February 1, 2020 - May 1, 2020 - Changed the world we live in ...

[voljeep]

February 1, 2020

Princess Cruises confirms that a guest from Hong Kong who traveled 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 center for any reported illnesses during the voyage. The guest is currently admitted to a local hospital and reported to be in a stable condition.

The safety, security and well-being of all guests and crew are our absolute priority. Our chief medical officer is working with the relevant health authorities to determine if any further action is required. We will provide a further update once we have more information.

Diamond Princess is on a 14-day round trip itinerary, which departed from Yokohama (Tokyo) on January 20 and is scheduled to return on February 4. There are 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew onboard.

 

It's been a long 90 days … but trying to think about when did it really hit home for us ?  somewhere around the middle of that - March 13th - when my wife lost her part-time (couple of days a week, 10-12 hours total)  "nanny" job since that person lost their job/business and they didn't need her then … still temporary, we hope, and coming back soon ?

[Ombud]

18 minutes ago, voljeep said:

February 1, 2020

Princess Cruises confirms that a guest from Hong Kong who traveled 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 center for any reported illnesses during the voyage. The guest is currently admitted to a local hospital and reported to be in a stable condition.

The safety, security and well-being of all guests and crew are our absolute priority. Our chief medical officer is working with the relevant health authorities to determine if any further action is required. We will provide a further update once we have more information.

Diamond Princess is on a 14-day round trip itinerary, which departed from Yokohama (Tokyo) on January 20 and is scheduled to return on February 4. There are 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew onboard.

 

It's been a long 90 days … but trying to think about when did it really hit home for us ?  somewhere around the middle of that - March 13th - when my wife lost her part-time (couple of days a week, 10-12 hours total)  "nanny" job since that person lost their job/business and they didn't need her then … still temporary, we hope, and coming back soon ?

I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop having my daily bagel with cream cheese & coffee (ignoring Governor Newsom's request that those over 60 stay home) when April apologetically told me that the shop was going to be rearranged to eliminate in having shop inside (chairs & tables removed). That evening we were put on a mandatory Shelter in Place. So not until my daily routine was disrupted. 

 

We've had 6 Covid-19 cases in my city

[dog]

Several of us on cc watched the situation with the Diamond Princess at a safe distance. I flew to Ft Lauderdale 3 days prior to my cruise on the Island Princess. Never boarded, 

Edited May 1, 2020 by dog

[getting older slowly]

Mid January book our next cruise for November 2020 didn't give it a second thought.......

 

Then watched the Diamond incident unfold and one suddenly went wow......

 

I now know the inside of our apartment very well.... and going through our 300 odd movie collection....

 

with the only outing to get food.......  days seam to all be the same now...

 

Who would have thought.......90 days have past......and the light is still in the distance somewhere

 

Cheers Don

[phred119s]

Mid-March when our daughter’s school was closed for 2 weeks. Work shifted to home to accommodate home school. April brought 1 week of work for me, 3 weeks of furlough. And notification that e-learning would be the remainder of the year. May is also 1 week of work, 3 weeks of furlough. Luckily, my husbands job has been steady. He’s just now (as in the last 3 days) transferring back to working out of the house. Our home/work order is being lifted at 12:01 am on Monday. Restaurants are opening for outdoor seating only as well. 
 

There are 40 cases in our county. 

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

    Returned from a land vacation in Mexico in mid-January, my GP and I chuckled when he asked if I'd been to China. By early February, docs around New England weren't smiling any more. 😞

   
  The Times and the Post were talking about the coronavirus and Wuhan in late January, of course. The photos of the Wuhan makeshift hospitals started coming out through Twitter - rows and rows and rows of cheap-looking cots lined up on a bare floor in what looked like a low-ceiling auditorium or warehouse. 

   Jan. 31 is when Italy declared an emergency; so people around here who'd been thinking "oh, it's just another health problem way off in Asia" started paying lots more attention in early February. When Iraq started closing mosques at the same time that the Catholic Church was cancelling in-person Masses in Italy, you KNEW it was the real deal. 
 

   If there were any doubts whatsoever, the cancellation of the annual Housewares Show (usual attendance about 55,000) in Chicago ended them. That was March 2.  And by then, Hyatt had withdrawn its Wall Street guidance because so many major employers were calling off business travel.
 

