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

[jerseyjjs]

5 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

The passengers on those ships are trying to return home.

 

All 1,243 passengers or just the 305 U.S. citizens?

[Nymich]

1 minute ago, larrywizzit said:

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. 😞

They will not be docking until the Commissioners meet again.  Is anyone actually following the story or just listening to the media.

[RocketMan275]

2 minutes ago, jerseyjjs said:

All 1,243 passengers or just the 305 U.S. citizens?

They are all trying to get home.  The FLL city council was briefed on plans to get the foreign passengers to the airport for charter flights home.

[DFD1]

3 minutes ago, Nymich said:

They will not be docking until the Commissioners meet again.  Is anyone actually following the story or just listening to the media.

Exactly. Thank you.

[hcat]

33 minutes ago, conwakr said:

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. 

By the time they  run it around some more, they will all be ill or mentally stressed out!   Loss of control of one's freedom is very unsettling to say the least!

[sansterre]

25 minutes ago, rjbean4 said:

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/

Thank you for posting this (again).  It never ceases to amaze me what people focus on.

Odd that Gov. Desantis didn't say anything about the Rotterdam and Zaandam.  It would seem that he is going to let "home rule" take care of this situation.  

[3rdGenCunarder]

10 minutes ago, Nymich said:

They will not be docking until the Commissioners meet again.  Is anyone actually following the story or just listening to the media.

 

I hear you. I am not one to bash the media, but reports are often incomplete or inaccurate and then people "Interpret" them. The coast guard statement seems to be about sick people on board, with no mention of the 2 HAL ships with "healthy" passengers on board. So we can't take that as proof that NOBODY will be allowed off the ships.

 

And if you want to see media hype, go to the home page of the Weather Channel--not my idea of a source of news--and there's a headline about "We are stuck on this death ship." 🙄

 

So let's not add to the hype here.

Edited April 1, 2020 by 3rdGenCunarder
typo

[Cruzinnana47]

47 minutes ago, nowornever said:

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. 

Your story is incredible and close to home since my boss & his wife from MA were also on the Silver Shadow (their cruise began on 3/7).  They came home last week from Texas as well.  He told us their luggage is still on the ship.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Cruzinnana47

[2+2]

Thank you noworever.  Your story turned out well, just like it will for these passengers and crew.  I can only imagine how you felt every time you heard the sound of the Captains announcements and listened and wondered what was in store next. Let's hope the coming announcements for both ships will be uplifting for the passengers and crew. They need something good to happen.

[Nymich]

4 minutes ago, 2+2 said:

They need something good to happen.

From the sound of the Broward County Commissioners meeting yesterday that "good" is happening.   People like Copper and Shipwalker have left some great posts here.  There are a lot of moving parts here but it will happen.  Easy to say hard to do.

[the_thunderbird]

2 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Regarding US military bases, only the 300 US citizens are pertinent.  Canadians are still foreign nationals so yes, they are just as complicated as the crew and other foreign passengers.  I'm not injecting opinion on that comment; just giving the facts.

 

The Canadians are probably all or close to all foreign, not foreign nationals (a Canadian foreign national would be a full time resident of the US). 

 

I've been following this thread out of personal interest, I'm the Commander of a Canadian military unit that was tasked with assisting Canadian repatriation from cruise ships in early March, and a previous cruiser. Such an interesting and tragic situation here.  

 

The (Canadian) passengers on these two boats are going to be in a very difficult situation when they dock. Many likely don't have travel insurance right now, unless purchased with this specific travel package and it included an extension provision. In the first week of March near all Canadian insurers removed international leisure travel because of Covid-19. Additionally, I suspect support from the Government of Canada will be somewhat minimal, albeit not totally non-existent. The Travel Advisory for cruise ships was posted three or four days before the Zandaam left. Canada offers minimal consulate services to those that travel contrary to an advisory; this one was also very, very well published in the media because of the significant Government efforts to repatriate Canadians from cruises going on during the first week of March. 

 

That said there's likely enough passengers here for an Air Canada Bridge flight or too, Florida still has some minimal services to Canada. Hopefully a swift return is ahead, and an uneventful isolation on their return. 

 

 

[BigJohnL]

48 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/

Port schedule now has Zaandam arriving at Pier 21 and Rotterdam at Pier 19. Scheduled arrival times are unchanged.

 

I am NOT saying they WILL dock as shown.

[Copper10-8]

3 minutes ago, the_thunderbird said:

 

The Canadians are probably all or close to all foreign, not foreign nationals (a Canadian foreign national would be a full time resident of the US). 

 

I've been following this thread out of personal interest, I'm the Commander of a Canadian military unit that was tasked with assisting Canadian repatriation from cruise ships in early March, and a previous cruiser. Such an interesting and tragic situation here.  

 

The (Canadian) passengers on these two boats are going to be in a very difficult situation when they dock. Many likely don't have travel insurance right now, unless purchased with this specific travel package and it included an extension provision. In the first week of March near all Canadian insurers removed international leisure travel because of Covid-19. Additionally, I suspect support from the Government of Canada will be somewhat minimal, albeit not totally non-existent. The Travel Advisory for cruise ships was posted three or four days before the Zandaam left. Canada offers minimal consulate services to those that travel contrary to an advisory; this one was also very, very well published in the media because of the significant Government efforts to repatriate Canadians from cruises going on during the first week of March. 

 

That said there's likely enough passengers here for an Air Canada Bridge flight or too, Florida still has some minimal services to Canada. Hopefully a swift return is ahead, and an uneventful isolation on their return. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your service Sir! Not sure if you are aware of this statement, yesterday in front of the Broward County Commission, by Carnival Corp. Chief Maritime Officer, retired U.S. Navy Admiral William Burke:

 

A plan is in place to send everyone home. He said buses will take 250 passengers to Canada, and a charter flight will take 120 Australians. Burke also said there will be charter flights to California, Germany and the United Kingdom.

