Inside the nightmarish, deadly voyage of 2 Holland America cruises stricken with coronavirus and stranded at sea for weeks with hundreds of sick passengers
The MS Zaandam was a mystery cruise long before the fever began to spread about its decks. The ship's itinerary wason March 15 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and the fact that South American ports were closing themselves off to cruise ship traffic. The captain announced that the ship would sail "north," to allow guests to disembark in an undetermined destination.
Now, around two weeks after the Zaandam canceled its ill-fated cruise, the ship's healthy passengers are starting to disembark. For others still stuck on the ships — namely, those displaying influenza-like symptoms — the journey is not yet at an end, however.The Zaandam cast off from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 7. Four days later, the World Health Organization designated the coronavirus a "pandemic.
But still, as days drew on and the journey around South and Central America continued without a clear destination, the lighthearted spirit onboard evaporated. It was as if the Zaandam had become some modern equivalent of a medieval plague ship.The MS Rotterdam, another Holland America ship with over 600 crew members on board, had a secret task when it departed from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on the afternoon of March 22.
"We are mariners, and we consider this our duty and our obligation, and so in the tradition, we are proceeding with helping our sister ship the Zaandam," the captain of the Rotterdam said. "Our guests and our fellow crew members on board need us. There are no easy choices here." Over the course of March 28, "well guests" — anyone "showing no signs of illness, including fever" — were packed into small boats and zipped over to the Rotterdam. Priority was given to passengers over the age of 70, then the rest were shuttled over to the new vessel. The guests passed through the ship into their new staterooms, where they were kept in self-isolation once more.
So the two Holland America ships passed through the Panama Canal one after the other, with canal authorities taking steps "to reduce to a minimum the number of Canal employees involved in the transit." But the canal was not the final obstacle that the two ships would face before reaching safe harbor.In order to reach Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, the port where the Zaandam was initially supposed to arrive on April 7, Holland America and its parent company Carnival Corp.
But the situation was already starting to swell into an international incident. Commissioners spoke at the meeting of fielding messages from politicians across the country, calling to advocate for constituents onboard the Zaandam and the Rotterdam. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sparked the ire of passengers' families by characterizing those onboard as "foreign nationals" who might drain the Sunshine State's resources in the fight against the coronavirus.
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