    The NBA announcement seemed to turn a lot of the country around to the idea that people had to pay attention. (But yes, there were still the ludicrous ideologues insisting "fake news" and "mainstream media hype, it's just the flu - forget it, this will be gone by April."  Some of that crowd is still tinfoil-hatting around YouTube even now)

    And the early stories out of Italy were outright heart-breaking; true horror tales from nurses and docs. Now all of that has since descended on NYC and elsewhere. Connecticut has more than 2,200 dead; if you don't know a victim, you probably know someone who knows a victim.

 

 
 

   

[trinitygirl]

Late January I saw a post on CC that cabins on my April 2 Diamond Princess cruise had been dramatically reduced.  When I booked in November I paid nearly $5000AU for the last remaining indoor cabin.  Suddenly inside cabins were on sale for $1700! I cancelled my original booking, taking a $1200 penalty, and booked a balcony with a $700 refund.  I seriously thought it would all blow over by April.  Ten days later, Princess cancelled my cruise, gave me a FCC and paid back the $1200 cancellation penalty (and have since refunded the balcony booking).  I still thought it was going to blow over, so I took the FCC and booked a suite on the Star for a cruise to Alaska in May.  A fortnight later (first week of March) our government started closing our borders, and my university imposed a No Travel ban on all staff.  I cancelled the Alaska cruise the day after the work travel ban, and about a week later Princess started cancelling all the cruises.  I have been watching on in amazement all along.  I have now collected refunds for both sets of flights, 19 different tour reservations and hotel bookings, and am now just waiting on the refund (and FCC for the 25% that was non refundable) on the Alaska cruise and what I hope will be a refund for the $850 cancellation fee for my flights to Japan.  I had an email from Princess in late Feb saying 60 days so...  hopefully soon.

[FollowingTheSun]

Early March I told my sister that if she did come to Australia (from the UK) on her planned visit, my invite to stay with us was not on any more.

That was the hardest email I have ever sent.

She was already busy cancelling flights etc.

 

8^th March, I shook my head in disbelief that the Ruby Princess was sailing on that infamous voyage.

 

3^rd April, the second of two Ruby passengers died in our local hospital.

 

11^th April, the hospital was closed fully and all 1100 staff plus their families put into isolation. The rest of the 100,000 residents in our area went into tight lockdown.

 

5 days later, after a deep clean, the emergency department opened, staffed by military personnel flown in from other areas.

The rest of the hospital is still closed.

 

On that last day, a friend was visiting his wife in the hospital in preparation for her discharge. A nurse came in fully gowned up and put a mask on my friend’s wife. He was told to go home and isolate. That was the last time he saw his wife of 64 years.

1^st May, her death notice appeared in the local paper. She is one of 10 patients (so far) who contracted COVID19 at the hospital and died.

 

On Monday 4^th May, I will be allowed to go to the hardware store again. 3 weeks waiting to get some things to finish a project.

 

I still count myself one of the luck ones.

[Cash123]

We were on the 6th March Crown cruise, we left the UK on the 4th and flew from Heathrow to Miami, at that time there had not been many cases the UK so travelling through Heathrow was fairly normal and the same for Miami, once on the cruise again everything was normal except after a couple of days they changed the buffet from self-service to having crew and kitchen staff serving you.

 

I think it was around Friday 13 th !!!!!  that we heard that Princess were putting on hold all cruises from the 17th March and our cruise would be the last one for at least 60 days, the day after we heard that Trump had included the UK in the flight ban and it was taking effect from midnight the 16th and our flight home was at 6.30 pm on the 16th, that's when we knew things were bad not helped by seeing 3 ambulances waiting on the dock as we disembarked and paramedics dressed in masks& gowns taking stretchers on board.I

 

Well we did manage to make it back on schedule but to a different place we had left, supermarket shelves empty due to panic buying and lastly a few days after we got home getting an email from Princess saying someone on our cruise had developed  Covid-19, certainly a cruise to remember.

 

 

[AF-1]

Cash123;  did you ever have symptoms from the virus?  Did you have any passengers who were sick on board? 

