After a journey marked by the closure of ports, the distressing odyssey of two cruises comes to an end

The cruise ship “Zaandam” and its assistant ship “Rotterdam”, which transport four deceased and dozens of patients with coronavirus, arrived this Thursday in the southern US state of Florida, ending an agonizing odyssey for the passengers on board after several South American countries will close the doors on them.

The ships docked at the Everglades Port dock in Fort Lauderdale, 50 km north of Miami, as passengers applauded and greeted people ashore from the confinement of their staterooms.

“Florida never looked so good!” Rick De Pinho, a 53-year-old lawyer aboard the “Rotterdam” told AFP.

Four people died on the “Zaandam” cruise ship, for reasons not yet disclosed, while 107 passengers and 143 crew members from both ships have reported flu-like symptoms during the voyage, although several have recovered.

In total, 14 people (13 passengers and one crew member) will be taken to two hospitals in Florida, authorities said.

“These travelers could have been any of us or our family members, caught unexpectedly in the midst of this unprecedented closure of world borders that occurred in a matter of days and without notice,” said Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line, which operates the ships.

“We are happy to take our passengers home and assist the few who need additional medical services,” he added.

On board, the passengers celebrated with glee when they heard their captains announce that they would finally dock, having been rejected at various ports since March 14.

“Zaandam and Rotterdam have just received authorization for both ships to go to Port Everglades,” Captain Bas Van Dreumel said on the second ship’s loudspeaker, according to a recording obtained by AFP.

“Now we are going to miss the boat,” De Pinho joked.

The cruise “Zaandam” started on March 7 in Argentina and was to end on March 21 in Chile. But, when a coronavirus outbreak broke out on board, the captain has been trying to land in another port since March 14, without success until this Thursday.

For this reason, the line deployed the “Rotterdam” from California last week, to assist the “Zaandam” in the Pacific and transport about 800 passengers there. Then, both ships toured the Panama Canal together and sailed the Caribbean.

A total of 1,250 passengers and 1,186 crew travel in both.

DISEMBARKATION PLAN

As the ships docked Thursday afternoon, the Princess Cruises cruise line announced it was also hoping to send another ship, the “Coral Princess,” to the same port in Fort Lauderdale this Saturday with 12 confirmed cases of coronavirus on board.

The Princess Cruises and Holland America lines are both subsidiaries of the Carnival corporation.

According to the “Zaandam” and “Rotterdam” landing plan, healthy passengers will be boarded on disinfected buses that will transport them directly to the airport. Most will travel on charter flights, while Florida residents will return home in private cars.

“The passengers have not left the ship since March 14 and have been confined to their cabins since March 22,” said Holland America.

Meanwhile, passengers with mild symptoms will remain on board in isolation until they improve. Nor will the crew descend from the ships.

The ships’ imminent arrival in Fort Lauderdale generated controversy and garnered initial rejection from city authorities and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who did not want to add further pressure to his already limited health system.

But on Wednesday night, DeSantis relented and said he would accept the entry of Americans, while President Donald Trump said shortly afterward that he would work to expatriate British and Canadian citizens.

DeSantis, Trump’s ally, had resisted receiving passengers on the ships, saying he did not want to use the limited resources of Florida residents on foreigners.

“I was told that there were only foreigners on these ships with no connection to Florida. So I was thinking, why do they want to bring them to Florida? ”Said the Republican president on Wednesday night, explaining his previous argument.

“But it turns out that there are US citizens there and some are actually from Florida,” he added.

With more than 8,000 coronavirus cases and 128 deaths, Florida is the fifth state in the United States with the most infections. Most of them are concentrated in Miami, Palm Beach and Broward counties.

There are currently dozens of cruise ships lined up in the open sea, off Miami and Fort Lauderdale, waiting to dock due to the pandemic. Many have their crew on board.

From Nuevo Herald