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News on the Westerdam


dillpickle48
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6 hours ago, bobpatj said:

Ishigaki has been cancelled.  On to Naha, we hope!  Yes, we've been onboard since Singapore.

I didn't realize you two were on board this cruise. I hope you can find some good time, maybe find a few ports to explore, and be able to get home when the time comes. 
I know this isn't what you signed up for. 

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3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Can anyone on Westy verify if there are any passengers with Corona? It's hard to tell from the wording of the article if the ship is reporting an active case or if Japan is being extra cautious just in case someone on the ship is in the incubation period.

 

not on westy. don't know if it's true or not, but i read that there is someone(s) on board with a fever. don't think they have the means to test if it is the corona virus.

Edited by Viv0828
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3 hours ago, Alphen said:

This is not good;

 

Japan to deny entry to foreigners on virus-hit cruise ship from H.K.

 

KYODO NEWS KYODO NEWS - 2 hours ago - 20:26 | All, Japan

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Japan will deny entry to foreigners on the cruise ship Westerdam that has left Hong Kong, amid concern about new coronavirus infections aboard the vessel, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday.

Abe said the ban will take effect from Friday based on Japan's immigration law.

 

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/02/07262625384b-breaking-news-japan-to-ban-entry-of-foreigners-on-virus-hit-hk-cruise-ship-abe.html

 

And;

 

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200206_52/

 

 

Gee...what a surprise.

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We were on this cruise, Singapore-Hong Kong, and disembarked at Hong Kong on Feb. 1. Needless to say, so glad we did. Frankly, though we are big HA fans, for the first time in many cruises we were disappointed by the quality of the food, which pretty much ruined the cruise for us. 

 

Frankly, I couldn’t believe they were taking on almost 800 additional passengers from basically a Chinese city. What a dangerous and totally avoidable miscalculation.

 

And now, all the people who did not book their flights with HA, who paid the change fees for new flights home from Tokyo, will have to do it again, from heaven knows where. I certainly hope HA does the right thing, and refunds all passengers their cruise fare, gives them a future cruise credit, and refunds all flight change fees.

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"Deny entry to foreigners" on board Westerdam can mean several things:

1) Prevent non-Japanese nationals from disembarking.

2) Transport non-Japanese nationals in quarantine (i.e. without legally 'entering' Japan, similar to passengers "in transit") to an airport for repatriation.

3) Require everyone on board to remain on board for the two-week (or whatever) quarantine period

4) Any combination of the above options (and possibly others) depending on the person's residency status in Japan, the willingness of the person's host government to repatriate him/her, the person's heath condition and other factors

 

Will be an interesting (and perhaps difficult) test case

 

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According to this article, one passenger aboard the Westerdam is believed to have Corona Virus. Until that person is cleared, the ship will likely be quarantined.

 

It's Japanese news so I have no idea of reliability......."One passenger aboard the Holland America liner, which stopped in Hong Kong and is capable of carrying nearly 3,000 passengers and crew, is believed to have the deadly virus."https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200206_52/

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HAL ....who is running this operation?  There is no surprise at all of this...they knew going in this could happen...boarding those passengers in HK was frankly a money grab...were not letting people cancel.  I can't imagine why people got on but they did...then you have the past week with media all over princess in Japan...why did they even go there?  Can anyone explain. They boarded all those passengers in HK and thought no one had been exposed and now they are contained in a ship with how many other passengers?  Cruise lines need to be held more accountable and I expect those on this voyage of doom will want more than a "free cruise"....I suspect some legal action especially if they are now quarantined.  

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2 minutes ago, Level six said:

Exactly, they knew the risks.  HAL knew the risks.

 

 

 

No one knew all of the risks, not HAL, not the CDC or the WHO.  In fact, I'd venture to say that it's still true that no one knows all the risks.

 

This situation has evolved extremely rapidly.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  When HAL made their decisions it could just as easily have gone a different way. (And the Diamond Princess had not yet been quarantined.)

