At the beginning of 2020, I went on sabbatical for 4 months. To celebrate my full recovery from cancer, I had planned a bucket-list trip: a round-the-world cruise on a small ship. Talk about bad timing!#coronavirus #cruiseship 1/
Back in January, no one expected a virus in China would explode into #coronapocalypse. My #travelinsurance company helpfully informed me that "fear" of a disease was not a covered reason for cancellation. The #cruiseship line wasn't offering refunds then either. 2/
We departed Los Angeles Jan 20, westbound on the Pacific Princess. There were the usual #cruiseship hiccups: harbor traffic in Rangiroa diverted us to Moorea, Cyclone Uesi kept us from reaching Stewart Island and Milford Sound so we went to Christchurch instead. 3/
Meanwhile, we heard about another #princesscruises ship, the Diamond, being quarantined off Yokohama. What would this mean for our voyage? Nothing, we hoped. Our ship sailed on. 4/
We had just left Sydney when the #COVID wave began sending ripples our direction. Bali, Singapore, and Phuket were dropped from our itinerary. We would stay longer in Western Australia, stopping in the tiny ports of Albany, Busselton, Geraldton & Exmouth. 5/
No real choice but to continue on. #PrincessCruises offered us $250 each in onboard credit but no refund option. #TravelInsurance said itinerary changes didn't qualify as trip interruption. We grumbled but determined to enjoy what we had. 6/
Side note: breaks in this thread are due to intermittent internet here on the ship. I'm not done yet. 7/
While it's true we had saved for years to be able to take this cruise, and now we were missing 6 of our expected destinations, it wasn't the fault of #PrincessCruises. This was an extraordinary situation and others had problems that were much worse. 8/
After all, no one on board was sick, we were well-fed & entertained, Western Australia is lovely. But - we did think it was unfair that #PrincessCruises didn't let folks cancel with no penalty, nor did they let those boarding in Sydney know what was up beforehand. 9/
#PrincessCruises decided our ship would go straight from Exmouth, Australia to Colombo, Sri Lanka. 8 days at sea. I checked w/our #TravelInsurance - would this count as trip interruption? No. If we left the ship to go home, we'd get no refund or travel expenses. 10/
I used some of my precious internet minutes to set up Google Alerts for future ports so we wouldn't get blindsided again. That's how I was the first passenger to learn that Sri Lanka was no longer allowing cruise ships. I informed ship staff, who had no idea. 11/
By the time our captain gave us any word about Sri Lanka, we had already left Exmouth, last chance to get off the ship. For 2 days, we were told #PrincessCruises was "negotiating" with Sri Lanka to admit us. Meanwhile, our following port, the Maldives, barred us. 12/
This was when I wrote to the ship's officers asking them to please request permission from HQ to turn around & go back to Australia. I could read the handwriting on the wall. #PrincessCruises could not. 13/
I got a nice phone call from onboard customer service letting me know my concerns had been passed along. Then Sri Lanka refused us entry. We were alllowed to dock at a commercial pier to take on fuel and supplies, but no one could get on or off. #COVID 14/ 
BTW, the ship's staff and crew have been awesome. #PrincessCruises HQ is another story. Most of the passengers are keeping a sense of humor and trying to make the best of an unpleasant situation for us amid a tragic state for much of the world. 15/
While we were resupplying under #quarantine conditions in Sri Lanka, the passenger chorus gathered on the pool deck to sing "Put on a Happy Face." I'd upload the video but I don't have the bandwidth. 16/
When we left Colombo, official word onboard was we were continuing west toward Seychelles, where we would have 2 port calls. We were still being encouraged to sign up for excursions. Thanks to Google Alerts, I already knew Seychelles had closed their ports. 17/
Our captain & officers knew, too. Channel 48 on ship TVs shows where we're headed. Normally display shows "At Sea, bound for [next port]." When we left Sri Lanka headed west, all it showed was "At Sea." My guess is HQ told ship they didn't know where to send us. 18/
