Cayman couples Joy and Sam Basdeo and in-laws Andre and Maria Jackson say they are not worried about their trip, nor the journey ahead, even though their cruise ship is among 88 now under investigation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for onboard COVID-19 cases.
“I feel probably safer on the ship than I would feel just traveling some place. In fact, the only time I was afraid was actually in Miami airport when we came through, because it was so very crowded on Christmas Day,” Joy Basdeo, owner of Simply Weddings, told the Cayman Compass on Friday, during a Zoom interview aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.
Trip long overdue
She said even though the couples were wearing N95 masks “I was just worried because it took us two hours to clear Customs and that was probably the most frightening part of the whole journey,” she shared.
The couples, who are currently in Costa Maya, Mexico aboard the ship, say they are having a “good time” enjoying their Christmas getaway, which began when they departed Miami on Boxing Day.
“I feel confident that it’s going to be all right. We have no regrets,” Basdeo said, adding that they would travel annually around the holidays, but couldn’t last year due to restrictions.
The Oasis of the Seas cruise ship has been flagged by the CDC for COVID-19 cases. Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam cruise ship, whose scheduled stop this week in Grand Cayman was cancelled, is also among the ships being investigated by the CDC.
The Oasis of the Seas and Nieuw Statendam are listed as yellow under the CDC’s five-tier colour-coded system for monitoring COVID. Yellow is the scale’s middle category, which means the ship’s reported cases of COVID-19 have met the threshold for CDC investigation.
Basdeo said they only became aware of the CDC status on Thursday night when the captain made an announcement that there were cases onboard.
“He said that the ship was running at 0.03% positive cases,” she said.
Basdeo said, even with the announcement, the couples were not overly concerned, as her sister-in-law Maria Jackson added that being vaccinated helps.
“If you want to go out, then you should be vaccinated. You have to get it. We cannot live from fear and then live in the dark or something like that. We have to enjoy our life,” she said, adding that this was her and Andre’s first time doing a cruise to the Western Caribbean.
Vaccinations important to safety
Basdeo added, “I think it’s important to be vaccinated, important to be boosted, important to be careful.”
She said many people advised her against going on the cruise, but she said she was confident it would be fine.
“To our advantage… there’s only a 50% capacity on this ship. There’s only 3,480 was the last figure that I heard and the ship carries more than 6,000 passengers. And I have to tell you that Royal’s customer service is second to none. Their customer service is really great,” she said.
Basdeo said there were no new changes onboard the ship since the announcement of the cases and everyone is enjoying the amenities.
“All the crew are so happy to see people and to be back to work and to sort of work around what we’re experienced… work around Omicron and so on. It’s been great for us,” she added.
Basdeo’s brother Andre agreed.
“I feel a lot more safe on the cruise with a controlled COVID prevention system than the airports and hotels where there are less precautions in place,” he said.
Jackson said they were enjoying the sightseeing as it was their first time to the stops on the cruise like Coco Cay, Bahamas, Cozumel and Roatan.
“We always enjoy our trips, especially this one… [it’s] extremely good. Everything is well prepared and well run, well executed… sanitation, all kinds of stuff. We are well attended to, and the fun is magnanimous. You can choose wherever you want to go and it’s all fine. It’s all adventure and safe,” Jackson said.
Basdeo added that the health protocols aboard the ship are well-managed.
“The ship is very good on keeping these protocols. We have the wearing of masks at all indoor venues. Some areas of the ship are only for vaccinated guests. For example, the main dining room we go to is only for vaccinated guests. All vaccinated guests are given a green wristband so that when you go into a restaurant or you go into the casino or wherever you go, they have to know what your vaccination status is,” she said.
Basdeo said there’s compulsory hand-washing, sanitising stations all over the ship and rules like no more than six people at a time in the elevator.
She said staff are always masked and sanitisation is frequent.
Basdeo added there is an isolation area for anyone who tested positive.
She said there have been no hang-ups for them on the trip thus far and Saturday they will be doing their PCR tests, which are free, ahead of their return trip.
“I suppose one of the few disappointments of the ship is that they had to cancel all three shows,” which included the ‘Cats’ musical.
This, she said, was done because too many performers tested positive.
She said they have seen the shows before so they were ok with the cancellations.
The couples sent a special message back home.
“Happy new year to you and [Compass] readers. Let’s hope that this year is going to be safe and exciting and we try and get back to normal,” Basdeo said.
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The cruise lines are so desparate for customers that they are offering give away fares to entice people on board including the unvaccinated!. It will be interesting to see what the Covid count is when the ship returns to Miami. If infection takes off you are trapped.
I would think anyone who had any fear whatsoever about getting Covid would stay as far away as possible from a cruise ship. Not only are these vessels appropriately named the “Petri dishes of travel”, but they do an immense amount of damage to our Oceans and it’s marine life. Why people continue to use this method as a means for a “holiday” is beyond me.