Vacation turns to misery for couple stuck on cruise ship
The virusstricken Grand Princess had just made headlines on March 5, when a sister ship — the Coral Princess — departed from a port in San Antonio, Chile, with the coronavirus still a distant scourge.
Among its passengers were Wilson and Toyling Maa, a South San Francisco couple who were traveling with a group of lifelong friends. They had left the Bay Area on Feb. 29, toured Machu Picchu for six days and climbed onto the ship eager for a luxurious voyage around South America.
The couple spent two weeks enjoying the ship’s Broadwaystyle shows and spiraling atrium, taking in the Amalia Glacier and sailing around Cape Horn.
But when they reached their destination in Buenos Aires on March 19, the coronavirus had exploded into a pandemic. Cities throughout the world were sheltering in place. Flights out of
Argentina were canceled — the country had closed its borders.
With nowhere else to go, Toyling and Wilson stayed aboard the Coral Princess, which was headed to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and expected to arrive Saturday, although U.S. Coast Guard officials said Friday they would not allow it to immediately dock. Since leaving Argentina, the ship’s captain has tried to dock at other ports, only to be turned away. The Coral Princess remains stranded at sea with 1,020 passengers onboard.
Several of them began to develop flu symptoms, and on Sunday, 71yearold Wilson got a fever. He tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, one of seven passengers and five crew members to be infected.
Even though several passengers had followed news stories about the harrowing journeys of the Grand Princess and before that, the Diamond Princess, most had little inkling that their ship would repeat the pattern. In the insular world of a ship at sea, communication with the outside is limited. Some passengers got regular news alerts or used apps to communicate with families and friends, but others seemed to unplug.
Late Thursday night, the Coral Princess floated past the Turks and Caicos Islands, en route to the Bahamas to pick up supplies from another vessel, the Regal Princess.
For now, everyone is isolated in their cabins.
“After we went into isolation, we definitely weren’t seeing anybody,” Toyling said on Thursday night, speaking to The Chronicle in a video chat on WhatsApp as she waited for dinner to arrive. It was after 9 p.m. and 64yearold Toyling coughed occasionally as her husband moaned in the background.
He has been listless for several days, with a fever that oscillates between 100 and 102 degrees. Toyling is also feverish. Her cabin has a window that doesn’t open, with an obstructed view. Toyling can squint out and see water.
“We text or call each other’s cabins,” she said. “When you look out the door, you see an empty hallway. You wonder, ‘Is anybody here?’ ”
On the ninth deck, midaft, passenger Julie SpragueMcRae and her husband, Richard, still felt fine. She said the outbreak had caught everyone off guard.
“You leave a message for more Tylenol, and then, two hours later, you get a call.”
Toyling Maa, cruise ship passenger
“When we got to Buenos Aires on the 19th, everyone was happy — the whole ship appeared to be healthy,” said SpragueMcRae, a 66yearold retired nurse from Fremont. “The crew was joyous. The captain was happy. Everyone was happy.”
Crews had spent six hours taking everybody’s temperature at the request of the Argentine government, she said. At that time, no one had a fever.
As of Friday evening, nobody was quite sure when or where the ship would dock. SpragueMcRae gazed at a gauzy pink sunset over her balcony while she listened to the captain deliver grim news over a PA system. The U.S. Coast Guard had temporarily barred them from Port Everglades.
“We are disappointed to have shared news of this delay,” the captain said. “Please know that many people are working tirelessly to get you home as soon as possible.”
Back home, family members of the passengers have desperately appealed to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, Fremont Rep. Ro Khanna and several local politicians, SpragueMcRae said. Her sister Shannon called Fremont Mayor Lily Mei, in hopes that Mei would negotiate with Mayor Dean Trantalis in Fort Lauderdale.
Toyling worried that she and her husband may be stuck on the ship without adequate medical care, even after it arrives at a port. The ship has at least one doctor and nurse, as well as medical assistants, she said, all of whom appear to be overwhelmed. The doctor gave Wilson Tamiflu, a threeday antibiotic, and Tylenol to bring his fever down. When she calls for assistance, she gets an answering service.
“You leave a message for more Tylenol, and then, two hours later, you get a call from a doctor,” she said. “And then you wait another two hours, and someone comes.”
The captain provides regular announcements, but some passengers get updates faster than the crew, owing to various apps and contact with family members, SpragueMcRae said.
She’s still in good spirits. Down on a lower deck, the Maas are growing more despondent. They planned this trip for two years, and paid $7,000 apiece.
“It was one of those bucketlist things,” she said.
Now she wonders when she’ll return home.