just in news about Nieuw Statendam

[Ine]

Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam was notified at 9:30 a.m. local time in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, that the Florida Governor’s office had supported an order requested by Broward County officials to hold disembarkation of guests from the ship in order to do a COVID-19 test on a guest who sadly passed away during this cruise. The U.S. Coast Guard, in conjunction with the U.S. CDC, had already cleared the ship for disembarkation after reviewing the medical specifics of this case. Approximately 65% of guests have already disembarked based on this clearance and are on their way home.

Results are not expected back until late afternoon or early evening today. 871 guests remain on the ship and all hotel services are fully operational and they are able to use their staterooms. We have advised those with flights before this evening to rebook them. We are also looking at options for anyone who may now need overnight accommodations for flights tomorrow, including the option to overnight on the ship.

There were no known or suspected cases of COVID-19 on this cruise. Nieuw Statendam just returned from a 7-day Caribbean cruise that departed Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on March 8, 2020.

[Boatdrill]

What a mess. 😞    

[Himself]

Sorry to hear.  I hope it all works out.

[ninefishes]

Very sad. Condolences to the passenger’s family. Hopefully the death was not caused by COVID-19. Stay healthy, everyone!

[Krazy Kruizers]

So sorry to hear this.

 

Since the luggage was already off the ship, what will the remaining guests do for clean clothes?

[Himself]

4 minutes ago, ninefishes said:

Very sad. Condolences to the passenger’s family. Hopefully the death was not caused by COVID-19. Stay healthy, everyone!

I doubt it was COVID 19.  I do know one of five cruises have a death on board.  HAL has many seniors on board and I have been aware of a number of deaths on cruises in the past almost 24 years I have been on the high seas.

[Wehwalt]

Shows you shouldn’t dillydally about getting off the ship.

[OhioLair]

Just left the Nieuw Statendam this morning and all seemed fine.  We were held up only briefly departing upon the discovery of the death.  Let me just say, it is NOT COVID19 related.  If it was, the person would have been showing symptoms all week and HAL would have been on top of it.  Like HIMSELF said, deaths are frequent occurrences onboard ship, and c'mon, its HAL.  The demographic is aimed at older folks (like me).   It is bound to happen.  Add in the stress of returning to the "real" world and all the craziness people are spouting is enough to put anyone off and kill a horse!

 

as Ine reported, "The U.S. Coast Guard, in conjunction with the U.S. CDC, had already cleared the ship for disembarkation after reviewing the medical specifics of this case."    The county officials are just over reacting.  The CDC cleared the case and the ship!

 

The ship and staff were AMAZING, and the cleanliness of the ship was beyond reproach.  The amount of sanitation and disinfecting they did during that week far surpassed anything I had ever seen previously on HAL.  The Captain, his officers and staff were on top of keeping us informed and we had a wonderful week onbaord the newest ship of the fleet.  We never felt threatened by the virus or our surroundings (actually the opposite, we wanted to stay on board because it felt so safe LOL)

We look forward to sailing on her again once this crisis is over.

 

Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased.

 

 

[Copper10-8]

Death of natural causes onboard is sadly not an uncommon occurrence on HAL and other cruise lines. The remains would have been placed in the ship's temperature-controlled morgue on B-Deck aft. The HAL port agent and, subsequently through him/her, the federal (CBP) and Broward County authorities would have been made aware of this event at least 24 hrs prior to Nieuw S arriving back at FLL. Why disembarkation was granted only to put a stop to it to test the remains for COVID-19 after half the pax were already off the ship and on their way home/to the airports is a mystery. Things just seem to go from bad to worse

[OhioLair]

2 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

Death of natural causes onboard is sadly not an uncommon occurrence on HAL and other cruise lines. The remains would have been placed in the ship's temperature-controlled morgue on B-Deck aft. The HAL port agent and, subsequently through him/her, the federal (CBP) and Broward County authorities would have been made aware of this event at least 24 hrs prior to Nieuw S arriving back at FLL. Why disembarkation was granted only to put a stop to it to test the remains for COVID-19 after half the pax were already off the ship and on their way home/to the airports is a mystery. Things just seem to go from bad to worse

Over reaction by the Broward County officials.  A clear case of the county inciting fear and panic although the case and ship had been cleared by the CDC.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by OhioLair

[Roz]

Cruise ships are being treated like leper colonies.  I would rather get on a cruise ship today than a NYC subway.  People got sick and people died on cruise ships long before coronavirus.  

