A “nightmare at sea,” was how The Sun Sentinel newspaper described my Amsterdam world cruise in an article on March 18th. I’ve included the link to the article, which is an accurate description of what has been happening on our ship for almost 2 weeks now. I never thought I would pay so much money to be treated so poorly.
As I watched the behavior of my fellow passengers as the situation worsened, the unwillingness of Holland America to provide any assistance to the passengers they were abandoning in Australia with 4 days’ notice, and lack of empathy shown by Captain Jonathan Mercer, I was reminded of the quote by Robert McKee that “True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure – the greater the pressure the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.”
We’re living during a time of radical unpredictability that causes greater degrees of uncertainty than we’ve ever had to cope with in the past. Who we are at our core as individuals, governments, and businesses are being revealed by how we respond.
Businesses have a responsibility to take care of their customers in bad times as well as the good. To abandon elderly customers who have health problems that make flying dangerous is unthinkable, and yet it happened. One of our passengers suffered a stroke two days ago and had to be airlifted off the ship and taken to the nearest hospital. This happened within an hour of the captain making the decision to close the medical center to passengers because the medical staff felt intimidated and to request passengers to stop asking Guest Services to help them make arrangements to fly home. The poor internet and phone connections made doing this on your own almost impossible.
Being told you must get off the ship and get out of the country as soon as possible without providing assistance to do so would create a stressful situation for anyone, but it’s ten times worse for those who are the most vulnerable.
I ran into the captain one night at the rooftop bar and couldn’t help asking him if they were really leaving people who can’t fly because of medical reasons in Australia instead of allowing them to stay on the ship that is heading back to Florida without us. He replied that he had come up to have a drink and relax and turned his back on me.
I left the ship today and am staying at a hotel in Perth until my flight home on March 25th. I’m blessed to have the internal and external resources to deal with this situation. Not everyone does. What responsibility do we have to each other in the bad times, and how will this crisis we are all experiencing reveal who we really are?
Something to think about.
ritaburgettmartell.com 
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