The Carnival UK Brexit Working Group is multi-functional across both P&O Cruises and Cunard brands. The group is collaborating to ensure we are all fully prepared to minimise any potential disruption following our departure from the EU.
As teams from across our business continue to work together, we’ll keep you updated on what’s happening, here on The Insider:
Our People
Since the new rules came to effect on 1 January we’ve worked across People Services to ensure that all our processes take into account the changes in the legislation for our fleet as well as shore colleagues. We are working closely with the People team and reaching out to our current EU/EEA colleagues to make sure that they are supported with their registration for the EU Settlement scheme.
We’re also working closely with the Recruitment team to ensure that managers are aware of the changes to the legislation and what it means for candidates that are going through the recruitment process now and in the future.
To support colleagues on board our ships, we continue to update our ‘Fleet Guide to Brexit’, with all the latest information for each area of our ship operations. This is shared regularly via our Senior Management Team (SMT) Dashboard update.
Changes to EU business and leisure travel
Requirements for travel have been affected, whether you are travelling for work or personal reasons and whether you are travelling to or from the UK. Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding have created this information guide to help all Carnival UK colleagues understand the changes and how they may affect you. Whilst travelling for work purposes still remains for business critical reasons only, it is important to understand how these changes may affect your travel plans in the future, please take the time to read the guide.
Length of stay rules
If you are a UK national and a frequent traveller (whether for business or personal), you will need to pay particular attention to the new length of stay rules detailed in the information guide. Whilst it is an individual’s responsibility to ensure they remain within the length of stay limits, we have a travel tracker form so you can easily keep a record of your travels. This form can be downloaded, and saved locally from here, there is no requirement to share this information, it is simply for your own records.
If you are likely to travel to the EU on company business, it’s essential that you familarise yourself with the information detailed above as you will be affected by the changes to travel requirements as a result of Brexit.
Keep up-to-date with the latest Brexit colleague FAQs on The insider:
The Insider>Shore>Frequently Asked Questions
Guest communications
To reassure and inform Guests, both brands feature Brexit information and updates on their website. For P&O Cruises, this means proactively promoting their Brexit Promise, to their British Guests, while Cunard, with more international Guests, is responding to individual queries when as they are received, and via their Frequently Asked Questions.
Technology
The location of all active vendors has been reviewed. There are currently no recurring hardware providers based in Europe which would be considered a risk for Customs logistics. There have been no risks flagged by active vendors in relation to their supply chain, but this will be continuously monitored. New contracts or contracts from projects going forward will be assessed in the planning stage to determine the location of the vendor and whether any risk mitigation strategy is required.
If you’re aware of Brexit changes in your business area that will have an impact on IT systems or processes, please update the technology department at the earliest opportunity – email matthew.owen@carnivalukgroup.com
Ship refits
We have confirmed dates for Queen Mary 2’s refit to be held in Brest from 19 June to 11 July, and Arcadia’s refit will be in Brest from 21 October to 14 November. We are still working on the dates for Azura.
Queen Mary 2’s refit will be our first experience of a European shipyard refit post-Brexit, so maritime teams and the Brexit Working Group will be collaborating closely before, during and after the refit.
If you are likely to support our refits in the EU, it’s essential that you read the ‘Changes to EU business and leisure travel’ section above, as travel requirements have been affected as a result of Brexit.
Continuity of supply and logistics
The Customs processes for Carnival UK imported items are staying the same and the late Trade Agreement has removed the immediate risk of tariffs. In general freight is flowing freely at UK ports, though we are monitoring this closely.
There is a high possibility that in the future, it will be difficult to export items containing animal protein and dairy into the EU. This will have an impact on our ship supply process, so we are currently planning solutions to this scenario.
The Carnival UK Brexit Working Group includes representatives from all business areas, collaborating to support our people, our Guests and our operations to navigate all Brexit changes to process and procedure.
John Snyder – VP, General Counsel
Andrew Baldwin – Director, Guest Support
Andrew Wyres – VP, Information Technology
Angus Struthers – VP, Marketing and Sales, Cunard
Glenn Reynolds-Viljoen – VP, Guest Experience, P&O Cruises
Jane Cripps – Ethics and Compliance Officer
Lisa Kynaston – Director, People Operations, Shore and Service Management
Morgan Edwards – Director, Hotel Operations, P&O Cruises
Nathaniel Sherborne – Director, Sales and E-Commerce
Paul Wilkinson – VP, Financial Controller
Pete Harvell – Manager, Projects
Sander Groothius – VP, Port and Shore Operations
Katherine Rolls – Senior Director, People and Employee/Industrial relations
Eva Johnston – Manager, People Support and Shore Operations
Ian Strangeway – VP, Procurement and Supply Chain
Alan Weeks – Senior Superintendent, Projects
Darren Hampton – Director, Privacy
Matt Owen – Senior Manager, Technology Commercial