[Copper10-8]

13 minutes ago, OhioLair said:

Over reaction by the Broward County officials.  A clear case of the county inciting fear and panic although the case and ship had been cleared by the CDC.

 

 

It's ludicrous! If you're going to decide to test the remains, do it when the ship first arrives, not after more than half the folks are already off and on their way. If there's going to be a positive result, which is highly unlikely in this event because there would have been others with COVID-19 symptoms, you've just allowed 65% of those pax to potentially cross-contaminate thousands of others they come in contact with on their way to the homestead, unbelievable!

[ger_77]

Sad for the family of the deceased.  HAL is apparently doing all they can to accommodate the guests who were to have disembarked with the rest.  Hopefully they'll get results quickly, so everyone can continue on their journeys home.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Himself]

33 minutes ago, OhioLair said:

Over reaction by the Broward County officials.  A clear case of the county inciting fear and panic although the case and ship had been cleared by the CDC.

 

There is certainly a lot of over-reaction these days. I have been affected by it. 

[AncientWanderer]

Another crazy story in this crazy time, but I suppose it is important to determine cause of death during a pandemic and officials are just doing their job.

 

(Manohman do I ever feel blessed to be able to hole up in a nice house, in a quiet neighborhood, and stay away from TP bandits, etc., etc.)

[crzndeb]

I had posted this on another thread earlier this morning. My friends are on board and texted me. They were in line to debark, when it was halted. They reopened cabins, and had complimentary drinks for a while. Not sure if that still goes. She said Lido was open earlier, and pizza is still open. She just texted that they hope to hear something at 1600 EDT 

[Vict0riann]

How very sad!  I imagined too, that many people will now have missed their flights and will need to stay on board overnight.  So every cloud, etc., - at least the ship is not now filling up with new passengers.

[FlaMariner]

another reason to choose "early dis-embarkation"

[westview1]

My DH (westview1900) and I are on board and I can confirm the 4:00 pm update and that they are treating us well with food and free drinks.  They are showing movies on the big screen.   We live in West Palm Beach and our car is at a site away from the port.  But we can get in our car and drive home when we are released.  I feel bad for those with flights and anyone who has a job to get back to. 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you nofocruiser for the update.

[Nymich]

2 hours ago, OhioLair said:

Over reaction by the Broward County officials.  A clear case of the county inciting fear and panic although the case and ship had been cleared by the CDC.

 

No surprise there Broward County after all

[sue1898]

The Florida governor just said on a news conference that the deceased person’s test results came back negative and the remaining passengers were being allowed to disembark.

[Brentt_M]

Yes, the captain informed us at approximately 3:50pm of the negative results (we were very confident of this outcome all along) and the remaining passengers were able to begin disembarking shortly there after.

[OhioLair]

16 hours ago, AncientWanderer said:

Another crazy story in this crazy time, but I suppose it is important to determine cause of death during a pandemic and officials are just doing their job.

 

(Manohman do I ever feel blessed to be able to hole up in a nice house, in a quiet neighborhood, and stay away from TP bandits, etc., etc.)

Sadly Broward County wasn't "Just doing their job", the case had already been signed off on by the CDC (Center for Disease Control, the BIG Boys and Girls in charge) all Broward County was doing was wasting a test and trying to look important.  IF it had been COVID19, the damage would have been done by the remaining 1800 passengers who had already disembarked.  

[OhioLair]

15 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

How very sad!  I imagined too, that many people will now have missed their flights and will need to stay on board overnight.  So every cloud, etc., - at least the ship is not now filling up with new passengers.

No "New Passengers" for at least the next 30 Days Ann. . . . . all cruises cancelled.