Corona Virus

Abandoned In Australia Coming Home

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.

Living With The Question Mark — Part 2

Our captain announced today that the cruise is ending when we arrive in Freemantle, Australia on March 22nd. Passengers will be asked to disembark and make arrangements to fly home at their own expense. Even though the ship will be leaving March 23rd to return to Florida, there apparently aren’t enough ports allowing cruise ships to dock to provide adequate food for 1300 passengers. So, Holland America Cruise Lines is abandoning us in Australia.

Last week I wrote about learning to live with the question mark of not having an answer to the questions of where I’m going next in my life and where are we going on this cruise. This week I have an answer to the question about the future direction of the cruise, which has only resulted in more unanswered questions.

Our captain announced today that the cruise is ending when we arrive in Freemantle, Australia on March 22^nd. Passengers will be asked to disembark and make arrangements to fly home at their own expense. Even though the ship will be leaving March 23^rd to return to Florida, there apparently aren’t enough ports allowing cruise ships to dock to provide adequate food for 1300 passengers. So, Holland America Cruise Lines is abandoning us in Australia.

A Week Without A Wednesday

I came on a cruise to see new places and have new experiences, and this week didn’t disappoint. I was stung by a bee on a beach in Tahiti, learned our itinerary is changing due to the Corona Virus, and lost Wednesday.

I went to sleep Tuesday night, February 25^th and woke up on Thursday morning, February 27^th. No, I didn’t sleep through Wednesday because Wednesday, February 26^th didn’t exist on our cruise ship this week. We crossed the international date line on our way to New Zealand and Wednesday, February 26^th disappeared.

On Tuesday the captain reminded us to advance our clock 23 hours. This sounds like a big change, and it is the loss of a day, but if I think about it in a different way, I realize it’s only a one-hour change to my day-to-day schedule. It’s the same process we follow every Autumn in the US when we set the clocks back one hour and have an earlier sunrise and sunset.

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