Zaandam and Rotterdam Situation (merged topics starting March 22, 2020)

[fatcat04]

I appreciate your thinking and the sentiment but we already have one thread on this subject that moderators are working hard to keep civil.  Probably not a great idea to start another thread.

Edited April 1, 2020 by fatcat04

[lostchild]

3 minutes ago, RJB said:

Good for him. It is about time. Been at least a week in Palm Beach County.   Hope it helps.

 

Starting from 3min in this video, he talked about the Zaandam.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-desantis-coronavirus-statewide-stay-at-home-order-lockdown

[DFD1]

Maybe this one will be more civil...and more rational.

[capriccio]

32 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

And somehow they know more than HAL does?  Wish it were true, but should be taken with a grain of salt.

HAL and Princess share some management functions and are Carnival Corp lines so it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the Coral captain, currently in what could evolve into a situation similar to that of the Zaandam, was informed.  Now whether he should have shared that info is another matter.

[hcat]

9 minutes ago, Boatdrill said:

Imagine being a relative of one of the deceased, and being onboard,  My heart goes out to them.  

Tragic story. 

People are deceased, people are sick.  Hope they  can agree to do something humane that minimizes risk to others...and get it done quickly before more die,

.

[ShipWalker]

14 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

Just for info; one of the decision making bodies that has to approve allowing Zaandam and Rotterdam's entry into Port Everglades

 

Broward Unified Command Members:

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Florida Department of Health in Broward County
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Customs & Border Protection
• Broward Sheriff’s Office Departments of Law Enforcement and Fire Rescue
• Broward County Emergency Management
• Port Everglades Pilots Association
• Broward County Port Everglades Department

For those interested in what "Unified Command" is and how it works go to the FEMA website and take Independent Studies online courses IS-100.c and 700b . It's free and quite enlightening and can be done in a couple of hours. And you get a certificate upon completion. I've got mine.

 

https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-100.c

Edited April 1, 2020 by ShipWalker

[Nymich]

3 minutes ago, ShipWalker said:

For those interested in what "Unified Command" is and how it works go to the FEMA website and take Independent Studies online courses IS-100.c and 700b . It's free and quite enlightening. And you get a certificate upon completion. I've got mine.

 

https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-100.c

I am quite certain all of the posters here are taking the courses right now.   Seriously though, good post.  Thanks

Edited April 1, 2020 by Nymich

[Eriksgarden]

We are all in this together.  I have been reaching out everywhere I can with the same message.  I pray for our brothers and sisters.  

[ShipWalker]

4 minutes ago, Nymich said:

I am quite certain all of the posters here are taking the courses right now.

That was the idea. 😁

Edited April 1, 2020 by ShipWalker

[Nymich]

1 minute ago, ShipWalker said:

That was the idea. 😁

Nice to read one of the few posts that is part of the solution and not part of the problem.   

[nowornever]

Greetings from someone who has been there, done that.  My heart goes out to the passengers & friends &relatives of passengers.  I've been following this board intently because of our very recent & painful experience in a similar but not as dire experience. Much is posted on the Silversea "Silver Shadow" section on cruise critic.  We were stuck in Recife for 10 days & quarantined in our cabins.. It was a 63 day S. American Grand Voyage from FLL on 1/24  but divided into 4 segments so others disembarked & embarked along the way. A man who embarked in Rio became ill almost immediately & was taken off the ship.  Sadly he has passed away but we were quarantined & not allowed to leave port. After many days & many announcements of forthcoming news, the Europeans & Canadians were repatriated & 105 Americans were still being held with ongoing negotiations between the government of Brazil, the State Dept., the governor of Texas, Royal Caribbean who owns Silversea & god only knows who else. Apparently the State Dept. decreed that we WOULD go to Texas but the governor did not want us. We will never know the machinations behind the scene.  We were finally evacuated a week ago Sunday, flown to DFW by charter into the private jet section of DFW, & from there, Silversea had chartered private jets to take us home according to geographic areas.  The days of endless uncertainty was maddening & even though the cabins are large & nicely arranged with mostly balconies & no inside cabins, the walls close in quickly. The staff on all of these ships are incredible.  They walk around in these hot & uncomfortable "protective" suits trying to smile & be kind while they are worried sick about becoming ill, about their families & about job uncertainty. With only room service, they were all pressed into service 14 hours or more a day.  Will be watching developments with a heavy heart but high hopes that this will be resolved soon & with no more sickness being reported & that those who are stricken being able to go home with proper care. 

[Homosassa]

Put the pressure on who?

 

We have no decisive leadership in Florida that is willing to firmly put in place state wide restrictions but instead leaves it up to the "locals."

 

Southeast Florida is currently a hot spot with insufficient medical supplies for the local population.

 

Perhaps the OP could speak to his  neighbors and volunteer his home locale as a quarantine site.

[doone]

28 minutes ago, Eriksgarden said:

Please put pressure on to let the Zaandam and Rotterdam dock here in Fort Lauderdale. We must show humanity and compassion for these people. Remember the St. Louis! #LetThemDock

Totally agree!!

