Old cruise ships don't die...

COVID has been just dreadful for so many in the travel, entertainment, and restaurant industries. 

Every time I take a walk, or virtually pick up the virtual newspaper, it seems that another restaurant has bitten the dust. At least there was some kinda sorta good news about one of my favorite local spots. Toscano's has been dark since March. I was fearing the worst, but they just ran an ad in the little local paper saying that they'd be back. They just didn't know when. I had been expecting to hear that they were clsoing since, unlike most of the neighborhood restaurants, they didn't start doing takeout and dine-in-the-street. It was a relief to see that Toscano's plans a return. Still, it's sad to think that so many places are gone for good.

The theater is another grim story. I'm not a huge playgoer, but I've had a subscription to Actors' Shakespeare Project for years. They're still hanging on, but I'm guessing by their fingernails. It would be a shame to see them go, as they've staged some absolutely terrific plays over the years. (Sometimes they're hit of miss. I wasn't wild about their last rendition of Lear. You really can't have someone my age play one of the daughters and get away with it. But their Julius Caesar with the all-female cast was terrific.)

And the Blue Man Group, which each year performed for free (and also did fundraising) for Christmas in the City, which runs a blowout holiday party for homeless families each year, is pretty much kaput. (Not that CITC is staging that blowout party this year. Thanks, COVID.)

I worry about musicians, too, especially those that aren't big names, and do a lot of shows on the road. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a streaming Ben Rector show. Quite good, and I hope he made a lot of money, but not the same as seeing him live.

Broadway has gone dark, and with it all the actors and theater production folks. Then there's opera. And dance. Just plain awful. 

Disney, of course, just announced a whopping layoff.

For the performing arts, and for entertainment venues like Disney's, COVID has been pretty much a total disaster. 

And then there's travel.

How many thousands have hotel employees have been pink-slipped? And in the airline industry?

And how about the cruise industry? I think it's going to be a good long while before people are willing to get on a floating petri dish, a coffin ship, given the repeated instances of illness sweeping through, even pre-COVID. I have a cousin who is a regular and religious high-end cruiser. She and her partner take several extended cruises each year. Not this year, of course. And probably not next year, either. Even when cruises begin to return, they'll be taking a pass for a while. As long as cruisers have to wear a mask while cruising, they've decided that a ship will be a complete no-fun zone.

But it seems that there's an upside for at least one group:

Business is booming at a sea dock in western Turkey, where five hulking cruise ships are being dismantled for scrap metal sales after the Covid-19 pandemic all but destroyed the industry, the head of a ship recyclers’ group said on Friday. (Source: Irish Times)

Wow! Looks like the Aloha Deck on the Love Boat is about to be picked clean. 

On Friday, dozens of workers stripped walls, windows, floors and railings from several vessels in the dock in Aliaga, a town 45km north of Izmir on Turkey’s west coast. Three more ships are set to join those already being dismantled.

Good for the workers of Aliaga. There are 2,500 of them in those reverse-shipyards. And good for the environment that these ships aren't just being left to rust and rot. They're looking to salvage 1.1 million tonnes of steel by year's end. 

Cruise ship dismantle is a new business for Turkey's "ship-breaking" industry. In the past, they gleaned whatever they could glean from cargo and container ships. And, by the way, there are enough companies doing this that they have their very own trade association: The Ship Recyclers Association of Turkey. 

It does strike me as a bit odd that there were so many ships that cruise lines decided to recycle, rather than hang on to for when things started looking up. Maybe they think that will be never. And maybe the ships that found their way to Aliaga were worn out, on their last sea legs, so outdated that it would have been too prohibitively expensive to thoroughly spruce them up.

But it does seem that these dead and dying cruise ships could have been put to some use. Single room occupancy housing. Entertainment centers. Something or other.

By the way, while steel is the big item in terms of salvage, "hotel operators have come to the yard to buy useful materials." So if you're in a hotel with a tiny, mingy little shower. A bed with a pull out drawer under it. A porthole. Or a tiki bar, it may have come from Aliaga.

Anyway, happy to see at least some businesses are getting something out of the pandemic.