REHOBOTH — Alissa Musto, Miss Massachusetts 2016, issued her own form of a May Day on May 1.
“How Still,” a new song and video she made in conjunction with her siblings, is intended as a mayday call to help cruise ship employees who are still unable to come home to their families and loved ones.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came to the shores of the United States, Musto was working as an entertainer on the Holland America Rotterdam cruise ship out of California. She was fortunate to get off in time to make it home to her family in Rehoboth before the CDC issued its No Sail Order, but so many of her colleagues on that ship and others are still being held on cruise ships.
The No Sail Order prohibits them from leaving the ships, barring them from returning home to their families, Musto said.
“We wanted to bring attention to it. I don’t think people realize what’s going on. … These people are out there at sea and they haven’t been allowed to leave their cabins for almost two months,” she said. “They’ve been forgotten in all this.”
She and her siblings, William and Olivia Musto, have been back home in Rehoboth since the pandemic hit. Musto, who has been working as an entertainer on cruise ships almost year-round since her reign as Miss Massachusetts, said it was a dream come true and an amazing opportunity, until the pandemic hit.
The ship she was on left California and was en route to Fort Lauderdale via Mexico and the Panama Canal. A few days in, the cruise line suspended operations in Puerto Villarta, Mexico and told them to get off the ship, leaving them to find their own way back home.
“I had no flight, everything I had was unpacked and the agency that hires me for the ship told me they were trying to get a flight for me,” she said.
On the morning of March 14, Musto headed to the airport not knowing if she had a flight. By the time she got there, she found out they had booked her a flight.
“It was a first class ticket, something they never would have booked, so I was definitely given the last ticket out of there,” she said.
But she was one of the lucky ones. She said there are still about 100,000 crew members on ships across the globe, many of which are American workers in American waters. Musto said she has been in touch with a few close friends who are on board away from their families, dealing with the pandemic at home. Depending on the cruise lines, they may also not be getting paid, adding a financial hardship to their lives, she said.
Musto said the video incorporates images of crew members from around the world with messages they want the world to know about the cruise industry.
“While Coronavirus has derailed my career, my living arrangements, my lifestyle and my travel plans, I’ve sought solace in the thing it can’t take away; my music and my family,” she said. “We hope to bring attention to American crew being denied repatriation through our music and video, and let those still at sea know we love them and are thinking of them.”
A graduate of Harvard University, Musto volunteered her time during her year as Miss Massachusetts singing to children at the Head Start program at the Aldrich School in Fall River.
Visit www.alissamusto.com or facebook.com/alissamusto for more information.