NZ volcano: Ovation of the Seas returns to Sydney after blast
Passengers on board Ovation of the Seas have slammed cruise ship’s management for its handling of the New Zealand volcano blast and claimed on return to Sydney that they were only given mental health support on the final night.
NSW
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A NSW mother has told of her son’s heartbreak as he learned his new friend would not return to the cruise ship after being declared missing, presumed dead, in the New Zealand volcano eruption.
Central Coast mother Rachel Ashcroft’s teen son had become friends with Zoe Hosking, 15, on board the Ovation of the Seas cruise liner before she left to tour the volcanic White Island.
It erupted while she was ashore.
“My son … had made friends with one of the girls on the trip – you’re thinking about it all the time, it is close to your heart,” she said.
“He actually knew Zoe, Zoe Hosking, so yeah, that was a bit hard, but he’s okay, he’s dealt with it. (He was) very sad, very heartbroken.
Zoe was confirmed dead by New Zealand authorities on Sunday morning.
“First reaction was that he was very upset when he realised that, him and his mates knew that she hadn’t come back and they were all a bit worried about her.
“I feel very sad for the people who went through what they went through.”
Canadian tourist Sylvain Plasse told The Daily Telegraph that he met American honeymooners Matthew and Lauren Urey on board the ship the night before they were both seriously injured in the disaster.
“They were sitting the concierge lounge and they were at the table right next to me … the wife was saying she was excited and that it was his first cruise and she said at every port site we’re going to make sure we do an excursion,” he said.
“The next night I went back to the lounge and it was quiet (after the eruption) … I didn’t see that couple and I was hoping they didn’t take that excursion.
“Apparently his body is burnt 80 per cent and she is 25 per cent, they were put in separate hospitals.”
Ms Ashcroft and Mr Plasse were among the thousands of passengers who stepped off the Royal Caribbean cruise liner arrived back in Sydney Harbour just before 6am on Monday, a week after a blast killed and critically injured a shore party of its passengers.
The ship’s return comes a day after NSW Health confirmed the death of another victim, a man who was repatriated to Australia for treatment but died in Sydney’s Concord Hospital on Saturday.
His identity has not been released.
NZ Police, since retrieving six bodies from the unstable island on Friday, have continuously released the names of victims who have been formally identified.
Many passengers said information only filtered into the ship through social media and news reports – others said the captain did his best to keep them updated.
“The way Royal Caribbean handled it was terrible,” one passenger said, unfolding a mental health support note.
He said it had been given to grief-stricken passengers on their last night aboard the ship.
The emotional father, who declined to give his name, said his son had made friends with two people on the cruise who died.
“I’ve got a son, 17, who lost two friends that he made,” he said.
“They try to offer you mental health or support on the last night when you’re about to get off.”
The man said passengers were reliant on news media for information on how many people were missing or dead.
“It was a prison ship in the end, you weren’t allowed to know anything,” he said.
Another passenger said he was speechless thinking of the day news broke some passengers would not return to the ship from White Island.
“That day was terrible,” he said.
“I don’t have the words to describe the tragic loss.”
Others described the days that followed the deaths as “eerie” as many passengers prayed and wept.
Mother of three Karen Kociszewski said her two young daughters, aged nine and eight, needed counselling on the ship after having bad dreams in the wake of the disaster.
“It was a holiday for them too but they were hearing about it everywhere we went, whether it was on the news, on the PA, whether it was people talking about it. We ended up having to get them counselling because they were having bad dreams, it was really affecting them in a bad way,” Ms Kociszewski said.
She also described the evening passengers realised those who had left for White Island were not returning.
“Passengers were supposed to be back at the ship by 5.30pm and they weren’t coming and then they were calling people over the PA system so we just assumed they were running late,” she said.
“Later on that night the captain did say there had been an eruption and there were people hurt.
“No names, nothing, we were finding out a lot of information off the (news).
“The first day it was kind of like surreal, then the next morning it really started to hit. We stayed in Tauranga so it was in our faces all the time … seeing the police come on the ship and then off, it was very sombre, it just changed the whole mood of the ship.
A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph “our thoughts remain with those affected” and pledged to provide ongoing support to families during the “difficult time”.
Royal Caribbean did not respond to questions about whether passengers would be refunded or compensated, what mental health support was provided on the ship, what steps were taken to inform passengers during the tragedy or whether they will continue to offer tours to the volcanic island in the future.
Former American politician Andrew Martin who was on board the cruise lashed out at New Zealand’s decision to wait days to send specialist crews onto the island and retrieve the last eight people.
“The New Zealand response to it – where I come from you don’t leave people stranded on an island, no ifs ands or buts, you send the seals in or whatever you need to do, you rescue them,” Mr Martin, who was a Democratic member of the Nevada state assembly until 2015, said.
He also claimed there were clear signs the tour to White Island on December 9 should never have been run.
“You don’t send people into an active volcano, there was no concern whatsoever ‘go ahead and enjoy your tour’,” Mr Martin said.
“What part did anybody miss, they’re going to give you a gas mask and warn you of streaming acid, sulfuric clouds and steam, come on, common sense. I looked at the tour myself and said ‘it ain’t happening’.
“Someone made a lot of money off this tour, it probably wasn’t Royal but whose going to hold them accountable, that’s what I want to know.
“The captain of the ship is responsible for their safety, for everyone’s safety on board. He would have asked the question about are all the tours safe, but common sense, why would you send people there?”
He said he was furious with the way the incident was handled.
“I’m pretty furious that I spent nearly $12,000 on this cruise between airfare, cruise fair, excursions and whatnot,” he said.
Joel Archbold, James Mifsud and six other mates spent schoolies on the Ovation of the Seas.
Mr Mifsud turned 18 the day the volcano erupted.
“One of our friends suggested the (volcano) tour but none of us did it,” Mr Archbold said.
“When the news came out it was upsetting.”
James’ mother, Gina, panicked when she heard about the eruption and couldn’t reach her son over the phone.
“It was just not real,” she said.
“He must have seen my calls and rang and said ‘I’m on the boat, I’m on the boat’.”
Mr Archbold’s had texted his mother, Celia, saying “it’s bad news”.
“Then it just kept escalating and escalating – it was just horrible, a nightmare,” she said.
The boys’ mothers threw their arms around their sons when they walked off the ship on Monday morning.
“It’s a relief but there’s still sadness for everybody else,” Ms Mifsud said.
“We have to keep it together for (the boys), they don’t want to see their mums cry.”
Central Coast woman Tina Marginson, 62, blasted Royal Caribbean for keeping passengers in the dark in the days after the eruption.
“I think they were trying to spare us the information, all we wanted was information – who was left,” she said.
“(It was) lousy, every single one of us wanted to know – how many people are in hospital from the boat, how many are still on the island buried?
“(It was) dismal, nobody was getting into anything, we couldn’t stop talking about it.”
Tourists Peter and Fanny Stappaerts, from Belgium, were going to book a tour to White Island but pulled out at the last minute because it was too expensive.
“We wanted to do the excursion ourselves but it was due to the high cost price we decided not to do – that was the most scary thing for us – we came that close and that was probably the most scary thing – it could have happened to us,” Mr Stappaerts said.
“We’re still here.”
Originally published as NZ volcano: Ovation of the Seas returns to Sydney after blast
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