The Carnival Sunshine, the Carnival cruise ship based in Charleston, is tied up at the Port of Charleston’s Columbus Street Terminal with no passengers and about 1,100 crew members on board, the South Carolina Ports Authority said Thursday.
The ship moved to Columbus Street after its passengers got off on Monday, March 16, the authority said. Cruise lines began a voluntary 30-day suspension of operations last Friday in coordination with the Trump administration, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention closely involved, according to the authority.
Carnival told the Ports Authority and U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the crew will stay aboard for at least 14 days, that all crew members are healthy and that the ship is stocked to feed and support them, the authority said. The crew is keeping up maintenance and sanitation work, with only one engine running, Carnival said.
The ship will periodically sail out of the harbor to lawfully dispose of gray water and take on water, as it did Wednesday, according to the authority.
Charleston’s cruise business had been growing before the shutdown. The port handled 262,776 cruise passengers in 2019, up 24% from the year before, the Ports Authority said in January.
In February, the authority said cruise passengers in its 2020 fiscal year were running 48% ahead of the year before. It credited much of that increase to the Sunshine, which carries more passengers without adding to the number of ships calling on Charleston. On March 9, the authority said the port had handled 206,050 cruise passengers so far in the fiscal year.
Carnival Corp., the cruise line’s parent, has paused cruises across all of its brands worldwide. In a filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it “believes the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on its global bookings and operations will have a material negative impact on its financial results and liquidity.” It said it expects a net loss for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30 and is cutting spending and seeking more financing.
On Thursday, Carnival Corp. reported a net loss of $781 million for its first quarter, which included $932 million in goodwill and ship impairment charges. It estimated the pandemic’s effect on the quarter at about 23 cents a share.
