of them, probably.

I have to confess, I was guilty
on one occasion of,

as you can imagine,
as a cruise ship photographer,

we had thousands of pictures
left over

and one night we went up on deck

and we hurled them off
into the sea...

..thinking that was the last
we'd see them.

And about a month later...

..we got severely reprimanded,

as all our pictures had washed up
on someone's beach...

..and every one of them had
the cruise line

and the name of the ship
written on it.

So I feel terribly guilty
about that.

But, you know, we're living in
a different world now, aren't we?

How much would it cost
for these ships

to deal with their waste
in a responsible way?

Royal Caribbean was caught
discharging oily bilge overboard.

The chief engineers were asked,
"Well, why were they doing it?"

And they said, "Well, we could save
$80,000 a year per ship

"by not using the screens
that would filter out the oil."

So, imagine all of the other
savings that can be found,

by either mishandling or otherwise
not treating waste in the most...

..environmentally
responsible manner.

Cruise Lines
International Association

say that some cruise ships
repurpose 100% of the waste

generated onboard by reducing,
reusing, donating,

recycling and converting waste
into energy.

Cruise ships recycle 60% more waste
per person

than the average person
recycles onshore each day.

But what do the passengers think
when cruise ships are caught out

for behaving badly?

It wouldn't put me off cruising.

Nothing will.

However, if I did find a cruise
ship had done something,

I might look at the cruise
line itself,

rather than just the whole industry.

Remarkably, it took a whistle-blower
to catch out Carnival,

and not an industry watchdog.

Some of the flagship states that
cruise companies operate under

don't require reports on wrongdoing
like environmental incidents,

safety issues, accidents
and even crimes.

Just take a look at this -
OK, illness outbreak,

what have we got here?
Fuel spill, then a fire.

Here, a fine for polluting.

And here, a crew member falls
overboard and drowns.

And the really terrible thing is,

is that this list hasn't
been compiled by the cruise lines,

but it's the work
of a single man, Ross Klein.

Over the last 30 years, Ross Klein
has been compiling a database

of incidents that's been used
as a reference in Senate hearings,

criminal cases
and environmental campaigns.

When I first started doing my
research, I became interested in,

"Well, how many times do ships
collide, do ships catch on fire?"

The industry, they don't keep
track of those things.

If you go in and look at past
incidents,

you then have patterns
that create a foreseeability.

And if you have foreseeability,
there's liability,

and that's what they're afraid of.

The other part is that having
accidents

doesn't make them look good.

So they want to, if possible,
minimise these incidents

or make them
as invisible as possible.

According to the data that he's
collected over the last 30 years,

95% of issues that passengers
face won't be life threatening.

But keeping a lid on these incidents

certainly keeps the cruise
industry looking good.

But what about when a ship sinks?

When I saw Costa Concordia
accident on the news,

I think it was just total shock.

Tend to feel that it couldn't happen
or shouldn't happen.

So, actually,
it was quite frightening.

There's always this feeling of
"there but for the grace of God".

Costa Concordia shocked the world.

The £317 million ship struck a rock,

resulting in the death
of 32 passengers and crew.

I had friends on board.

It was very sad, it's shocking.

I think the Costa Concordia was
really a one-off,

and you'd have to think that,

otherwise none of us
would go cruising.

And we move on, and that's certainly
what some of the crew members

and the entertainers that I knew
on board have done.

They've moved on and are
still cruising... Still cruising.

But whether it's workers' rights,
environmental issues

or health and safety,

nothing seems to have dampened our
appetite for cruising.

In fact, the cruise operators
have shrugged off disasters

and PR nightmares so well

that the industry has maintained
its growth of 7% year after year,

enticing ten million new passengers
to cruise in the last ten years -

and more passengers
mean more ships.

Take a look at this...
It's the order book for new ships.

There are billions and billions
of pounds worth of ships on there.

Around 150 ships have been ordered
over the next seven years.

That is incredible.

Last year before the pandemic,
around 30 million people

hopped aboard a cruise ship,

and, for the operators, there was
only one way forward...

..expansion.

What were projections like
for the cruise industry?

Well, they were pretty strong.

They'd added ten million
between 2000 and 2010,

and they'd added another ten million
between 2010 and 2020.

And it seems very ambitious,
and they expected to do that.

But no analysts, no cruise captain
and none of the operators

saw what was on the horizon.

Coming up, we look at the
devastating effect the pandemic

has had on the cruise industry.

It's been a train wreck.

It's etched in my mind,
it really was a huge blow.

