After the horror stories coming from the Diamond Princess cruise ship which saw people quarantined in their rooms for two weeks at the end of February, most people probably would have been put off cruises, but not Karen Hossak.
Her circumnavigation of Australia on the Sea Princess cruise ship had been planned a year ago.
The ship left Sydney on March 10, when there were only 18 confirmed cases in Victoria and with the cruise staying within Australian waters, Karen figured they would be safe.
While there were no confirmed cases on board, the crew were cautious from the start, passengers were cleared before they got on, filling out declaration forms and some were temperature tested, and once they embarked Karen said the crew remained vigilant.
“You couldn’t go into any food areas without washing your hands, every hour or so they were washing down handrails and common areas, every day they thoroughly cleaned our rooms, there were sanitising stations every where on the ship, and at the buffet you couldn’t serve yourself, everything was served by crew members with gloves on,” she said.
The announcement the cruise would be cut short came six days in, when they’d made their way down to Melbourne, at 5am over the loudspeaker.
“We all sat up in bed and said ‘oh God no’, but it was because the chief executive of Princess Cruises had decided given the climate with the COVID-19 virus they were ceasing all operations of their 19 ships and that’s when we were told that we were turning around and going back to Sydney,” Karen said.
“I think the reaction was firstly shock and then disappointment, we were having a great time, it was a great bunch of people, I met some lovely people from America, Canada and Brisbane.
“There was no emergency on the ship, I would have been happy to go on, because unless eventually somebody proved to be positive, we were all safe.
“I would have been happy to stay at sea and just come in to get food and reload, not let passengers off, it’s a big ship so there’s lots to do on it.”
They didn’t head straight back to Sydney though, enjoying a few more days in Burnie and Hobart in Tasmania.
“When I spoke to the captain they were hoping to come back to Melbourne but we couldn’t get docking and authority to clear the ship but we were able to get it at White Bay in Sydney, I think the reason we were able to go to Burnie and Hobart is because there was no sickness on the ship,” she said.
The frustration from some passengers bubbled over when they had to reorganise their travel plans and getting home.
“Some people had 19 weeks of cruises planned, the issue was getting the flights for everyone and getting them home safely,” Karen said.
Karen managed to change her flights through her travel agent in Brisbane, flying to Melbourne hours after she got off the ship and catching the train home to Echuca.
“I can’t speak more highly of Princess, they certainly took care of us and tried to get us what we needed,” Karen said.
“They went out of their way to take care of us, at no time were we locked in our room or told we couldn’t go anywhere and the captain kept in touch all the time.”
Now that she’s home, Karen will have to self-isolate.
“I had to go out to get some fresh vegetables and salad stuff but I’ve done that now I’m self-isolating for 14 days, I’m not sick, I feel perfectly fine, but my issue is I had to transit two major airports and one major train station to get home and I don’t know what may have been in those venues,” Karen said.
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