Ashore at last: Californian’s tweets helped in 2-week cruise ordeal amid coronavirus fears
It wasn’t home, but it was land. After two weeks at sea, that was just fine for Bonnie Banks of Sacramento and her daughter, Christina Kerby.
It was supposed to be a two-week luxury cruise from Hong Kong to Yokohama, Japan. Instead, the cruise became a seemingly endless endurance test as countries and territories gripped by fears of coronavirus aboard the Holland America cruise ship MS Westerdam denied the ship’s entry into port after port from Manila to Bangkok.
On Wednesday, the duo’s long journey finally came to an end in the seaside Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, 142 miles west of the capital Phnom Penh.
In a text interview with The Sacramento Bee, Kerby said the mood aboard on hearing word that they would soon sail into port was “jubilant.”
“We’re elated! I’m holding my breath though until my feet touch solid earth,” Kerby tapped out on her cell phone Wednesday from aboard the luxury liner. “We’re watching the sunrise over Cambodia!”
“It’s 6 a.m. (Thursday) here in Cambodia, so I haven’t talked to anyone yet, but last night people were jubilant,” Kerby continued.
The 2,200 aboard, among them about 600 Americans, were allowed to disembark the Holland America luxury cruise ship on Friday and were greeted by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen among others.
One American passenger diagnosed
On Saturday morning, one of the passengers, an 83-year-old American woman, was diagnosed with the virus, now known as COVID-19. The woman and her husband were among 145 passengers who flew to Malaysia after being screened by Cambodia officials.
The woman was found to have symptoms of the coronavirus after she arrived in Kuala Lumpur’s airport and was sent to a hospital, Malaysia’s health ministry said in a statement. Twenty people aboard the ship were ill but Cambodia officials said they showed no signs of COVID-19.
As the Westerdam’s journey ended, sister cruise ship Diamond Princess signaled its similar ordeal was coming to a close. Passengers aboard that ocean liner – docked in quarantine in Yokohama, Japan – had nearly 300 cases of coronavirus aboard, including 20 U.S. citizens. The ship has sat in quarantine for 10 days.
Both the Diamond Princess and Holland America’s Westerdam are operated under brands owned by Miami-based Carnival.
On Saturday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was preparing to extract and repatriate the approximately 400 Americans aboard the Diamond Princess on a chartered flight Sunday. Officials would then house them in quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, as well as at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.
CDC officials said in a news release that those passengers would be “housed separately from individuals already in quarantine from previous Wuhan repatriation flights” which arrived on Feb. 5 and are scheduled to end their stay as soon as Wednesday. None of the evacuees at Travis have been diagnosed with COVID-19, health officials said, after five evacuees were briefly hospitalized for showing signs of the virus.
If U.S. citizens wait for the ship’s quarantine to end Wednesday and choose not take the charter flight, U.S. State Department said they “will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time.” State Department officials said the CDC would determine when those passengers who refused the flight would be allowed to return stateside.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services said that the risk of exposure and infection to the coronavirus in the U.S. remains low.
A source of information
While the fate of the ship escalated into a geopolitical incident, Kerby was a go-to source for news, reassurance and comic relief, her Twitter feed filled with updates for restless passengers aboard the Westerdam — and the anxious friends and family waiting for them back home.
Kerby is from Sacramento, raised in Land Park, went to C.K. McClatchy High School, and lives now in Alameda with her husband and two children. The health communications professional traveled with her mother, who still lives in Land Park.
Reports from the ship’s captain, Holland America and the World Health Organization, blended seamlessly into scenes of poolside yoga and reviews of the Lido buffet (“The muesli is lovely,”); the cruise-long quest to burn off the tempting-yet-dreaded “lunch dessert;” and the heartwarming: Videos of the standing ovation passengers gave an exhausted crew; passengers celebrating on the dance floor they night they learned they were headed home; and the anonymous handwritten note from a crew member sipped to her cabin:
“Dear Christina, I just want to thank you for all the tweets. I am a crew member on board. My parents were worried about my well-being here. ... I tell them we are doing great here and everything is under control, but they didn’t believe me until I started forwarding them screenshots of your tweets. They are relieved and wishing us all a safe journey.”
The trip was Kerby’s second cruise and the first since a short but ill-fated trip to Baja California a dozen years ago.