I haven't worked since March.

Annual profit of $1.9 billion
for Royal Caribbean in 2019.

I mean, that's turned into an annual
loss of about a billion.

But where does it go from here?

Well, the future
is going to be dicey.

Is there a chance that the cruise
industry could...

..go bust entirely?

Well, I must admit, there were
times when I thought that.

We Brits love a cruise.

Last year, two million of us hopped

aboard a cruise ship,
spending almost £3 billion.

In the UK alone, an estimated 80,000
people rely directly or indirectly

on the cruise industry for their
livelihoods.

So when Covid hit, the impact was
unimaginable.

In February this year,

images of the Diamond Princess
quarantined in Japan with 3,700

people on board shocked the world.

This was the beginning of a crisis
that crippled the cruise industry.

And for thousands of crew stranded
on ships when the pandemic

first hit, it was like being on
a floating prison.

Nick and Kanner found themselves
stuck on a ship that was quarantined

outside of Miami.

We were in a crew cabin, first.
So, crew cabins, no windows,

the majority of them. Bunk beds,
quite small, very small, you know.

As the extension of the quarantine
was put in place,

we actually moved up to guest
cabins, which was, you know,

fortunate for us, but not every crew
member actually got to do that.

Some crew members had to spend
15 days in a crew cabin with no

windows... Yeah. ..no fresh air...
No fresh air, no sunlight.

And you can't leave the cabin?

So how long in total were you in
quarantine for?

We were stuck on a ship for...
70 days? Yeah, about 70 days.

And according to the International
Maritime Organisation,

even now, there are still workers
on board cruise ships

unable to get home.

Imagine you're being stuck
in your office

for more than one year.

You cannot go home to be
with your family.

Imagine the suffering, the pain.

We are seeing an increase of cases
where my colleagues in the help line

will provide emotional support
and counselling.

So I think this is just the tip
of the iceberg.

It's being described
as a humanitarian crisis.

And sea farers have become
collateral victims of this pandemic.

And for those that rely on
the cruise industry on land

in the UK, the effect on jobs
and everyday life

has been catastrophic.

How did it affect you?

It's been a train wreck.
It literally turn the taps off

on the cruise ships,
trying to cancel cruises,

send people back home.

If you're a travel agent and you
legally have to get them back,

so you have to pay for the cost
of the flights.

It's cost me an absolute fortune.

I've been working in the travel
industry for 25 years,

really until Covid hit.

And at that point, my heart
was utterly broken because that saw

the end of my travel career
and my cruising career as well.

All of a sudden, Boris said,
"No more going anywhere.

"Corona is here, let's lock down."

And so I haven't been anywhere
since March.

I haven't cruised since March.

I haven't worked since March.

I'm working 100 hours a week doing
different things, delivering food,

delivering furniture,
doing house removals.

It's one of those moments
that I will remember forever.

It's etched in my mind.

It really was a huge blow,
very devastating and actually

something that I haven't got over

and possibly won't
for many years to come.

And the shutdown of the cruise
industry has had a global impact.

Communities that rely on tourism
brought in by the ships

have been floored by the pandemic.

What's the human cost of
the pandemic

within the cruise industry?

A lot of the crew support
their families with jobs

that they have on the ships.

So even a year off is going to make
a big difference to them.

But the real cost is in the
destinations which the ships go to.

It's the retail, it's the guides,
it's, you know, the shops.

You know, if you're Egyptian, you
know, living on the poverty line

when the ship comes in, it's how
they live there in Asia and the

Indian subcontinent where the ships
are being going in for years.

And there are businesses and people
there and families

there that depend on it,
and it's gone.

So knowing that there's
all these people who should

have been working on a cruise ship
and now, maybe, they'll be

struggling with their families,
that part breaks my heart.

And there's no guarantee the cruise
ships will be coming back

in the same way.

Meanwhile, there are 150 ships
worth £60 billion on order

over the next seven years.

It's a monumental amount of debt and
it's leveraged against the income

from 30 million passengers
that simply aren't there.

Owning a cruise ship is a bit like
owning a taxi.

The moment the taxi's in the garage,
it's not making the owner

any money.

Only for cruise lines, the overheads
are astronomical,

in fact, just having a cruise ship
in dock in Southampton can cost

£50,000 a day, which is why
so-called ghost ships now sit

off the coast waiting
for the pandemic to pass.

But even being anchored
up is a costly business.

