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


bouhunter
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The politics of this makes me sick.  Somebody explain to me what the big risk their us to FLL and Florida?  The passengers with mild sickness stay on the ship until well, the 10 passengers needing hospitals will go to a hospital that Holland has made arrangements with so nobody is being dumped on the Florida Heath are system. The healthy passengers will be checked for fever and leave the ship wearing masks by charter bus To the airport and get on a plane and leave.   I just don’t see the issue.  

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1 hour ago, volk904 said:

The politics of this makes me sick.  Somebody explain to me what the big risk their us to FLL and Florida?  The passengers with mild sickness stay on the ship until well, the 10 passengers needing hospitals will go to a hospital that Holland has made arrangements with so nobody is being dumped on the Florida Heath are system. The healthy passengers will be checked for fever and leave the ship wearing masks by charter bus To the airport and get on a plane and leave.   I just don’t see the issue.  


I think one of the biggest issues is that so many people can be asymptomatic with the virus and still spread it. I’m 60+ and I tested positive in Early March (with high risk travel) and had no symptoms other than a sore throat and very mild cough that went away in a couple days. I never ran a fever but still tested positive on two separate tests. 

 

The county has also indicated that the plan from Carnival Corp. is not sufficient 

 

The majority of cases in Florida are in and around the Ft. Lauderdale area. They’re probably worried about it spreading and taxing the hospitals more than they already are. 

Edited by KirkWN737
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The emotional saga of ms Zaandam and, to a lesser extent, her older half-sister ms Rotterdam could hopefully come to a conclusion tomorrow in Port Everglades, FL. This will all depend on a positive vote from the Broward County Board of Commissioners, as well as an unanimous buy-in from the Broward Unified Command. The county commission is similar to a city council, while the Broward Unified Command consists of a group of representatives from local, county, state and federal organizations such as the Port Everglades Pilots Association (local), Sheriff's Office (county), Florida Dept. of Health (state), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (federal), USCG (federal) as well as three others.

 

Zaandam and Rotterdam are currently sailing northbound off Miami, FL. They have been ordered by the USCG to remain outside of U.S. territorial waters and will not get permission to enter Port Everglades until the aforementioned two entities agree to this. 

 

In the mean time, the Port Everglades harbormaster site, if permission is granted, shows Zaandam assigned to berth #21 and Rotterdam to berth #19. Once successfully berthed, a plan will be set into motion to disembark the healthy pax from both ships and transport them to MIA and FLL airports (a small group of locals to their personal vehicles at one of the PE parking structures), as well as a small group of seriously ill patients to a local hospital.

 

The webcams are at:

 

https://www.portevergladeswebcam.com/

 

&

 

https://www.ftlauderdalewebcam.com/

 

Keep your fingers crossed for the pax and crews of both dam ships!

 

Edited by Copper10-8
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13 hours ago, rabidstoat said:

 

Netherlands would involve, what, 5 or 6 days out of sight of land? If things get really bad on the ship there's no hope for medevac on a transatlantic.

Depending on the course and speed of course, there's Bermuda, the Azores and Madeira .I'd say nevermore than two or three days. But it's not up to me, just wondering what the obligations of the government (mine in this case) are under which flag they sail.

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6 hours ago, volk904 said:

The politics of this makes me sick.  Somebody explain to me what the big risk their us to FLL and Florida?  The passengers with mild sickness stay on the ship until well, the 10 passengers needing hospitals will go to a hospital that Holland has made arrangements with so nobody is being dumped on the Florida Heath are system. The healthy passengers will be checked for fever and leave the ship wearing masks by charter bus To the airport and get on a plane and leave.   I just don’t see the issue.  


The risk is, every single person who works to assist the guests off the ship - port employees, customs officers, bus drivers, pilots/flight attendants, health care workers, etc. - will be exposed to the virus and then run the risk of spreading it more.  A large percentage of people carrying the virus are asymptomatic, so checking for fever tells nothing.  No matter how you disembark these guests, they will put the people helping to disembark them at risk.  

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6 minutes ago, MarLieb said:

  A large percentage of people carrying the virus are asymptomatic, so checking for fever tells nothing.  No matter how you disembark these guests, they will put the people helping to disembark them at risk. 

 

... and those on the ship who are perfectly healthy, run the risk of being infected by the locals helping them...

 

Being unloaded into a self-declared 'hot-spot' which has not yet even been subject to a 'safer-at-home' order isn't the passengers' first choice either.

 

There are no perfect risk-free solutions on either side of this one now, only a question of doing the best that can be done in difficult circumstances.

Edited by Mark_T
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11 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

 

... and those on the ship who are perfectly healthy, run the risk of being infected by the locals helping them...

 

Being unloaded into a self-declared 'hot-spot' which has not yet even been subject to a 'safer-at-home' order isn't the passengers' first choice either.

 

There are no perfect risk-free solutions on either side of this one now, only a question of doing the best that can be done in difficult circumstances.

I completely agree.

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32 minutes ago, DFD1 said:

Few things in life are risk-free and sometimes we just have to take the risk in order to do what is right.

I agree.  To me it is ridiculous that they don't keep on working together until there is a solution - it it was one of their family members onboard, bet they would be working into the wee hours and not going home until it was settled.  To keep saying they are coming back another day makes me mad.

 

.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

The signs are generally good at the moment though, so let's park this here intil there is more news.

 

Shouldn't be long before there is some clarity on which way this is going...

You want to dock it here?

Why?  My mind is on the crew and passengers aboard these two ships.

I'm going to the Port Everglades webcam!

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I'm only suggesting that a repeat of yesterday where everything was rehashed multiple times including the same pro/anti statements at least once an hour might be better avoided today.

 

It tends to bury the actual 'news', so it would be great to add anything spotted on a webcam of course, and any public confirmations of what is happening, but on the flip side it would be more than wonderful if we didn't just get the same combination of 20/20 hindsight and 'Monday morning quarterbacking' today when we should be so close to getting the actual plan and the final decisions... 🙂  (I can always hope)

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My guess is that the political pressure has become intense in the last 24 hours....to the extent that the Broward County Commission, having required a plan to be presented, will allow the ships to dock this afternoon.

 

Having said that, the difficulty of managing the situation once the ships are docked is a very real and pressing challenge for a lot of professionals from several jurisdictions in and around Port Everglades.

 

This is a tough situation.....new territory for everyone involved.

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