[hpeabody]

I was a passenger on the Pacific Princess World Cruise that initially departed FLL on Jan 5th, I and many others joined in LA on Jan 20th.  We were enjoying the cruise a lot, but just as we finished our scheduled Australia itinerary (Fremantle/Perth) is when the rest of our itinerary fell apart.  We continued on, but with several unscheduled days in Western Australia.  We did move on towards our Indian Ocean destinations as more and more ports closed their doors.  Sri Lanka only allowed a "service call" for fuel and provisions, but we proceeded.  About a day and half past (north) of Sri Lanka the captain was given the orders to return to Fremantle/Perth and disembark the passengers, the cruise was ENDED.  THIS WAS WHEN I KNEW THIS WAS REALLY BIG.  It took 8 days to get to Fremantle/Perth, we had not set foot on land in 18 days before arriving back at Fremantle/Perth.  Although Australia had announced that all ports were closed, on March 21st we were able to disembark. We were only allowed to be on the ship, in the port terminal (for immigration formalities) where many of us sat for 5-6 hours and then on the bus to the airport late that night.  There were some passengers unable to fly and they remained on the ship and arrived in LA April 20th.  Our ship was absolutely SAFE, no Coronavirus.  It was quite daunting being thrust out into the big wide world from our safe little ship.  I too arrived home to already bare grocery store shelves and a very different world from anything we knew or could even imagine.

 

 

 

[antmaril]

My sister passed away on March 6th.  We had a Memorial planned for Sunday, 

March 15th, but we canceled it on Friday.   It was just too risky.  Our Stay-At-Home Order came a few days later and currently runs through May 15th.  The Emergency Lockdown runs through the end of May.  Our area was hit hard by COVID-19.  

 

[satxdiver]

3 hours ago, hpeabody said:

I was a passenger on the Pacific Princess World Cruise that initially departed FLL on Jan 5th, I and many others joined in LA on Jan 20th.  We were enjoying the cruise a lot, but just as we finished our scheduled Australia itinerary (Fremantle/Perth) is when the rest of our itinerary fell apart.  We continued on, but with several unscheduled days in Western Australia.  We did move on towards our Indian Ocean destinations as more and more ports closed their doors.  Sri Lanka only allowed a "service call" for fuel and provisions, but we proceeded.  About a day and half past (north) of Sri Lanka the captain was given the orders to return to Fremantle/Perth and disembark the passengers, the cruise was ENDED.  THIS WAS WHEN I KNEW THIS WAS REALLY BIG.  It took 8 days to get to Fremantle/Perth, we had not set foot on land in 18 days before arriving back at Fremantle/Perth.  Although Australia had announced that all ports were closed, on March 21st we were able to disembark. We were only allowed to be on the ship, in the port terminal (for immigration formalities) where many of us sat for 5-6 hours and then on the bus to the airport late that night.  There were some passengers unable to fly and they remained on the ship and arrived in LA April 20th.  Our ship was absolutely SAFE, no Coronavirus.  It was quite daunting being thrust out into the big wide world from our safe little ship.  I too arrived home to already bare grocery store shelves and a very different world from anything we knew or could even imagine.

 

 

 

Sorry to hear your cruise ended so abruptly.  We were scheduled to be on the Ruby on 4/4 in Sydney for a cruise back to San Pedro.  We were within days of boarding an airplane to go to Sydney when they canceled the cruise but no surprise.  We have been reading about the Pacific Princess and your posts.  Take care and be safe.

Terry & Debi

[Cash123]

5 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Cash123;  did you ever have symptoms from the virus?  Did you have any passengers who were sick on board? 

Hi, my wife was breathless and had a cough after we had returned home but when we spoke to our local doctor on the phone she assured us she didn't have covid but a chest infection and prescribed steroids and anti biotics, with regards to passengers on board we didn't hear anything about guests or crew being ill but was a bit worrying one night when we were returning to our cabin and while walkng along the corridor we passed some crew in masks and gowns cleaning out a cabin.

 

And as I said we did witness 3 ambulances waiting on the dock and then 3 crews  taking stretchers onto the ship so obviously there were sick people on board.

