Queen Mary 2 - Mauritius Fuel Stop

[rafinmd]

Funny how I remember things a lot differently from this guy in some ways.  The article makes it sound like people were allowed to remain on board only after concerned passengers brought it to their attention that some people could not fly.  Not exactly.

 

I remember the events starting early Saturday morning when Captain Hashmi came on the PA with the announcement that nobody, not even Captain Wells would be allowed to board but the cruise would continue in a somewhat modified manner.  I believe that was the intention for everybody at Cunard for almost 24 hours.

 

Sunday morning I watched Paul O'Loughlin's morning show at 6AM and that certainly appeared to be his understanding as well.  In that show he talked about how with nobody boarding there would be no new entertainers or lecturers and that the staff was formulating plans for an entertainment plan based solely on the onboard staff.  I am quite confident that if the decision to abort the voyage had been made then O'laughlin would have been informed although he might have been asked to keep the details to himself.

 

Based on a continuing voyage I decided to do laundry early with a goal of getting to a worship service around 10AM.  The deck 8 laundry was spoken for but the guy who opened the rooms took me to deck 6 where I started my laundry.  I was headed down the stairs to move the wash to the dryer when Captain Hashmi's bombshell came.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  The option for people who couldn't fly was part of the plan right from about the second minute of the announcement with details of the conditions for returning on the ship.

 

Not quite sure where the idea that it wasn't part of the plan from the beginning and there were variations in the program during the repatriation from other onboard accounts.

 

Still, Captain Hashmi did a fantastic job getting those people home safely.

 

Roy

[Cruise NH]

2 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

Here's a link to an article in today's Sunday Post from Scotland that reminded me of the above post from exactly a month ago.

 

Scottish pensioner who was one of the world’s last cruise passengers reaches dry land after month on luxurious but deserted liner

 

Here's a partial quote from that article.

 

“We got a very formal letter from Cunard that said, ‘Due to the coronavirus outbreak we regret to inform you the world cruise is at an end and we plan to fly you all home tomorrow’.

 

“Quite a few of us ­protested. The reason many of us took the voyage was to avoid flying, and the last thing we wanted to do was take a long flight home.

 

“We asked where the ship was going, and they were very coy at first. Then they admitted it was going back to Southampton. I dug my heels in and said if they wanted me off the ship, they would have to carry me off and it would be headline news in the next day’s papers. They knew I meant business and they gave in and agreed to take us back by sea.”

 

Overall, the article comes across as generally positive about the entire experience and closes with this quote.

 

“I’d like to say thank you, a really big thank you, to captain Aseem Hashmi and his incredible crew who sailed Queen Mary 2 home, navigating some extraordinary circumstances along the way.”

 

Thank you for posting this Bluemarble...that is certainly our guy!  He was not getting off that ship that's for sure.  

 

I noticed Roy posted that he understood that Southampton was the destination the whole time.  That's correct but on the 1st day we were in Fremantle the Captain announced we would be heading to Mauritus and still hoped to dock in Cape town, etc.  That all changed the next day but I think that might be what he was referring to in the article.  

 

It's interesting that the Costa ship docked with us in Fremantle on the 16th continued their world cruise (but with no stops) with their passengers on board.  They just recently docked in Italy, their final stop. The Princess Pacific also continued on without stops, it's odd that different lines did things differently.