“Worst Christmas” – cruise passengers angry after corona outbreaks
Instead of docking at a port, the “Odyssey of The Seas” stayed at sea for eight days as planned
Source: AFP / JOE RAEDLE
Numerous passengers and crew members on more than 60 ships tested positive for Corona on board – despite vaccinations. Angry passengers report in newspapers that there is no mask requirement and chaotic conditions. US authorities are now monitoring the ships, especially in the Caribbean.
Dhe US authorities are monitoring the situation on dozen of cruise ships with corona-infected people on board. More than 60 ships are under observation after the number of corona infections reported there exceeded the threshold set for this, the CDC health authority said on Sunday.
According to the Washington Post, several of the cruise ships affected were refused entry into ports in the Caribbean.
The authorities of the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Bonaire had not allowed “Carnival Freedom” to call at their ports, Carnival announced at the weekend. “I feel like I’ve spent the past week at a superspreader event,” a 34-year-old passenger Ashley Peterson told the newspaper.
A “small number of people” on board were in isolation due to positive Covid tests. All guests on the ship were vaccinated and had to show a negative corona test before they could check in.
Scheduled stopovers canceled
“The rapid spread of the Omikron variant can influence the way in which some authorities themselves view a small number of cases – even if these are handled with our strict protocols,” said the cruise line to which the “Carnival” belongs.
The ship started on December 18 in Miami – the stopovers planned for Wednesday and Thursday on the islands of Bonaire and Aruba were canceled and replaced with a stopover in the Dominican Republic. The ship should return to Miami on Sunday as planned.
Odyssey on the “Odyssey of the Seas”
A few days ago, 65 crew members and 18 passengers on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship “Odyssey of the Seas” tested positive for the corona virus – even though 95 percent of the people on board had been vaccinated against the virus.
A traveler told The Sun Sentinel newspaper about his odyssey. The test of 49-year-old Christopher Holbrook on board was positive, which is why he had to spend the Christmas days alone in a cabin without his fiancée and sister traveling with him. “It was the worst Christmas,” the passenger from the US state of Michigan told the newspaper about the eight-day trip.
Holbrook was actually twice vaccinated and probably got infected from a fellow passenger in one of the nightclubs on board the cruise ship. Two days after the evening, he complained of profuse sweating and headaches, typical symptoms of a Covid-19 outbreak. His fiancée and sister were not instructed to isolate themselves by the crew, despite his positive test. Both could also be tested, as well as 600 of the 5500 people on board.
“Became a floating incubator”
Only 55 passengers, around one percent of the total number of passengers, including the crew, would have known that they had tested positive by the time they left the ship in Port Everglades. The rest are still waiting for the test result. According to the cruise company, a passenger went on board with symptoms, but he kept them secret. When he tested positive during the regular tests, an extra stop was made to check him and his fellow travelers out.
However, the cruise company admits that this does not explain why so many people on board were infected in the end.
However, other passengers reported to the newspaper that the mask requirement on board was not observed and checked from the beginning of the eight-day journey.
Many passengers had unsuccessfully complained to the company and the captain. Only the events on board were canceled on the last two days of the trip. “That was the most surprising and frustrating part,” one passenger told the “Sentinel”. Instead of simply moving to another port, the ship headed for the port in Fort Lauderdale in the US state of Florida after eight days as planned. “We stayed at sea and became a floating incubator.”
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