[AF-1]

Cash 123;  hope your wife is doing well.  All the best and thank you for your answer

[dog]

On 5/2/2020 at 12:38 PM, antmaril said:

My sister passed away on March 6th.  We had a Memorial planned for Sunday, 

March 15th, but we canceled it on Friday.   It was just too risky.  Our Stay-At-Home Order came a few days later and currently runs through May 15th.  The Emergency Lockdown runs through the end of May.  Our area was hit hard by COVID-19.  

 

So sorry to hear this. Take care. Be safe. 

[susancruzs]

Thoughts for everyone, sad situation, reading how this impacts lives in some way.  I didn't have cruise plans until Aug., a Grand Adventure on the Sky, I cancelled end of April.  I'm in good health for 70's, my sister, 80, isn't, lives near me, being careful.  We stay in, except for necessities.  I do walk to her house, and visit at a safe distance.  She had TB as a teen, lost part of her lung, then had heart valve surgery.  She is very high risk if she would get the virus.

 

NE Wisconsin started off o.k. until the meat packaging industry got hit hard.  Milwaukee had the most cases but now Green Bay, Brown County have problems.  I'm by the lake shore.

 

Stay strong, folks, take care and we will get through this.

[antmaril]

5 hours ago, dog said:

So sorry to hear this. Take care. Be safe. 

Thank you. 

[MJSailors]

         My DH and I were in Florida on vacation the later part of Jan. into early Feb. 

We heard some news about a virus affecting people in Wuhan,China. Initially,we thought it was a bad flu in China similar to the Bird Flu that was around a number of years ago.

         We returned home on Feb.4th and went about our usual routine.We visited with friends and attended a birthday party.

          After reading accounts of cruise ship passengers being quarantined and a travel ban to/from Europe,we cancelled a bucket list Bermuda vacation planned for March 5-12, where I planned to play golf. Something I had wanted to do for awhile.We were concerned about contracting the virus on vacation,being quarantined away from home and traveling through JFK airport International Building.

           March 8,I attended a meeting at our church where precautions were being discussed for the upcoming Holy Week and Easter celebrations,mindful of the impact of the virus.

           The following day, it was reported in our local newspaper that a bartender at a local brewery was diagnosed with Covid-  19.  Things began to get very real in our small township. One of the first closings that we heard about was the local senior center that served a daily lunch. 

              Other closings followed. Then the Stay-at-Home order went into effect.

The latest case count of the virus in our small township is over three hundred. Our small town in the township has 71 cases to date. We have lost two good neighbors to the disease. We live in the part of Long Island,NY that is considered a virus hot spot. Today, the County Executive announced that our county has only met two of the seven CDC criteria for return to regular life. 

            Today, Gov Cuomo extended the Stay-at-Home order until early June.

We haven’t seen friends,attended church, gone out for dinner, gone to the movies or the theater. We have yet to meet our grandniece who was born on Feb.7th.  There will be no graduations to attend.

               Changed the world we live in.....I should say so.

 

 

 

[warthog2608]

We had a great time on the Royal out of Long Beach over New Years. The world was normal and we were looking forward to our next booking, a 15 day to Hawaii out of SF on the Grand leaving March 7.  Then we started hearing disturbing reports about the Diamond. We were nervously following the Grand when news came out that a passenger who got off the previous cruise tested positive. The Grand’s visit to Ensenada was cancelled and it headed back to SF. We still hadn’t cancelled as we figured Princess was going to cancel which they did March 5. The Grand didn’t arrive in the bay until March 9, 2 days after we were supposed to leave. Princess quickly refunded all our fees and also gave us a FCC. As much as we love cruising, I can’t see us cruising again until there is a vaccine and the world can go back to normal. 

[HogTide]

It hit home for us at 0705 hours on 7 Feb. DW & I had our bags at the back door, due to depart for the airport within the hour when I tuned into the CBS morning news just as they were reporting a Royal Caribbean ship had eight possible virus cases in the NJ port.  Before they later confirmed that the passengers had flu our clock had run down and we decided to cancel our 8 Feb cruise on the SKY.  We had been watching too much news about the passengers on the Diamond. No regrets, we still feel it wasa a good decision.  We are now booked for a Sept 2021 cruise to Alaska, looking for that vaccine!!

