When word got out that a coronavirus case had been detected on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, passengers were caught off guard by the news but remained calm as they waited patiently to disembark in Singapore yesterday.
An elderly Singaporean man had tested positive for the coronavirus while he was on the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship, forcing the captain to turn back to Singapore’s Marina Bay Cruise Centre a day earlier than expected and resulting in all remaining passengers to be quarantined in their cabins throughout the third day of what was supposed to be their voyage to nowhere.
“I stay positive and calm. Although it’s scary, I think life is short and since we’ve already decided to come, we are prepared for whatever that can happen,” cruise guest Michelle Lee, 55, told Coconuts last night. She eventually left the ship with her mother-in-law at around 8pm.
The ship was carrying 1,680 guests and 1,148 crew members. All remaining passengers were confined to their cabins until disembarkation began at 7:30pm, nearly 12 hours after the ship docked in Singapore.
Lee, who stayed in the junior suite, said that she woke up to the captain’s announcement about the coronavirus case on the ship at 2:30am and could not go back to sleep. Both Lee and her mother-in-law spent their final day on the ship stuck in their room watching television, drinking coffee, and sleeping.
“My mother-in-law and I don’t want to scare each other, both of us act cool we didn’t talk at first then after that we try to be positive,” she said, adding that she had no regrets about going on the cruise tour.
The 83-year-old man who fell sick had complained of diarrhea before testing positive for COVID-19. He was scheduled for a fourth test this morning after further results from the National Public Health Laboratory came back negative in Singapore yesterday.
While the man was taken to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, passengers were told that they could only leave the ship when contact tracing efforts were completed and after another cruise ship, the Genting Cruise Line’s World Dream, welcomed all of its passengers.
Both cruise lines resumed operations recently after they obtained the green light from local authorities to operate out of Singapore with strict safety measures in place, including cutting ship capacity by half. They had to cancel all of its cruise tours earlier this year due to the pandemic.
Real estate agent Yann Yang, 42, who was on the Quantum of the Seas with his wife on the 13th deck, said they were impressed by Royal Caribbean’s response to the coronavirus case. Noting how the captain had made the announcement in the wee hours of the morning, Yang said it displayed Royal Caribbean as a “responsible” operator who “really wanted to give the first information.”
“Overall, still a very pleasant vacation,” he told Coconuts this morning, adding: “We are quite impressed by the way the response was made by the Royal Caribbean. And their staff was very attentive.”
The last activity they did on the cruise was watching an orchestra performance. They went back to their room after 10pm and never left until nearly 24 hours later, spending time in their cabin sending updates to their families.
“So when I tried to open the room, the attendant will run over and say ‘Sir, sir, please go back to your room,’” Yang said. “Quite interesting.”
All of Royal Caribbean’s remaining passengers were tested for COVID-19 at the cruise center after stepping off the ship, the tourism board said last night. Everyone who came into close contact with the elderly man tested negative for the coronavirus, according to the Health Ministry.
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