[BigJohnL]

For what it's worth, the Port Everglades shipping schedule currently has the Zaandam arriving at Pier 2 April 2 at 6:00am, and the Rotterdam arriving at Pier 4 at 7:00am. Confusing things, it shows the Emerald Princess also arriving at Pier 2 at 7:00am. 😐 Of course, none of this is written in stone. Very, very tentative. I see these schedules changed many times. I just thought this was interesting enough to share here.

 

https://pevvesseltraffic.broward.org/webx/

Edited April 1, 2020 by BigJohnL

[conwakr]

19 minutes ago, hcat said:

Tragic story. 

People are deceased, people are sick.  Hope they  can agree to do something humane that minimizes risk to others...and get it done quickly before more die,

.

And the healthy persons - at this point I am not differentiating who has what or who doesn't have what....it's about getting all these people who find themselves in an untenable position where they need to go and put politics aside. 

[sndral]

38 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

At least the passengers off our two ships have been quarantined for many days, which is more than what the TSA officials can expect from their land-based passengers.

We learned from the Diamond Princess that ‘quarantine’ on a ship even confined to cabin did not work and resulted in exponential growth of COVID-19 positives, thus the fact that the passengers on Zaandam and now Rotterdam have not been on land is worth nothing because they have been exposed during their entire ‘quarantine’ onboard. 

I’m personally tired of the ‘check everyone’s temperature’ routine since the data now shows (see cite up thread) that 25% are asymptomatic transmitters of the virus, plus people infect others for an average of 2 days before they become symptomatic.

Ideally those who are carriers need to be identified and isolated rather than risk further spread of the infection, IMO, and the only reliable way to do that is to test.

[Nymich]

6 minutes ago, nowornever said:

 We were finally evacuated a week ago Sunday, flown to DFW by charter into the private jet section of DFW, & from there, Silversea had chartered private jets to take us home according to geographic areas.   

Glad to hear you are home safe and sound.  Shout out to Texas for getting the job done.  These things take time and Broward will come through here as well.

[Cruisin Kay D]

Thank you "nowornever" for posting your terrible experience!!   Hopefully all of those on this thread will take time to read & ponder what you experienced.   

Do you think that sick person who boarded in Rio didn't know he/she was sick or do you suspect he/she was sick and knew it then....??   How long exactly were you stuck on the ship in that port before transfer back to USA??

[RocketMan275]

12 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Put the pressure on who?

 

We have no decisive leadership in Florida that is willing to firmly put in place state wide restrictions but instead leaves it up to the "locals."

 

Southeast Florida is currently a hot spot with insufficient medical supplies for the local population.

 

Perhaps the OP could speak to his  neighbors and volunteer his home locale as a quarantine site.

There are now state wide restrictions in place.

The plan is to get these people to their homes, not quarantine them in Southeast Florida.

Perhaps we should consider what we would want if we, or our loved ones, were aboard one of these ships.

[rjbean4]

Once again I wanted to share that Desantis has  announced that he will be issuing a stay at home order for FL effective tomorrow, Thursday, at midnight. I wanted to share this again because so many people here  keep rattling on and on talking about where they think the 2 ships should go and what they think they should do. They continue to  show signs of heading to Port Everglades based on tracking websites and that's that. This is what I am going by.

 

https://www.wfla.com/community/health/coronavirus/florida-coronavirus-update-gov-desantis-to-hold-briefing-on-pandemic-response/

[Copper10-8]

Zaandam and Rotterdam, in the Florida Straits, passing Havana, Cuba to the south

 

https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9156527

[Homosassa]

6 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

There are now state wide restrictions in place.

The plan is to get these people to their homes, not quarantine them in Southeast Florida.

Perhaps we should consider what we would want if we, or our loved ones, were aboard one of these ships.

The restriction is a  statement about staying at home. 

 

There is still no mandatory state wide closure of public facilities, lodgings,  or asking those from out of state to return home.

 

Until that is done, the chasing of the almighty tourist dollar puts us at risk.

[RocketMan275]

1 minute ago, Homosassa said:

There is still no mandatory state wide closure of public facilities, lodgings,  or asking those from out of state to return home.

The passengers on those ships are trying to return home.

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

2 hours ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

Mayport, Florida is the site of a large Navy base, the ships could go there regardless of local authorities. https://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrse/installations/ns_mayport.html
 

They way the people on the Zaandam and Rotterdam are being treated, as well as some of the comments on this blog, is unconscionable.

 

Very true.  Florida could also use one of the freight docks to set up a medical center.

[larrywizzit]

28 minutes ago, BigJohnL said:

For what it's worth, the Port Everglades shipping schedule currently has the Zaandam arriving at Pier 2 April 2 at 6:00am, and the Rotterdam arriving at Pier 4 at 7:00am. Confusing things, it shows the Emerald Princess also arriving at Pier 2 at 7:00am. 😐 Of course, none of this is written in stone. Very, very tentative. I see these schedules changed many times. I just thought this was interesting enough to share here.

 

https://pevvesseltraffic.broward.org/webx/

They won’t be allowed to dock I’m afraid. 
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/coast-guard-cruise-ships-stay-sea-sick-onboard-69915070

 

The order now is to stay at sea. 😞