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I just saw a link posted on a FB page. In short it reads:



Holland America Line has been notified that the Japanese Government will not permit Westerdam to call in Japanese ports. The ship had been scheduled to call to Ishigaki Island, Naha, Okinawa, Nagasaki and Fukuoka (Hakata), before its scheduled turn in Yokohama on Feb. 15, where the next cruise was scheduled to embark. The ship is not in quarantine and there are no known cases of coronavirus on board at this time.

full press release at: https://www.hollandamerica.com/blog/ships/ms-westerdam/statement-regarding-westerdam-in-japan/?linkId=81877894&fbclid=IwAR2G7eKRg_ZzUFMxiULlDKkyKckQ_1OjKQ9GLf1wEKQK1URcmOFQUhlC5Es

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1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

No one knew all of the risks, not HAL, not the CDC or the WHO.  In fact, I'd venture to say that it's still true that no one knows all the risks.

 

This situation has evolved extremely rapidly.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  When HAL made their decisions it could just as easily have gone a different way. (And the Diamond Princess had not yet been quarantined.)

I think your take is only partially true. Of course no one knew all the risks, and indeed hindsight is always 20/20, but taking on 800 new passengers from Hong Kong still seems reckless.

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Hal posted a statement on facebook. No one on the Westerdam has been diagnosed with the virus. The Feb 15th cruise is cancelled and those passengers are being notified.

Updates will be available on Hal website under

travel advisories. Probably a better place to get current accurate information than these boards.

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15 minutes ago, richwmn said:

 

many thanks for posting this. and my continued sympathy to the crew and passengers on the diamond princess.

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FEB. 15 CRUISE CANCELLED

https://www.hollandamerica.com/blog/ships/ms-westerdam/statement-regarding-westerdam-in-japan/

Holland America Line has been notified that the Japanese Government will not permit Westerdam to call in Japanese ports. The ship had been scheduled to call to Ishigaki Island, Naha, Okinawa, Nagasaki and Fukuoka (Hakata), before its scheduled turn in Yokohama on Feb. 15, where the next cruise was scheduled to embark. The ship is not in quarantine and there are no known cases of coronavirus on board at this time.

We are quickly working to develop alternate plans and are keeping guests updated on board as information becomes available. As well, the latest updates will be posted under the Travel Advisory section on our website as soon as they are known. The next cruise that was scheduled to embark in Yokohama on Feb. 15 has been cancelled. Booked guests and their travel advisors will be notified.

We are closely monitoring the evolving situation with respect to coronavirus that originated in mainland China and our medical experts are coordinating closely with global health authorities to implement enhanced screening, prevention and control measures for our ships globally.

Measures we are implementing include:

• Guests who have traveled from or through mainland China, Hong Kong, or Macau, or had contact with a suspected or confirmed case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) or a person who is under monitoring for coronavirus in the last 14 days prior to sailing will not be permitted to board the ship.
• Pre-Boarding medical evaluations, including temperature checks, for persons whom, for any reason, appear or identify as symptomatic (respiratory or fever symptoms); and
• For all guests, our standard pre-boarding health reporting advising of their reporting obligations for any illness or symptoms of an illness.
• Medical screening for Coronavirus on all guests who visit our onboard Medical Center with symptoms of any respiratory illness.
• Reporting to local and national health authorities of all cases of fever and respiratory illness, and any patients with suspected Coronavirus infection.
• Crew members from mainland China will be delayed from joining any ship until further notice. Crew members from other regions of the world who may have been scheduled to connect on flights through China have been rerouted.
• Additional environmental disinfection onboard will be performed in addition to our regular stringent cleaning and sanitation protocols.

The above is subject to change at any time based on the interests of health and safety of our guests and crew as well as any other requirements that may be imposed by local authorities.

Westerdam is on a 14-day Taiwan & Japan cruise that departed Hong Kong on Feb. 1. There are 1,455 guests and 802 crew on board, of which 687 guests were continuing on the Feb. 1 sailing from the previous voyage.

