There Are Still At Least A Half Dozen Cruise Ships With Passengers Out To Sea

You’d think the last place you’d want to be during the coronavirus pandemic is aboard a cruise ship – especially given one horror story after the next about ships being placed under quarantine, not being able to find a place to dock and passengers getting sick and coming down with the coronavirus. 

Which is why it’s stunning to learn that there is still at least a half-dozen ships out at sea, with passengers and crew, navigating lengthy trips back to port, according to Bloomberg. 

About a month ago, there were hundreds of ships still in service and dozens out to sea.

Recall, we covered the Diamond Princess cruise ship at length, a ship where 700 of its 3,000 passengers eventually tested positive for the coronavirus. Eight of those passengers wound up dying.

Around a month later, the Grand Princess cruise ship was struck with coronavirus – with 21 of its 3,533 passengers (2,422 gues and 1,111 crew) testing positive for the virus. The ship was held off the coast of San Francisco while testing was conducted.

Finally, just this past week, Carnival Corp’s MS Zaandam was forced to dock in Ft. Lauderdale after 193 people were sickened – more than 10% of the ship – and four passengers died out of a total of 1,829 people on board.

Cruise companies have been forced to suspend operations, with companies like Carnival and Royal Caribbean seeing their stocks get decimated over the last month. The President even requested that Carnival Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC cruises halt outbound travel for 30 days.

And while the number of ships at sea has dropped off dramatically, it still hasn’t gone to zero.

While more ships have returned to their respective ports, and many have been moved with just crew onboard, Carnival still has five ships with passengers aboard. MSC Cruises also has a ship with passengers that is out to sea. These ships were thousands of miles from their respective ports when operations were suspended and are in the midst of returning.

No cases have been reported on these ships. Yet.