Diamond Princess under quarantine in Yokohama due to coronavirus concerns

[Kiwi_cruiser]

From Princess:

"Princess Cruises confirms that a guest from Hong Kong who travelled for five days on Diamond Princess from Yokohama (Tokyo) on January 20, and disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25, tested positive for coronavirus on February 1, six days after leaving the ship. He was not seen in the ship medical centre for any reported illnesses during the voyage. The guest has been admitted to a local hospital and is reported to be in a stable condition. "Diamond Princess is at sea and will complete its current voyage tomorrow (February 4) in Yokohama. Japan Public Health Authorities are reviewing the health status of the vessel and their approval is required before guests from the current voyage can disembark. As this will likely take some time, Princess Cruises has delayed embarkation for the next sailing on Diamond Princess by at least 24 hours.

Thank You to Louise Goldsbury for the news.

 

[SFO-F/A]

oh Lordy, here we go. 

Getting on Majestic Princess Sydney in a week!

Heading to Singapore!

 

[NSWP]

4 minutes ago, SFO-F/A said:

oh Lordy, here we go. 

Getting on Majestic Princess Sydney in a week!

Heading to Singapore!

 

You will be fine, Singapore is not China or Hong Kong.  But I am sure all pax will be screened either at embarkation in Sydney or just before disembarkation in Singapore.  Above all enjoy, we were booked but had to cancel due to a serious illness.

[SFO-F/A]

1 minute ago, NSWP said:

You will be fine, Singapore is not China or Hong Kong.  But I am sure all pax will be screened either at embarkation in Sydney or just before disembarkation in Singapore.  Above all enjoy, we were booked but had to cancel due to a serious illness.

I thought I recognized your photo.

I'm sorry you had to cancel this cruise. 

who knows what will happen in the next week, re: quarantine on ships?

[NSWP]

3 minutes ago, SFO-F/A said:

I thought I recognized your photo.

I'm sorry you had to cancel this cruise. 

who knows what will happen in the next week, re: quarantine on ships?

Majestic is currently doing NZ cruises, so should not be a big problem re coronavirus.  This ship has been in this region for a while.

 

BTW We love San Francisco, had 10 days there post cruise couple of years ago, stayed at the Marines Memorial Club Hotel downtown. Excellent and did all the sights in and out of the city.

Edited February 4, 2020 by NSWP

[The_Big_M]

Ah, that's the mystery cruise ship.

[MicCanberra]

Such a shame but not too unexpected, there will be more to come, ships stopped from docking or tendering or at least allowing anyone off.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Princess have cancelled the next Diamond Princess cruise and have offered passengers very generous compensation. The letter following was posted by a TA on another forum:

[MicCanberra]

Good work.

[CarolineAtSea]

This is all getting very worrying. But that is a very generous compensation. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

I wouldn't be surprised if Diamond stayed in quarantine until the end of the week, ie 14 days after the guy who contracted Coronavirus disembarked. He would have been in contact with crew members, and possibly with other passengers who may have done a B2B and are still on the ship.

[Brisbane41]

I am glad I am booked on it now this April for Cherry Blossoms on a rather long cruise encompassing Easter, the school holidays and Anzac Day. Been looking forward to it for some time. This is early days yet and I am skeptical there will be a problem in April. Though this is very reassuring to know that if the worst was to happen I would be looked after. At the very least now I am hoping some people cancel which enables me to have an upgrade.

[The_Big_M]

I'm sure those turned away at the port lately on other cruises i.e. also less than 24 hours, would have wished they got similar accommodation.

[icat2000]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7965825/Inside-coronavirus-ghost-ship.html

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Hmmm, I'm not sure I totally believe that article, especially some of the photos which could easily have been taken at night. There are a few discrepancies between the text and the photos that I picked up just on a very casual read through: 

- the so-called empty reception desk certainly isn't the guest services desk on Diamond, it looks like the photo gallery desk.

- the "empty" casino shot shows a guy wandering through it not wearing a mask.

- a shot looking down into the atrium shows people sitting at the tables and none appear to be wearing masks.

[qbay46]

Reading on other forum that now 10 people have tested positive for the virus on the ship, not good for those people onboard.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Yes, that's bad news. Although if every person on the ship has been tested, those that didn't test positive should be OK to go home. 

[qbay46]

According to the other forum all onboard are quarantined for 14days

[Aus Traveller]

16 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, that's bad news. Although if every person on the ship has been tested, those that didn't test positive should be OK to go home. 

Those who have tested positive have been taken to hospital, but everyone else is in quarantine for 14 days.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Those who have tested positive have been taken to hospital, but everyone else is in quarantine for 14 days.

Ouch! That's going to be hard to do. Even if the passengers are confined to their cabins they still have to have meals, which have to be prepared and served by someone and presumably the crew are quarantined as well. 

[PerfectlyPerth]

Aussies among those tested positive according to this article that came up on Twitter 4 min ago. 
 

https://7news.com.au/travel/coronavirus/coronavirus-outbreak-on-japanese-cruise-ship-infects-two-australian-passengers-c-681924

[MicCanberra]

Princess Cruises says of the 10 confirmed cases, two are Australian, three are from Japan, another three are from Hong Kong, and one is American.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/ten-cases-of-coronavirus-found-on-diamond-princess-cruise-ship/news-story/ed2b9c07927a065530396892057ef3a2?utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=EditorialSF&utm_source=News.com.au&utm_content=SocialFlow&fbclid=IwAR2RkOOBlSQtpnnWBPpzV7pNeTNlrxu1qiSk-bumDaU1ij_qstoNCAE4gkg

[Kiwi Kruzer]

 Very worrying .

Cancelled sailings and cancelled bookings could see ships being laid up and even some cruise lines who rely on constant cash flows ,  go out of business.

 

[NSWP]

I would prefer to be in 14 day quarantine on Diamond Princess in Yokohama, rather that quarantined on Christmas Island in that 3rd world accommodation.

 

Good luck to those on the Diamond.  Everyone from the Captain down would be affected.  It would appear from other sources that the pax are not being fed for fear of the virus being in shipboard food. Bad situation.

Edited February 5, 2020 by NSWP

[LittleFish1976]

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, that's bad news. Although if every person on the ship has been tested, those that didn't test positive should be OK to go home. 

From the news I read, and given there are, from memory, 2,700 passengers on board, I assumed they have only tested those who were showing signs of illness.

 

Also, as far as medical matters go, I know it's sometimes not possible to do an effective test on a person in the early stages of infection - it just doesn't show up.

 

I've written to the insurance company which is covering my credit card travel insurance (the policy I'm using for an imminent voyage) to get certainty on the situation if I do travel and have a coronavirus issue. I see some policies do not cover any event which is connected to an epidemic or pandemic. Obviously, if the cruise line has to quarantine a ship your ship-board expenses would be covered by the cruise line (wouldn't they?) but if I were to require, say, air evacuation from off-shore etc due to my own illness, it could be a life-changing expense if your travel insurance didn't cover the event.