800 Covid patients cruise into Sydney on Majestic Princess
Hundreds of keen travellers queued to board the Majestic Princess just hours after the ship docked at Circular Quay with 800 infected people on board.
NSW
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Thousands of eager passengers put aside Covid concerns to board the Majestic Princess on Saturday, after an outbreak infected more than a quarter of those aboard the previous voyage.
Boarding for the eight-day return trip to Tasmania was delayed for several hours on Saturday afternoon, to allow crew to help healthy passengers disembark before removing the 800 Covid-infected travellers deck by deck and then thoroughly cleaning the luxury liner.
Many of the new passengers said they learnt of the outbreak for the first time upon arrival at the terminal at Circular Quay, claiming Princess Cruises had not communicated with them about the potential risk.
Yet while it wasn’t the start to their vacation they’d hoped for, many passengers – including Chloe Pringle, 21, and William Edwards, 20 – were surprisingly upbeat about the potential Covid risk on-board.
“It’s very last minute, we booked three weeks ago and all of a sudden we heard about a Covid case and found out (on Saturday) morning it’s 800,” Mr Edwards said.
“We are just trying to stay positive, not go near too many people and ride it out until we might get it.
“You get Covid and then you get over it, people have passed away but the younger you are the better.”
Retirees Jayne and Ian Slater were also unconcerned about boarding the ship so soon after the outbreak, saying they had faith in the cruise line’s ability to keep them safe.
“We are excited, we’ve been waiting for this and nothing about it worries us,” said Mrs Slater, from Port Macquarie.
Mr Slater said the Covid risk was present everywhere, not just cruise ships, and it wouldn’t impact his 23rd cruise.
There was a similar air of acceptance from those disembarking the previous 12-day cruise from New Zealand, at sunrise on Saturday morning.
Infected passengers waved from their balconies as healthy travellers disembarked from the vessel fully masked and equipped with testing kits and instructions to monitor for symptoms. Just six days into their voyage, Covid had begun to run rampant among guests and crew members.
Those who tested positive were forced into isolation, contained in their cabins for the rest of their journey, but the virus had already spread.
Some sick passengers said rules were too lax on board as buffets were still operating, and they felt masks should have been worn earlier in more heavily populated areas.
As the virus struck down staff, bars and events were dialled back and wait times for room service for infected passengers dragged on.
While the last few days were “not so good” cruise lovers said it didn’t dampen their spirits.
“We felt safe most of the time,” said passenger Sharon Leslie from Queensland.
Nicholas Hamlin, 19, said the outbreak had little impact on his family holiday and: “everyone was still walking around having good fun, swimming in the pools, doing gameshows and trivia”.
Sharon Kluger was one of the first people to disembark the ship after testing negative.
She said Princess Cruises did well to keep passengers informed and enforced mandatory mask mandates as the outbreak worsened in the final days of the trip.
“We weren’t worried about Covid, we were just doing our own thing and wearing our masks,” she said.
Before disembarking on Saturday morning passengers needed to provide proof of a negative test, which was completed before they docked in Sydney.
However one cruiser said the Covid testing system on board was “a joke” and that rapid antigen tests were done unsupervised inside cabins on Friday night.
While non-infected passengers were quick to disembark, those with family members stuck on-board with Covid were left in the dark for much of Saturday.
Warriewood local Stephanie Park and her son Finlay were excited to take her parents on the Majestic Princess, but their holiday was cut short when her father tested positive. By early Saturday afternoon the infected passengers were being removed from the ship and ushered into a separate staging area at the Overseas Passenger Terminal where they were told not to use public transport and to finish their five day isolation at home. At least three were taken from the ship to waiting ambulances and most infected passengers were picked up by private vehicles.
Carnival Australia President Marguerite Fitzgerald said: “We have been proactively preparing for and managing incidences of Covid-19 and working with NSW Health”. The ship, with 3300 passengers aboard was due in Melbourne Monday. the cruise line said.
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