1. Now that most of their passengers are back home, cruise ships are huddling together in waters around the world, their crews stuck on board awaiting word when they themselves might be permitted to disembark.
2. In this one satellite image alone, 16 Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise liners were seen clustered together off the coast of Coco and Great Stirrup Cays in the Bahamas.
3. As of Monday, over 70,000 crew members remained aboard 102 cruse ships either moored in US ports or anchored or traveling in US waters, according to the Coast Guard.
4. The situation around the world is much the same. Here's the scene off the coast of Manila, in the Philippines.
5. This is off the coast of the Isle of Wight, England.
6. Meanwhile in Florida, a number of ships remain anchored in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral.
7. First Officer Dave Krijgsman was aboard the Disney Fantasy, which has been anchored for months near Cape Canaveral, for 103 days before finally being allowed to disembark on May 7.
8. "We disembarked the last guest on March 14 and we have sailed without guests since that day," he told BuzzFeed.
9. Despite there being no guests on board, Krijgsman said he had worked "10 hours a day, 7 days a week" (again, for 103 days straight!).
10. Some cruise ships have continued to receive mail, which is sanitized before being distributed.
11. Tender boats are being used to consolidate crew members of the same nationality onto the same ships, which then either repatriate the crew directly or deliver them to shore to catch charter flights back home.
12. Other times, the crew transfers take place at port. "Some of my good friends are leaving today, as we're saying goodbye to our European, [Canadian], and Chinese crew members who are joining Rhapsody and Majesty of the Seas for the crossing to Southampton, and home!" wrote Ursula Vivier, a traveling nurse, on Instagram from the Bahamas.
13. On the other side of the world, Australian Drew Fairley has been aboard the Pacific Explorer since March 16 — i.e., for 57 days.
14. Hired as an entertainer, the Sydney native said the ship was quarantined in Sydney Harbour for about two weeks before it was ordered out of Australian waters on April 2 and sailed — for two weeks without satellite internet — to Manila.
15. "Why we didn’t disembark in Sydney, where I live, is a mystery," he told BuzzFeed. "It feels like no one checked. So now I’ve [been] sitting in Manila Bay for three weeks waiting to repatriate to the city we were docked in."
16. Kiwis, however, left the ship last week.
17. Cabin fever is setting in. Literally.
