Cruise ships hover off Fort Lauderdale as Florida governor announces plan to dock
Rick and Wendy de Pinho woke up just before sunrise Thursday morning Cabin 7018 aboard the Rotterdam cruise ship, one of two ill-fated Holland America ships that have been stranded at sea for the past 19 days after South American ports denied their entry due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Though they couldn’t see land from their balcony, but could see a handful of other ships in the area. Their GPS and cruise tracker confirmed that they were anchored just off the coast of South Florida.
For more than 1,200 other passengers aboard their ship and the twin Zaandam stuck in limbo for weeks, relief was finally in sight.
Finally, about 2 p.m., de Pinho reported, “It’s surreal - we are moving in now to the port. Zaandam in the lead.”
Still, according to the Port Everglades website, Rotterdam is now slated to arrive at 4:30, 30 minutes behind the Zaandam. Previously the ships had been expected to dock at 1 and 1:30.
On Fox News Thursday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the cruise company had come to an agreement that Floridians onboard the two ships will be able to return home with help of the Florida National Guard. Foreign nationals will be bussed to an airport and put on flights back to their home countries. It was not clear what would happen to U.S. residents living elsewhere, but a spokesman for Holland America parent Carnival Corp. said Wednesday it had plans to deliver those passengers to their home cities.
“It’s all going to be done in a way as to not expose the people of Florida to the illnesses ... you got to be safe when doing this stuff,” he said. “They can’t just release them into the general public.”
The Fox interview followed a reversal by DeSantis on Wednesday allowing the ships to dock. Previously, he had said he didn’t want any of the cruise passengers to get off in Florida.
He said the contained nature of cruise ships make for a dangerous situation when it comes to a contagious respiratory virus like COVID-19.
“If I could snap my fingers and no one would be on a cruise ship right now, I would,” he said. “But that’s just not the reality.”
Holland America said it plans to send all passengers fit for travel home on sanitized charter buses and chartered flights and keep crew on board.
“The approximately 45 guests who still have mild illness and are unfit to travel at this time will continue to isolate on board until recovered,” the company said.
Jennifer Allan, whose aging parents were sick aboard the Zaandam, said the couple was placed into a ten-person group that will be sent to the hospital. Allan said she wasn’t told which hospital they were being taken to, but Broward Health confirmed to the Miami Herald it will receive sick passengers.
At 3:00 p.m., 13 ambulances from American Medical Response sat parked on the pier with engines running waiting for the cruise ships to arrive.
One emergency medical technician told the Herald that they expected to transport 13 patients in critical care from the ships to local hospitals in the Broward Health system.
Earlier in the day, the de Pinhos received papers with detailed Fort Lauderdale Pre-Clearance Information from the cruise line. It included a health questionnaire asking if they had a fever or cough, instructions for airport arrival, and other details.
“It sounds like healthy people will be allowed to go home,” said Rick de Pinho, a 53-year-old patent attorney from Warren Township, N.J. “Our reaction right now is cautious optimism and glad to hear the positive developments – knowing the devil is always in the details, but remaining positive we will be on land in able to get back to New Jersey.
“We were looking off our balcony at the sunrise this morning, wondering if we can get ashore. We almost had hopes to disembark in Punta Arenas, but that never materialized, so cautious optimism for now.”
Meanwhile, in Cabin 2620, South Florida natives Juan and Laura Huergo also said their mood was “cautious optimism.” The Huergos are desperate to get home to the Orlando area to be with their son, Nicolas, a sophomore at the University of Florida.
“The situation has been wearing thin on us, but feeling cautiously optimistic,” Juan said. “We’ve been tracking the ship. The cruise line told us they will provide all arrangements, so we are waiting.”
At least nine people aboard the ships are infected with the coronavirus, and four died aboard the Zaandam. The de Pinhos and 800 other asymptomatic passengers were moved from the Zaandam to the Rotterdam five days ago.
De Pinho was disheartened seeing comments online from people who did not want the ships to disembark.
“As an American, seeing idiotic comments about people who don’t want to allow Americans to disembark is pathetic,” he said. “The 295 Canadians on board must really wonder after they helped after 9/11. Talk of where ships are registered seems rather unimportant when people may be at risk of dying.
“We have to remember we are all human and not forget to have compassion for mankind. Supposedly one woman is being kept in a state room as her husband who passed away on the Zaandam — put yourself in that person’s shoes. Governments need to help people disembark and get home to their families.”
The de Pinhos and Huergos, who became friends aboard the cruise, were last on land March 14, when they visited Patagonia.
“All was still pretty normal as they held normal activities, shows, meals etc. the comedian was very funny in noting he had a captive audience,” de Pinho recalled. “We noticed more people coughing on the ship the evening of March 21st - in fact we moved twice during the show as some didn’t know how to use their elbow when coughing. But all was good until shortly after 2 pm on Sunday March 22nd - the captain made an announcement that “out of an abundance of caution” we would need to return to our staterooms where we would remain the rest of the cruise.
“That morning was the first time we had seen any ship workers wearing a mask. They had a bucket and seemed to be sanitizing a room a few doors away from us. Our captain had been providing us with updates and then confinement had supposedly slowed down the new cases of crew and passengers reporting sick...But the mood really changed when the captain announced on Friday that four guests had passed away -and the realization set in this was no longer a cruise but rather a humanitarian case.”
Timeline of the Zaandam and Rotterdam journey to Port Everglades
March 7: Holland America Line ship Zaandam leaves Buenos Aires on 14-day itinerary
March 21: Zaandam turned away from original end-destination in Chile, where it was set to begin a 20-day cruise ending in Fort Lauderdale
March 22: Passengers are isolated in their cabins
March 27: Zaandam reaches Panama Canal, shifts more than 800 passengers to sister ship Rotterdam
March 28: Ships get approval to pass through the canal. They plan to dock in Port Everglades but have no docking approval
March 30: Gov. Ron DeSantis said he did not want to see the ships dock in Port Everglades
March 31: Broward County Commission debates allowing the ships to dock but makes no decision
April 1: Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is willing to accept any Floridians onboard the ships
April 2
▪ 10:30 a.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis announces to Fox News that the state and company have agreed on a plan
▪ 11 a.m.: Both ships are scheduled to dock at Port Everglades at 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.
▪ 1:30 p.m.: Port Everglades schedule shifts docking time to 4 pm. and 4:30 p.m.
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 11:00 AM.