Morning of Mar 12, although no announcement had been made, display showed "At Sea, bound for Zanzibar, Tanzania." That was originally our next port AFTER the Seychelles. I learned later that Seychelles said we couldn't even stop there for fuel. #cruiseship 19/
At this point, we'd been sailing west on the Indian Ocean for 9 days with no clear destination. At 7 pm, unofficial word began to spread through the ship that #PrincessCruises HQ had issued a press release. Passengers who could get online read it to the others. 20/
Ship staff had NO IDEA this release had been issued. It was another hour before the captain announced we should all go to our TVs and watch a video from #PrincessCruises HQ. No other info. Here's the release: carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/… 21/
Just before 10 pm, captain announced he was turning the #cruiseship around & we were returning to Australia, port and arrival date to be determined. You could hear the groans all over the ship. We could do the math for how long it would take to get back. #COVID 22/
At noon on Mar 13, we learned our destination was Fremantle, Australia, harbor for Perth. Expected arrival date Mar 21. No stops anywhere in between. Assuming Perth lets us off the day we get there, this means 18 consecutive days of never touching land. 23/
That was 2 days ago. We are still crossing the Indian Ocean, many miles from land, with intermittent internet, a couple of cable news channels, and zero information about what will happen to us when we reach Fremantle. Today we received this communique. 24/
My translation of the corporate-speak in that #PrincessCruises announcement is "we don't know what to do with you or how, so we're stalling for time." #COVID #cruiseship 25/
With that very long preface, there are 3 messages I'd like to deliver. 1) Do I have any Twitter friends near Perth? I may need your help if I'm stuck there for a while. 26/
2) Dear @PrincessCruises, we know you have a lot on your plate right now & the travel industry is in chaos. But please don't forget about your smallest ship, the Pacific. We are all alone in the middle of an empty ocean & out of touch with everyone we care about. 27/
Also, @PrincessCruises, please do right by us in terms of refunds & travel expenses. #TravelInsurance cos are declining to cover trip interruption claims because your "temporary pause in operations" is not covered by policies. Your compensation is our only hope. 28/
Side note: The refunds and credits described in the #PrincessCruises news release don't apply to us on the Pacific. Our voyage was already underway. 29/
3) Dear @BHTP, are you really going to deny all claims from cruise passengers at this time when thousands of us are stranded, simply because your policy writers couldn't predict the possibility of a "temporary pause in operations" by travel companies? 30/
Twitter friends, thanks for reading. I'm in a better situation than many people on the planet right now, and I'm thankful for it. No one here is ill, we have plenty of food and entertainment, and the staff & crew of our #PrincessCruises ship are outstanding. 31/
We are anxious and lonely out here on this big empty ocean in our tiny ship, and are very much looking forward to seeing land again... in 6 more days. 32/end
@threadreaderapp please unroll
Twitter friends, thanks for all your attention & offers of support. Our situation today is worse than before, as now Australia has banned #cruiseship s from their ports. We have no info from #PrincessCruises about what this means for us. PS1/ theaustralian.com.au/nation/coronav…
The only official communication today appears below. I translate this as "Stay calm and carry on." I'm far from the only one onboard who feels this isn't quite enough under the circumstances. PS2/
Our captain has now assured us that we will be allowed to dock in Fremantle, Australia. No word yet on what happens after that. Don't know if we'll be able to disembark or how/when we can get home. PS3/
After 18 days stranded at sea, Pacific Princess #cruiseship docked in Fremantle, Western Australia on Mar 21. Passengers holding flight reservations that day were allowed to disembark and escorted to Perth airport. Chaos ensued but I made my flight to Melbourne. PS4/
From MEL, I boarded the LAST Qantas flight to SFO before they shut down ops. We had just made it. Qantas held the plane for us. I'm back home in eerily quiet locked-down San Francisco. I won't add to this thread again; see my live tweets for updates on the saga. PS5/
