- Before the pandemic, roughly 4,000 passengers per year sailed with commercial cargo ships.
- While the cruise industry has largely returned, cargo travel mostly remains suspended.
- The lack of bookings is putting some specialist travel agencies into dire financial straits, WSJ reports.
For Seattle-based author Doug Walsh, the 19-day voyage he took with his wife across the Indian Ocean on an Evergreen-owned container ship in 2015 was "almost like a work retreat," he told The Wall Street Journal.
Walsh and his wife were two of nearly 4,000 passengers who booked a minimalist but spacious room on a commercial cargo vessel to travel the globe.
"We really enjoyed it," Walsh told the Journal. "But I will say, after two weeks, we had had enough. We wanted off the boat by then."
Other travelers, like former television screenwriter from Belgium, Ward Hulselmans, have made multiple journeys and see the lack of amenities as a feature, not a bug.
"You learn to be happy with fewer things: You can live without the radio. You can live without music or the internet or chatting or Instagram," Hulselmans told the Journal. "It's possible, and not as bad as people think."
YouTuber Tal Oran cautioned in a video guide to cargo cruising that passengers are one of the lower priorities for the crew, and that the voyages are not the most family friendly ways to see the world.
"This is not supposed to be in any way shape or form a substitute for a plane. This is an experience that you go on to try and travel in a different way," Oran said.
Before the pandemic hit, some cargo carriers offered passage for up to 12 travelers (the most allowed without a doctor on board) for a cost of about $100 to $150 per day.
The fare typically includes lodging and three meals a day and voyages usually last between 40 and 50 days. Some travelers opt for segmented trips that last a few weeks, leaving on a boat, disembarking at a port, and returning home by plane.
Accommodations are often in officer cabins, meals are served in the officers' dining quarters, and some ships have a small gym or library with books and DVDs to borrow during the stay, as Ben Mack reported for Insider in January 2020.
It's a far cry from the tens of millions of passengers who travel each year on conventional cruise lines, but the niche industry still supports a handful of specialist travel agents who told the Journal that continued COVID-19 restrictions are squeezing their businesses, with one New Zealand-based company predicting near-bankruptcy by April.
Even so, while pre-pandemic cargo travel had tremendous uncertainty around departures and arrivals, the current global supply chain is in no real shape for ride-alongs, especially at ports like LA and Long Beach where more than 100 vessels are stuck offshore waiting to unload.
Read more about the container ship cruise industry over at The Wall Street Journal.