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What about the Feb. 29 sailing?  Who in their right mind would want to be on this ship and where in the world will they be allowed to go?  HAL needs to take the Westerdam for a time out, scrub it from stem to stern and redeploy it to a safer venue.

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28 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

No one knew all of the risks, not HAL, not the CDC or the WHO.  In fact, I'd venture to say that it's still true that no one knows all the risks.

 

This situation has evolved extremely rapidly.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  When HAL made their decisions it could just as easily have gone a different way. (And the Diamond Princess had not yet been quarantined.)

 

Well spoken. I'm sure that HAL is pleased.

 

I am worried about the crew who live in tight shared quarters. Hope that it is possible to protect them.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Boytjie said:

 

Why, what did HAL do wrong?

They cut short a visit to Hong Kong that was originally supposed to be an overnight to one day on Feb. 1, so obviously HA knew, as did the world, that Hong Kong was a problematic port. Yet they still embarked about 800 passengers who could conceivably have been exposed to the virus. 

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49 minutes ago, eurolady said:

What about the Feb. 29 sailing?  Who in their right mind would want to be on this ship and where in the world will they be allowed to go?  HAL needs to take the Westerdam for a time out, scrub it from stem to stern and redeploy it to a safer venue.

 

 

Yes, I agree.

 

HAL needs to be bold.  Looking out for the crew and pax has to be foremost, regardless of the bottom line.   I don't look for fault in this situation, I look for action.   HAL has to stop be followers and lead.

 

The Diamond Princess quarantine is the last straw for many pax, current and future.  HAL needs to show some moxie and get out of Asia as soon as they can.  Once ship is empty of pax , super-cleaning, give the crew some rest.   Seattle can figure it out and do it.

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... and -- perhaps most controversially -- Japan could simply ban Westerdam from entering its territorial waters, leaving HAL to find another port. That might be difficult.

 

- it's unlikely Westerdam could spend an 14 additional days at sea (in terms of fuel & food) which, of course, could be further extended if there were subsequent suspected infections. 

 

- Japan might also tender its citizens ashore, and tell HAL that it is responsible for creating a pariah ship because it assumed the additional risk by embarking 800 potential virus carriers (even if pre-symtomatic) when it embarked them in Hong Kong, which at that time was a top destination for travellers from Wuhan.

Edited by voyageur9
typo
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On 2/4/2020 at 11:47 PM, Viv0828 said:

 

the westerdam was not specifically mentioned in the article. some tracking sites say the westerdam is in kaoshing (sp) and others say it's not there.  HELP!!  can someone onboard tell us where you are??   TIA!

 check out this website which shows location of cruise ships cruisemapper.com

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9 minutes ago, voyageur9 said:

... and -- perhaps most controversially -- Japan could simply ban Westerdam from entering its territorial waters, leaving HAL to find another port. That might be difficult.

 

- it's unlikely Westerdam could spend an 14 additional days at sea (in terms of fuel & food) which, of course, could be further extended if there were subsequent suspected infections. 

 

- Japan might also tender its citizens ashore, and tell HAL that it is responsible for creating a pariah ship because it assumed the additional risk by embarking 800 potential virus carriers (even if pre-symtomatic) when it embarked them in Hong Kong, which at that time was a top destination for travellers from Wuhan.

Appears this has already been done due to suspected case onboard. Japan to deny entry to foreign cruise ship

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3 minutes ago, kearney said:

Appears this has already been done due to suspected case onboard. Japan to deny entry to foreign cruise ship

... see previous, denying entry to passengers can mean several different things. denying entry to the ship is not the same. Japan's prime minister was quoted as saying entry would be denied to non-Japanese nationals. 

 

Edited by voyageur9
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The thought of a pariah ship is worrisome. HAL is probably negotiating like mad to get people disembarked and home. I wonder if the solution might be to sail back the the US, so a naval base where the ship can dock and the people can be quarantined there, as is being done with the evacuation flights to the US and Canada.

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