The Long Way Home: Three 'The Last Cruise Lines In The World' Begin Disembarking

The last three cruise liners, on which passengers still remain, will go to the ports of registration today, April 20. One of them covered a huge distance to get home, the correspondent reports. with the BBC Owen Amos.

Photo: Shutterstock

The cruise ship MSC Magnifica embarked on a round-the-world trip from Europe back in January and ended up in another corner of the world when the ports began to close. A Swiss-owned liner has come a long way home. His passengers, accustomed to arriving at a new port every few days, last went to land 6 weeks ago in Wellington, New Zealand.

On Monday, April 20, these passengers finally went ashore in the French city of Marseille.

During this flight, the liner experienced political storms, one death, but despite all the adventures, passengers leave it in a good mood.

Long way home

When the Magnifica left Genoa, Italy, on January 5, the world looked very different. “Unknown pneumonia,” as it was then called, had no name. No one has died yet, the World Health Organization said, and only 59 people have become infected, all in Wuhan.

It could be said that most of the Magnifica's 1760 passengers - mostly Italians, French and Germans - had never even heard of the virus.

After Italy, the ship traveled across the Atlantic to Brazil and passengers were able to see the countries of South America. However, on March 2, the ship was banned from mooring to the Pacific island of Aitutaki, known for its turquoise lagoon and white sand. At that time, some cruise ships, such as the Diamond Princess in Japan, had already been quarantined, their passengers were forbidden to leave the ship, and some of them died due to coronavirus.

On March 14, captain Roberto Leotta of Magnifica, before entering the port on the Australian island of Tasmania, decided that passengers could return from a trip to the island not only with souvenirs.

"We decided it was much better for our passengers to remain safe on board," he tells the BBC.

The cruise was canceled, some passengers were allowed to land on Sydney and Melbourne. Several hundred took this opportunity, but most decided to stay on board and sail 19 kilometers for five weeks on a different route.

Soon, the ship was banned from calling at the port of Fremantle in Western Australia, although the company-owner of the ship insisted that there were no patients with coronavirus infection on board. After a series of discussions with the local government, the vessel was only allowed to refuel. At the next stop in Sri Lanka, the liner was allowed to leave for emergency medical care not related to the coronavirus, a 75-year-old passenger who later died on the island.

On the subject: Coronavirus lived on a cruise ship 17 days after passengers left

On April 20, Magnifica became one of the last three cruise ships to land passengers, according to the International Cruise Association. In addition to Magnifica, the Pacific Princess in Los Angeles and the Costa Deliziosa in Barcelona will do this.

Captain Roberto Leotta of Magnifica says that despite the difficulties, passengers spent the last weeks of the trip in a great mood.

“We’ve become like a family—our guests and our team together,” he says.

But can the cruise industry recover from the worst year in its history?

“We will return to cruising, and we will return better prepared than before, with more experience. We are learning a lot, we will be stronger than ever before,” says Captain Leotta optimistically.

He has been working on cruises for 32 years, and before that he worked on tankers for three years and in the Italian fleet for one. Many from his Sicilian hometown of Riposto, in particular his father and grandfather, were sailors.

“It’s what’s in my DNA,” the captain says.

“Lucky that we have a window”

Some passengers on a luxury cruise ship that traveled the world for 15 weeks while the new coronavirus spread by land began to land in northeastern Spain. The port of call in Barcelona marks the beginning of the final round-the-world cruise Costa Deliziosa, whose owner, the Italian company Costa Crociere, claims that there were no cases of COVID-19 on board, writes USA Today.

The ship sailed the last 5 weeks with virtually no contact of people with the outside world.

Hundreds of the ship's 1831 passengers, including 168 Spaniards, are expected to disembark in Spain, with the rest making their way to the next and final stop in Genoa, Italy.

The Deliziosa was originally supposed to return to Venice on April 26th. A company spokesman said the passenger left the ship earlier this week in Marsala, Sicily, due to health problems, and passed the COVID-19 test, which was negative. Unlike other cruise liners, which suffered from outbreaks and were often quarantined to protect port cities, Deliziosa was a virus-free ship that allowed passengers to enjoy amenities and entertainment.

The ship sailed from Venice in early January and stopped making calls to ports after leaving western Australia in March, with the exception of a stop for refueling.

French authorities rejected the vessel’s request for permission to land several hundred passengers from France and neighboring countries in Marseille.

“The health situation on board the ships, with 1814 guests and 898 crew members, does not pose any public health concerns and there are no cases of COVID-19,” the crew said in a statement.

Passenger Jean-Pierre Escarras from Marseille shot a video of his cabin, which his daughters shared on social networks, and in which he says: “This is our place of detention. We are fortunate that we have a window. ”

On the subject: Dirt, flies and expired food: 4 cruise liners with worse sanitary conditions named in CDC

Passengers said ports in Oman along the Suez Canal, as well as ports in the Seychelles and Indian Ocean, refused to allow the ship to moor.

The crew reported that passengers were kept in cabins only for a period until a test of one of the guests, who felt unwell, gave a negative result for coronavirus. The company said that since the ship was flying the Italian flag, it followed the Italian precautions used in a pandemic, including differentiating security between guests, such as controlling the number of people who can enter food areas and broadcasting entertainment on television in the cabin.

The Frenchwoman, whose relatives are aboard Costa Deliziosa, has collected about 100 signatures for an online petition to convince the French government to intervene and bring them home. But the French authorities forbade Deliziosa to land more than 1000 passengers to their final destination in Italy.

The regional administration of the city of Bouches-du-Rhone in southern France referred to a nationwide ban on docking foreign cruise liners as part of measures to limit the spread of the virus in the country. Italy has also banned port calls to foreign cruise liners.

The French administration has provided benefits to six other cruise ships in recent weeks to allow passengers from France to land, but this time refused, saying that previous stops have unduly strained the local police and health authorities, already mobilized to deal with the serious viral crisis in France .

In March, two other Costa cruise liners called at Italian ports, including one on board which previously had passengers who had a positive result on COVID-19. It is not yet clear whether passengers will be quarantined who will finally go down after long weeks traveling aboard Deliziosa.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Kiev announced a special flight from Miami: when Ukrainians will be able to leave the United States

How to get a refund for canceled travel, events and services

Half of those infected with coronavirus have no symptoms: why is it bad

More than 30 cruise liners remain at sea due to coronavirus: how their passengers live

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.