BC cruise passengers describe conditions on outbreak ship

Photo: Contributed

David Kirkham and his wife, Norma, are clearly glass-half-full people.

When the Metchosin residents were told on March 22 they would be confined to their room aboard the cruise ship MS Zaandam for an undetermined amount of time — the result of a COVID-19 outbreak that killed four passengers on board the Holland America vessel — they took the bleak news in stride.

“Thousands upon thousands of people have it worse off than we do,” Kirkham said Monday, as the couple headed for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a new ship, the MS Rotterdam, after being transferred Sunday afternoon. “What we have is a giant inconvenience with some uncertainty tacked on to it. We will get home. We can ride this out.”

The two joined about 800 symptom-free fellow passengers on the Rotterdam, while about 450 passengers and crew remained with the MS Zaandam, including their travelling partners, a couple from Sooke, Kirkham said.

Looking back on their journey, the couple had high praise for the crew of the MS Zaandam, which had been anchored on the west side of the Panama Canal since mid-March after reporting nearly 200 passengers and crew were exhibiting flu-like symptoms.

“It’s so easy to complain,” Kirkham said. “You’ve got to remember, the crew is separated from their families. It’s not just us. You have to think about others who are doing the best they can under these circumstances.”

Passengers from Nanaimo were also among the 248 Canadians on board the MS Zaandam, but Kirkham said he was not aware of their whereabouts.

A spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada said Monday no COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among Canadian citizens who were on the MS Zaandam. However, the department has not said how it plans to repatriate the Canadians on board the ships.

The Kirkhams have been ship-bound since March 14. Authorities in South America had initially refused entry to the MS Zaandam, worried that the 2,520 passengers and crew aboard the vessel posed a significant health risk. Both the MS Rotterdam and MS Zaandam passed through the Panama Canal on Sunday on the way to Fort Lauderdale — the original landing spot on a month-long vacation for the Kirkhams.

Kirkham said he will have more time to reflect on their highly publicized trip once they return to Metchosin.

“We are annoyed with some of the social media out there. It’s a little bit over the top. All it takes is a little bit of extra effort to send a note of appreciation, which we do on our food order, or tell someone on staff that they are doing a good job. The whole world is facing this. It’s not just the Kirkhams aboard the Rotterdam.”

Holland America, the company that operates the MS Zaandam and MS Rotterdam, said in a statement it is “still finalizing the details for where and when” the 2,520 passengers and crew aboard both ships will disembark.