A cruise around the world sounded like such an amazing adventure to undertake, a perfect celebration of turning 70, and a safe and relaxing way to go places I have never been while being pampered along the way. The possibility that Holland America could force me off the ship in a foreign country, with 4 days’ notice and no assistance on how to get home, didn’t occur to me. A cruise ship would never treat its passengers this way, after all, they have a responsibility to take them safely back home. Apparently not.
After abandoning passengers at the dock in Fremantle Australia on Sunday, March 21st, the Amsterdam sailed back to Ft Lauderdale with our luggage, which will hopefully be shipped to us one day, but without the 1300 passengers who paid for an around the world cruise. I was completely on my own in a country 11,111 miles from home in the middle of a pandemic, with an upper respiratory infection diagnosed by the ship’s doctor the day before the Medical Clinic was closed to passengers, a deep cough that sounded like a foghorn and attracted a lot of unwanted attention, and no testing to prove that I didn’t have the Corona Virus.
The ship had not provided passengers with any information about how to answer questions from immigration, the hotel or airport about our time in Australia. Surprisingly, Immigration asked no questions, conducted no health check, nor took our temperature. I was relieved because my voice was hoarse, and I knew I would start coughing if I had to speak for very long to answer questions.
The front desk clerk at my hotel was very talkative and asked where I was traveling from. I responded that I had just gotten off a cruise ship and would be flying home in 2 days. Her reaction was what I would expect to see if I said I just left a Leprosy Colony. She replied that I would not be allowed to leave the country until I had been quarantined for 2 weeks and they had a floor in the hotel reserved for quarantined guests. She asked how long I had been in Australia. When I answered that we had been cruising around Australia and stopping at a few ports since March 6th, she told me that I had missed the quarantine requirement by 2 days but could have trouble leaving Australia because flights were being cancelled and some airlines had stopped flying altogether until the end of April.
I spent the next 2 days in my hotel room watching the local Australian news and checking my flights to make sure they hadn’t been cancelled. There were constant news stories about how cruise ships had brought the Corona Virus to Australia and would be prohibited from disembarking passengers at any of the Australian ports beginning the next day.
The previous week a ship had stopped for 2 days in Sydney and subsequently had 2 passengers diagnosed with the virus that were currently being treated in a Sydney hospital. One died the next day. This news was followed by a story that mentioned my ship, the Amsterdam, had ended their cruise in Fremantle and let people off the ship who could now be roaming freely throughout Fremantle and Perth. I began to feel the need to leave as quickly as possible before former cruise ship passengers were rounded up and locked away, but no flights were available.
On Monday at 4:30 pm, the city of Perth completely shut down. All of Australia was scheduled to follow. Restaurants, bars, and retail outlets closed until further notice, boarders were patrolled, and interstate travel was prohibited. I watched traffic completely disappear from the highways I could see from my 16th floor window. The bar and restaurant in the hotel were closed and only room service was available. The fitness center was closed, and groups were not allowed to gather in the hotel lobby.
I was scheduled to fly from Perth to Sydney on Tuesday, April 24th at 11:55 pm and then Sydney to LAX and LAX to Nashville on Wednesday. My Australian flights continued to show on time, but I started receiving notifications that my flight to Nashville had been cancelled and I would need to call to rebook. Getting through to an airline during a crisis is almost impossible. After about 45 minutes on hold, I was eventually able to rebook the LAX to Nashville flight and breath a momentary sigh of relief.
Less taxis were available because of the travel restrictions but the hotel was able to schedule one to take me to the airport. The driver was talkative and mostly complaining about the impact of the virus on his business and that cruise lines were responsible for bringing the virus to Australia and should never be allowed to dock in Australia again. He then asked what brought me to Australia. I responded that I was there on business and had owned a global consulting business for 20 years and traveled frequently, which I thought was probably the best answer to avoid being identified as one of those virus-carrying-cruise-passengers. I was a little concerned he might pull over and ask me to leave his taxi, a thought that never would have occurred to me before my cruise ship eviction. The conversation then switched to my business and how courageous he thought it was for a woman to travel alone. If you only knew, I thought.
My flights left Perth and Sydney on schedule, but after a 4-hour flight to Sydney and a 14-hour flight to the US I arrived in LAX to learn that my flight to Nashville was cancelled and I had been rebooked to fly through Atlanta. That was cancelled within the hour and I was rebooked to fly through Detroit. That too was cancelled, and I was rebooked to fly from LAX to Atlanta and then on the last flight of the day from Atlanta to Nashville. I arrived at LAX at 6:30 a.m. PST and walked through my front door at 12:45 p.m. CST on Thursday, March 26th. A very long day to spend in an airport with no restaurants, bars, or airport lounges opened.
I was required to go through Immigration and Customs in both Sydney and LAX and was surprised to see that in both places there were no health checks, questions or temperature checks. Very few people were wearing masks and gloves. If anyone had the Corona Virus, they were able to enter the US undetected.
It’s great to be back in my house but I don’t feel like I’m home. I’m quarantined and won’t be able to see my family for 2 weeks. I have yet to be hugged. My doctor recommends I not be tested unless I develop a fever. I came home to a very different place than I left. Dan and I are in a high-risk group and have cause for concern of course, but to be controlled by fear is not the way I plan to live my life.
So, I started this adventure wanting to shake things up a bit and be able to answer the question “when was the last time you did something for the first time?” I think I met both of those goals.
I also wanted time to reflect on how I want to experience life in this new decade of my life. The only answer I came up with is to ask why I need an answer? Why not trust that I’ll know when it’s time for me to know?
As we’re all currently experiencing, life as we know it can change in the blink of an eye. We control nothing other than our decision to respond to the challenges and uncertainty we face with fear or with faith. I know which I choose. I wrote last week about how our true character is revealed during times of crisis. We are each being tested to show who we really are.
My cruise around the world has ended, and not in the way I expected, but maybe a different journey of self-discovery has begun, not only for me, but for all of us.
Something to think about.
ritaburgettmartell.com 
We ladies in Sausalito are very glad to see you home! Positive altitude always help in facing obstacles. I personally think it was the best option at the time even though you were abandoned in a foreign country. All other cruise ships were and still having difficulty in finding ports to land when country after country refused entry. Drifting in open sea is worse than on foreign land. It’s now a humanitarian situation.
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