A cruise ship needs to stay steady
on the sea, so the engines

need to keep running and the crew
maintain the ship ready

for if and when passengers
come on board,

and none of this comes cheap.

Carnival alone is reportedly burning
through $650 million US dollars

a month while its ships sit idle.

Just how devastating has Covid
been for the cruise ship industry?

We've talked about, you know,
annual profit of $1.9 billion

for Royal Caribbean in 2019.

That's turned into an annual loss of
about a billion because of Covid.

The ships aren't moving. Between
Royal Caribbean, Carnival and

Norwegian, they're haemorrhaging
$1 billion a month.

In an attempt to stay afloat
financially, cruise lines

are retiring ships from service
earlier than planned, scrapping

ships before that time and finding
any way they can to cut

down on their operational costs.

But without the ability to take
passengers, some operators have gone

bust, while others are on the brink
of bankruptcy.

So, what does the future hold
for the cruise industry?

Well, the future is going
to be dicey.

Largely because they can't offer the
cruise product that they've always

offered under the old business model
and still make money.

So I think in the next year,
year and a half,

it's going to be a real question
of, number one, whether a cruise

is safe, but also, what is
a cruise going to be?

When you go ashore, are you going
to be stuck in a bubble?

Given their past arrogance,
and given their need

to make profit through
onboard spending,

how they're going to do that
effectively and have a product

that the consumer is going
to be happy consuming.

Is there a chance that the cruise
industry could...

..go bust entirely?

Well, I must admit, there
were times when I thought

that during the course of the year,
when we could see no end to it.

Erm... I don't think so now.

I think if the vaccine is what
we hope it's going to be...

I think there will be enough there
for them to come back.

But, of course, some cruise lines
have gone bust.

They hadn't the resources
to hang on.

The big companies were very
well resourced,

have been able to raise the money.

Erm, had enough friends
out there who believe

that they will come back for them
to enable them to do that.

And I think they will.

With 30 million people
a year cruising,

I'm very, very confident
they'll come back.

So you don't expect there
to be some kind of Covid legacy

after all of this, you know, a fear
of, you know, cruise ships

for being a hotbed for virus?

Absolutely not.

If you see some of those things
are being talked about now in terms

of protection for the passengers,
everybody being tested

before they board and crew
being tested regularly,

social distancing ideas.

Social distancing measures
on a cruise ship?

That's surely going to hit
their bottom line?

Absolutely it will, they need about
50% of the passengers on board

to break even.

The Royal Caribbean have said that
these big Oasis class ships

can break even at 30%.

If we can just break even
in 2021, that will be fine,

everybody will be happy and
we'll get back to normal

in 2022, I believe.

Operators like Royal Caribbean
are already offering

scaled-back cruises in and out of
the same port with no stop-offs,

to test their Covid protocols.

When cruising does start up full
operations again, you can expect

face masks and Covid tests
for everyone on board.

Much stricter rules
when you go ashore.

And it's bye-bye to the buffet
and hello, plated dining.

With all the protocols they're
putting in place,

all the cleaning, all the testing
which will be in place

before you get on there, I believe
it will be the safest place

that you could actually be.

Oh, this is so much fun,
the surfing simulator.

I'm definitely type of the type
of person to see how everybody else

does before I will jump on board.

So I probably won't be the first,
but I know I won't be the last

to get back on a cruise ship.

The pandemic hasn't changed
the way I feel about cruising.

If somebody called me today
and said, "There's a cruise,

"fly this afternoon," I would go.

I would definitely go, 1,000%.

I would happily accept the protocols
and what I needed to do to keep

myself and other passengers safe.

I just miss it so much and I cannot
wait to get the opportunity

to go back on a cruise again.

I think that the health and safety
of everybody on board,

crew and passengers will be
at highest level.

It certainly hasn't put me off.

I'll be happy to go on a cruise.

My first one is booked for April.

Fingers crossed,
I'm getting on board.

It's been too long.

I haven't gone this long without
a cruise for 20, 30 years.

So we're obviously a little sad
that we're not going cruising.

And in fact, we should be cruising
as of tomorrow,

flying out today to Athens.

But fortunately, we have
a narrow boat...

..and, well, I'm Hazel's butler...

..and the deckhand.

Hazel is the hotel manager and...

..entertainment and, of course,
the captain.

So we've got it sorted.

There are still so many unanswered
questions about the future

of the cruise lines,
that it's anyone's guess

how and when they'll start up again.

But one thing is for certain...

..there is a legion of cruise lovers
that can't wait

to get back on board when and if
the ships start cruising again.

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