Well, well, well…
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The first cruise ship to sail into the Caribbean is reporting multiples cases of COVID-19. CNN reports that a total of seven passengers have tested positive for coronavirus aboard the SeaDream 1 cruise ship docked in Barbados, according to two passengers on the ship.
The news is a nightmare for the cruise industry as you can imagine, as the SeaDream Yacht Club cruise was meant to demonstrate how increased safety protocols could allow for smooth sailing despite the pandemic. SeaDream was hopeful that rigorous multilayer testing would keep COVID off of the ship and thought it could create a COVID-19 negative bubble. Unfortunately, that clearly didn’t happen.
Passengers who have tested negative for the virus will be able to leave the ship and travel home, Gene Sloan and Ben Hewitt two of the cruise journalists and bloggers on board told CNN.
“It’s not a great development for the cruise industry,” Sloan told CNN via email on Wednesday from his cabin on board. “I think the hope had been that the rigorous testing that SeaDream was doing would keep Covid off its ship.”
“It’s just so disappointing that this has happened because everybody has their hopes up high, and we can’t see anything more that they could’ve done,” said Hewitt. “It’s just such a horrible virus, it just gets everywhere even with the constant testing.”
SeaDream Yacht Club said in a news release Thursday afternoon that “guests” had received “assumptive positive” results to preliminary rapid Covid tests, but did not specify the number who had done so.
“We are working closely with local health and government authorities to resolve this situation in the best possible way,” said SeaDream’s Andreas Brynestad, in the SeaDream release.
What. A. Mess.
Are YOU hopping on a cruise ship anytime soon?
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