The P&O Pacific Explorer has docked in at Queens Wharf in Auckland from Sydney, the first cruise ship to arrive in Aotearoa New Zealand nearly two and a half years.

New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan told RNZ First Up that being the first back in the country’s shores, it was a symbolic event for New Zealand.

“It’s going to be a very exciting day and it will be very exciting for the guests coming ashore as well.”

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘Cruising back to New Zealand and the Pacific will be ramping up over the coming months’

P&O spokesperson David Jones told Morning Report cruising back to New Zealand would be ramping up over the coming months.”

Twenty ships were due to dock in the country before Christmas, he said.

Its arrival also marked the reopening of cruising to the Pacific, with the ship on its way to Fiji next.

About 2000 people — including crew and 1200 passengers — were on board.

Below occupancy
‘We’re actually deliberately operating below occupancy because we’ve really only been back in business for a few months.”

“Cruising is the same but different,” he said.

“You’ve still got the same experience, the relaxation, being taken to great destinations but the changes are the protocols.”

The Pacific Explorer was based in Australia and followed Australian covid-19 rules, Jones said.

“The protocols are probably tighter than any land based environment.”

Passengers and crew need to be fully vaccinated, wear masks when they embark and disembark and when they cannot easily isolated on board.

If there was a covid-19 case onboard, the person and those occupying the same cabin would go into on board quarantine facilities, O’Sullivan said.

Up and running globally
Cruising had been up and running around the world for a long time, he said.

“We’re last really to get cruise ships back so all the hard work’s been done on the cruise ships a long long time ago and we’re getting the benefit of it.”

The last season before the pandemic arrived had an economic value of $550 million, and was on it’s way to being a billion-dollar industry, he said.

“For Auckland alone, the value of that last [truncated] season was around about $200 million.”

Retail NZ said the arrival of cruise ships was welcome news after the long winter of Covid-19.

The next cruise ship would arrive in October.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Fears are mounting over the safety of 1040 crew members – many of them from the Philippines – on board the Ruby Princess cruise ship as another union today raised the alarm about Covid-19 coronavirus infection risks.

“There are now 18 deaths and around 700 coronavirus cases associated with the cruise ship Ruby Princess,” said Peter Murphy, spokesperson for the Philippines Australia Union Link (PAUL).

“Quarantine on board the ship does not work, and the 1040 crew on board are in grave danger,” he said in a statement about the crisis in Port Kembla, NSW.

READ MORE: Ruby Princess crew at Port Kembla test Covid-19 positive

“The crew must be taken off the ship now, all tested and placed in isolation or hospital, and repatriated to their home countries when safe, at the expense of their employer, Carnival Corporation.”

Murphy was speaking for PAUL, which has been operating for 36 years to strengthen ties between the trade unions of Australia and the Philippines.

“We believe the biggest single group [of the crew on board] is from the Philippines, and we are supporting all of the crew to be able to enjoy their basic rights to a safe workplace, and repatriation to their homes by air.

“The International Transport Workers Federation, the South Coast Labour Council and the Maritime Union of Australia have forced more testing of the sickest crew members over Easter, and the result is shocking – 97 more workers were tested and 57 were positive cases.

‘Other crew with symptoms’
“Add the previous nine confirmed cases and there are 66 cases out of 106 tested. There are at least another 100 crew members showing symptoms of respiratory illness.

“The NSW government should change its plan that all these workers should stay on the ship and that it should sail this week, because this is certain to lead to more coronavirus cases on board, serious illness and some deaths. The Carnival Corporation must be made to fulfil its duty of care.

“We are appalled at the images of police officers boarding the ship in full body protective suits to carry out their investigation, while the crew have no protective gear at all. Aspen Medical was put in charge of the vessel last week, and we understand that the maximum medical treatment provided has been taking of temperatures.”

NSW Health must take direct control of the situation on the Ruby Princess to ensure that these workers were “treated like human beings”, Murphy said.

“Hundreds of thousands of Australians have enjoyed cruises with Carnival Corporation over the years, and it is these workers who have made those cruises enjoyable.

“Right now they are being treated like disposables who have no rights at all, who have to be kept out of sight and pushed off as soon as possible.

“This is not our Australia and we call for this situation to be put right now, before it is too late.”

Four cruise ships have been refused entry into Tonga due to health warnings following the global covid-19, or coronavirus, outbreak.

The Nuku’alofa Tourism Office said the order to refuse entry came from acting Director of Health Reynald ‘Ofanoa.

Three ships were to arrive in Nuku’alofa today – the Astor, Columbus, and Crystal Serenity.

READ MORE: Earlier reports on the covid-19 outbreak

A fourth vessel, a super-yacht Windstirid, was to call into Vava’u having sailed from Rarotonga.

The Astor is a German-registered vessel with 600 passengers; Columbus carries 1500 passengers and sailed from London while the Crystal Serenity is carrying 1000 passengers.

The cruise ships are reported to be heading for Suva and New Zealand waters.

Tonga has tightened cautionary measures concerning the covid-19 virus with health checks at the airport for incoming flights.

Extra caution has been exercised around cruise ships since the Diamond Princess was quarantined in Japan, when 135 passengers fell ill with the virus.

Meanwhile, the Northern Marianas has sent a sample from a patient suspected of having covid-19 to the United States for testing.

However, the Commonwealth Health Care Corporation said the patient did not meet the full covid-19 case definition and the test was a precaution.

The corporation said CNMI had not had a confirmed case and its islands remained covid-19-free.

It has also refuted a social media post alleging a man with the virus had arrived in the CNMI after escaping from a quarantine area in China.

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.