NCL-Norwegian Cruise Line's ship Norwegian Joy will soon repatriate the entire fleet's non-essential crew after further cancelations of NCL voyages through April 30 had been announced.
NCL Joy ship departed from Manila (Luzon Island, Philippines) two months ago and arrived in Oranjestad Aruba in January 2021, where the liner was greeted by hundreds of crew from all NCLH-owned vessels docked in Oranjestad (Aruba Island, Dutch Antilles) in hopes to restart operation. However, the boat will now have to make the same trip and sail back to The Philippines.
Norwegian Joy already began ship-to-ship crew transfers from Norwegian Pearl, Norwegian Sun and Oceania Insignia, all docked alongside in Port Oranjestad. The crew transfers are expected to be completed on Friday, February 12, with the boarding of the crew from Norwegian Gem. On February 28, NCL Joy is expected to set sail to Manila Philippines with a total of 1053 crew.
On January 26, 2021, NCLH informed its shipboard employees about the difficult decision it had made to repatriate non-essential crew. In November-December 2020, NCL boarded thousands of crew to prepare a number of ships for the possible restart. However, with the further suspension of sailings, the company realized they were not going to be starting soon.