“I actually got norovirus on that cruise, so I was dreading this one, to be honest,” she wrote.
Kerby’s mother had already been aboard for weeks. Banks’ journey started in January in Singapore with Kerby’s brother. He disembarked in Hong Kong and Kerby picked up the second half of the cruise to Yokohama.
“My mom booked a month-long cruise, so she’s been on since Singapore. My brother joined her for the first half, then got off in Hong Kong and I got on,” Kerby wrote. “He definitely got the better half of the cruise.”
That was Feb. 1, as cases of the deadly respiratory virus were sweeping through mainland China with fears of COVID-19 keeping pace.
Since the outbreak was first reported late last year in Wuhan, China, public health officials worldwide have confirmed more than 60,000 cases, and 99 percent of those diagnosed have been in mainland China. All but three of the 1,371 people have died from the illness have also been on the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines have each reported one death.
Turned away from five ports
Fate struck again two days into this cruise. The first sign of trouble came in the Philippines. Officials in Manila refused the ship entry. The Westerdam would have to find another port.
“We first found out we were being turned away from Manila on Feb. 3 and we were frustrated and disappointed, but more so for the Filipino crew and staff hoping to see their families,” Kerby said.
For two weeks, Banks, Kerby and the 1,455 passengers and 802 crew aboard the Westerdam were a ship without a port as unfounded fears on land that the passengers carried the deadly virus left them all but stranded at sea.
Manila was first, but others followed, citing the World Health Organization: Taiwan, Japan, Guam all rejected the cruise liner, though Holland America insisted neither passengers nor crew carried the virus.
A week later, on Feb. 10, Thailand would be the next nation to deny permission for the cruise ship to dock after passengers were initially told they would be allowed to disembark there.
The country’s public health minister in a Facebook post, directed authorities not to let passengers leave the ship, Bloomberg News reported, dashing the hopes of passenger Stephen Hansen, traveling with his wife.
“To have that snatched away at the last minute with no other solution at hand was very upsetting,” Hansen said, telling Bloomberg, “We are back in limbo again.”
“Cruise Ship Rejected by Five Ports Runs Out of Options,” the Bloomberg headline read.
Food, fuel and supplies would soon run out, Hansen said, if the ship were unable to dock.
The U.S. government and its diplomats in the region got involved along with the governments of Canada, Holland, Cambodia and others. The WHO offered hope that health authorities could board the ship to check on passengers and reassure would-be hosts.
‘A real sense of camaraderie’
Meantime, on board, passengers and crew on the seemingly endless cruise made the best of the close quarters.
“Yes, we envisioned seeing the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and China. Instead, we spend the whole voyage at sea,” Kerby wrote. “But, there’s a real sense of camaraderie on the ship, amongst the passengers, crew and staff. We’ve made the best of it and Holland America has been wonderful about keeping us well fed, entertained and informed every step of the way.”
The diplomatic work continued behind the scenes and by Friday morning, the passengers, wearing traditional checkered scarves, gifts from the Kingdom of Cambodia, were crowding the deck of the Westerdam awaiting the welcome of Prime Minister Sen.
“I’m in tears,” Kerby tweeted. “The show of support is overwhelming.”
Buses arrived to take the first group of passengers off of the ship. The drivers arrived with flowers, Kerby tweeted.
In a video message to the U.S. citizens aboard, W. Patrick Murphy, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, assured the passengers, “Your embassy is eager to welcome you to Cambodia. you’ve gone through a lot these past few days. Hopefully, you’ll soon be on your way home....We will stick with you as long as it takes.”
Holland America in a Thursday statement thanked “those in Cambodia ... who have demonstrated a willingness to welcome us with an open mind and make decisions based on facts.”
Holland America officials said false information about the medical conditions of guests and crew complicated the Westerdam’s already challenging journey.
“This has all been a terrible and unfortunate misunderstanding that has impacted 2,257 people on board and hundreds of others shoreside who have worked 24/7 to get our guests home,” officials at the cruise line said.
The journey home for Kerby and Banks was yet to come, but Thursday, three words at the end of a Twitter post expressed Kerby’s gratitude.
“Thank you, Cambodia.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Ashore at last: Californian’s tweets helped in 2-week cruise ordeal amid coronavirus fears."
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