[PescadoAmarillo]

I remember so well sitting next to the Most Traveled Guests at the MTG luncheon on the Majestic Princess in January. They were scheduled to stay on the Majestic Princess (except for the drydock) well into May, when they were going to move to the Sapphire in Shanghai and spend another few months on that ship. I asked Mr. MTG if they were concerned about this virus I had just heard about in China, and, of course, they were (rightfully so...they must be among the passengers whose travel plans were most disrupted by this pandemic). 
 

Then, on February 4, the Majestic Princess did a turnaround in Sydney. The internet on that ship was abysmal, so we were sitting in the buffet downloading emails over cellular and we both had an email from Princess that passengers from mainland China would not be allowed to board the cruise beginning that day (but that passengers from Tawan, Hong Kong and Macau would be able to board after taking a health questionnaire). February 4 was also the day that the Diamond was first quarantined, for 24 hours initially. While we were sightseeing in Sydney that day, we spoke with a couple getting on a RC ship in the next couple of days, and they said that RC was not allowing passengers from (or who had flown through) mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau on their ship. Hmmmm. We already knew the Majestic Princess had a heavily Asian passenger demographic and this was a bit of a concern. 
 

Once that cruise began, we were told that 30 passengers from mainland China had been prevented from boarding, but that there were at least that many on board from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Our level of concern rose, so much that we actually considered flying back to Sydney from either Melbourne (the first port) or Hobart (the third) and waiting in Sydney for our flight several days later. By then, we were aware that the Diamond quarantine was 14 days, and we did not want to get caught in that same situation. However, we felt that our EZ Air flight home from Sydney might get cancelled if we cut our cruise short. So we stayed on board. 
 

We were very happy to be able to disembark in Sydney on February 12, and even happier to be allowed to fly home. Frankly, I couldn’t (and still can’t ) understand why anyone would want to board a cruise ship after mid-February...

 

...until we arrived home to no one thinking the virus was a big deal, certain TV doctors calling it overblown by the media and even those in high political offices totally downplaying it. We just feel very, very fortunate that we had a few weeks head start to get food and supplies in our house (which had little of either) before the craziness and stockpiling began. 

[amypete]

Such interesting recounts of how we all watched the world change. I'm so sorry for those who know some who have passed. I retired last fall and we had lots of cruises and vacations in the works! We had gone to Jamaica with friends in February and while we were there, I was reading CC during those times for fun, didn't we all? I remember telling my friends about what was happening on the Diamond. It seemed like there was no way it would impact us, that was clear over there!!! We got back on the 9th, I babysat grandkids in Detroit a week later and the news was all about the presidential election. Nonstop. Bernie was winning right and left and Bloomberg was getting trashed. And Trump about impeachment. Came home and left for North Carolina the first weekend in March. Heard a little more about it then, saw one person in the Omaha airport with a mask and his Clorox wipes, wiping everything down on our flight. I remember I had to cough once and blow my nose on the airplane and didn't want to get dirty looks. We came home on the 9th. More in the news but still, no crisis in our part of the world. Maybe the first person in NY in New Rochelle had gotten diagnosed? At the end of the week, my DH gave a big 60th birthday for me at our wine bar in town. And two days later, the walls closed in. I never would have thought my birthday party was the last of the lasts! I remember then thinking OK if 2 weeks go by and no one gets sick, it'll be OK. And they did. School was cancelled in the middle of the next week. And my son came home a week early from college and it was a few days later that it sunk in that he was HOME to stay. As we are too, with no European Capitals cruise next fall. Oh well. Stay healthy, all! 

[AF-1]

Interesting story of Princess and Royal Caribbean not allowing some guests; but others could board.  Thanks for sharing your experience PescadoAmarillo

[mammajamma2013]

The 8th annual Sierra Vista multi-distance trail run was held Feb. 29/Mar. 1. March 11, White Sands Missile Range cancelled the 31st annual Bataan Memorial marathon, which was to be held March 15 with over 9,000 participants and thousands of support personnel. Hearing about the rest of the country being so hard hit and wondering if the marathon was actually going to proceed caused a lot of anxiety (for me) but the cancellation made it real.

 

Governor Grisham locked New Mexico down shortly after that. We might be released May 15. More likely it we'll start a gradual opening of businesses. School is effectively over for the year other than on-line classes.