 

[bluesea321]

1 hour ago, capriccio said:

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.

 

Sorry to contradict you but I went back to the Coral Princess thread and the Captain did not say anything about the Zaandam, it was a passenger that said it and when he was challenged he walked it back with this:

 

"I thought I read it on one of the news outlets but I do not remember where.  From a search just now it appears they have not been cleared yet but hopefully that will change.  I apologize if I misled everyone."

[Max2003]

33 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

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

 

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

Zaandam showing 20.4 Kts.    That is pushing warp speed for her. Although she has the current with her.  Looks like about 200NM left to FLL.  They should be there a little after midnight.   That is a lot of extra fuel if they can't dock til Friday??  Or do they know something??  

 

[the_thunderbird]

Good on them for that, and thanks for sharing - depending on where they fly too I may be greeting these passengers. Sending good vibes for an arrival as planned 🙂

[Barefoot_Pirate]

The coast guard has this guidance for all cruise ships (this is for the 7th district). 

 

https://homeport.uscg.mil/Lists/Content/Attachments/62863/MSIB 20-001 COVID-19 Cruiseship Medical Capabilities_Signed.29Mar20.pdf

 

 

[Suzez]

Keeping everything crossed for all involved. Hoping they will all be in their homes soon

[WonderMan3]

55 minutes ago, sndral said:

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.

 

While I agree, the problem is that there just aren't enough tests. The correct thing to do then is to follow what they did with Grand Princess, meaning the government handles the disembarkation carefully and the sick are sent off to hospitals and the rest of the passengers are sent off to military bases for 14 day quarantine. Taking people's temperatures is meaningless as you said as they could have the virus and be asymptomatic and then transfer it to people in airplanes home or buses to Canada or whatever these proposed plans are.

[Copper10-8]

1 minute ago, Max2003 said:

Zaandam showing 20.4 Kts.    That is pushing warp speed for her. Although she has the current with her.  Looks like about 200NM left to FLL.  They should be there a little after midnight.   That is a lot of extra fuel if they can't dock til Friday??  Or do they know something??  

 

 

I think they just want to be there ASAP to be in place, and await a decision as to their fate. Remember also that they do have folks onboard who are on ventilators. The report yesterday stated that they attempted to medically disembark a patient off San Andres Island, Colombia however the Colombians wound up prohibiting that operation, so they - the two ships - continued on their way

[capriccio]

6 minutes ago, bluesea321 said:

 

Sorry to contradict you but I went back to the Coral Princess thread and the Captain did not say anything about the Zaandam, it was a passenger that said it and when he was challenged he walked it back with this:

 

"I thought I read it on one of the news outlets but I do not remember where.  From a search just now it appears they have not been cleared yet but hopefully that will change.  I apologize if I misled everyone."

No problem correcting me!  I had just returned to the thread and saw that post and was going to correct mine here!

[sailingdutchy]

9 minutes ago, Max2003 said:

Zaandam showing 20.4 Kts.    That is pushing warp speed for her. Although she has the current with her.  Looks like about 200NM left to FLL.  They should be there a little after midnight.   That is a lot of extra fuel if they can't dock til Friday??  Or do they know something??  

 

 

 

Right now it showed Zaandam at 21.2  and Rotterdam at 21.8 Kts.  !!!!  

[3rdGenCunarder]

Just now, sailingdutchy said:

 

 

Right now it showed Zaandam at 21.2  and Rotterdam at 21.8 Kts.  !!!!  

 

Speedboat race!!!

[sndral]

15 minutes ago, the_thunderbird said:

 

The Canadians are probably all or close to all foreign, not foreign nationals (a Canadian foreign national would be a full time resident of the US). 

 

I've been following this thread out of personal interest, I'm the Commander of a Canadian military unit that was tasked with assisting Canadian repatriation from cruise ships in early March, and a previous cruiser. Such an interesting and tragic situation here.  

 

The (Canadian) passengers on these two boats are going to be in a very difficult situation when they dock. Many likely don't have travel insurance right now, unless purchased with this specific travel package and it included an extension provision. In the first week of March near all Canadian insurers removed international leisure travel because of Covid-19. Additionally, I suspect support from the Government of Canada will be somewhat minimal, albeit not totally non-existent. The Travel Advisory for cruise ships was posted three or four days before the Zandaam left. Canada offers minimal consulate services to those that travel contrary to an advisory; this one was also very, very well published in the media because of the significant Government efforts to repatriate Canadians from cruises going on during the first week of March. 

 

That said there's likely enough passengers here for an Air Canada Bridge flight or too, Florida still has some minimal services to Canada. Hopefully a swift return is ahead, and an uneventful isolation on their return. 

 

 

Interesting. The travel advisory against cruise travel in the USA issued 3/8, the day after Zaandam left Buenos Aires. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/08/coronavirus-state-department-cruise-ship-travel/4998017002/

[Max2003]

1 minute ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

I think they just want to be there ASAP to be in place, and await a decision as to their fate. Remember also that they do have folks onboard who are on ventilators. The report yesterday stated that they attempted to medically disembark a patient off San Andres Island, Colombia however the Colombians wound up prohibiting that operation, so they - the two ships - continued on their way

 

We saw the sail by at St Andres yesterday.  I thought it was strange at the time.  I assume it would be dicey transferring from one ventilator to another, unless they were going to leave the HAL ventilator.  This will be an incredible story of effort when it is all told!