Today is the 19th of March; the day our ship will arrive in Cape Town. Amazingly, NCL has still not informed anyone on board that we will arrive 3 days ahead of schedule! But, finally we have some information about what will happen to us.

No announcement was made regarding our situation yesterday. I must admit, I was expecting the captain to tell us either that we would be arriving early but would not be able to disembark, or that we were going to be turned away but would be refueling and restocking (desperately needed at this point). But no, not a single word…

When we left our cabin to go to breakfast this morning, we found a note outside our door that we were required to fly out of the country on March 22nd, and that our flight details must be submitted between 6 am and 10 am. Say what??? Our flight was scheduled for April 1st, but we were informed by the airline yesterday that the flight had been cancelled, so we knew we would not be staying on until that date. However, we did expect to have more than 4 hours to make new arrangements (along with the 2,000 other people in the same boat…so to speak!).

Fortunately, I am married to a man that always plans ahead for every eventuality. I am a planner by nature, but he puts me to shame in that regard. We had already looked into flights home (there weren’t any decent options) so had decided to head back to Chiang Mai, Thailand to cool our heels until we could get home. To be perfectly honest, Seattle might not be the best place to be during the coronavirus pandemic and Chiang Mai doesn’t have a single case. We had already looked up flights and found that Qatar Airways would get us there. The only downside is that overnight, the price of the flight had jumped significantly. I believe this is due to the fact that very few airlines are flying out of Cape Town right now, so many on board are routing through Doha, Qatar, meaning the number of seats dropped precipitously and the price increased dramatically. But, at least we have a way out of the country and now know when we will be leaving!

So, we will be aboard the ship until the 22nd and will fly out that night. In the grand scheme of things, we may have been better off on the ship than at home, given the spread of the virus and restrictions there. Thank you for following along with our saga. My prayers are with all whose lives are being impacted by the pandemic.

Heather was

Do you remember a couple of days ago when I posted that I would (hopefully) not need to post again about our cruise. I spoke too soon.

Though NCL has not said anything to us yet, I read that the president of South Africa is now banning many foreigners from the country, including those of us from the US as of March 18th. Even if we could reach a port in South Africa in two days, I highly doubt that we would be allow to disembark. And, if that unlikely event did happen, NCL would have to find a way to get us out of the country immediately.

So, once again, things are completely up in the air for us. Though we certainly are not going hungry, there are shortages of many types of food. Want a salad? Hope you like cabbage! Veggies? Carrots and asparagus only. Yesterday, I only saw asparagus. We have been out of juice for a couple of weeks. The cooks are having to get creative about the dishes they are preparing, with very mixed results.

As more information becomes available, I will update my blog.

Heather

Hopefully, this will be the last time there is a need to update you regarding our cruise!

We woke up this morning and found out that Norwegian Cruise Line would be cancelling all cruises through April 11th. As for those of us already on a cruise? “Guests on voyages that are underway will conclude and guests will be disembarked as soon as possible and assisted with travel arrangements.” The big question is: when and where would it be possible for us to disembark?

Naturally, no announcement was made by the captain or anyone else, though most passengers were aware of the issue. The captain did state (around 9 am) that we would be stopping off of the coast of Reunion Island (where we were scheduled to dock tomorrow) in order to do a medical evacuation. We had heard a “code alpha” called at 9:30 last night (medical emergency), so the person needed to be given more intensive medical treatment than was available on board. We would then continue with our sea day, arriving back at Reunion Island tomorrow morning at 7 am. So, I guess we will be floating aimlessly for a day!

In the absence of information, we tried to figure out what might happen next. Would they dock at Reunion Island or Mauritius and try to make arrangements for all of us to get to a major airport from there? The logistics for that seem daunting given that there are 3,000 on board (passengers + crew). Besides, I don’t think either island would want us! So, South Africa would be another option. Again, would they allow us to dock? If not, we would be truly screwed. If we were allowed to dock, would they drop us at the closest port (Richard’s Bay) and transport us to the nearest airport, or what? Another ship in our situation ended up in New Zealand, but New Zealand just announced that they will not allow cruise ships to dock.

I contacted the guesthouse we are staying at in Cape Town to let them know we might be arriving early. I also reached out to Egyptair to see if our flights home could be easily changed. The guesthouse reservation agents don’t work on the weekends, and Egyptair said that since we booked through United, we would have to contact United. I have heard on the news that people are spending hours on hold with United to try to make changes in flights from Europe; I did not hold out any hope that we would have better luck. So, I contacted them on Facebook and am still awaiting an answer.

Finally, at about 11:45 am, the captain made an announcement. We will be docking at Reunion Island tomorrow (not holding my breath on that), but then will be at sea for 6 more days, arriving in Cape Town on March 22nd, as was originally scheduled.

So, the good news is that we will be docking. The bad news is the 6 more sea days. And, though theoretically we are docking tomorrow, realistically, I am resigning myself to being on board. If you have read my previous posts, you will know that Reunion Island residents were throwing rocks at cruise passengers a week or two ago. Hey, it could be an exciting day! If we actually are able to get off the ship, I may be able to write an entry regarding the exciting things we saw while on shore. Wait and see!

Today, we were supposed to dock in Le Digue in the Seychelles islands. Originally, we would’ve already visited Madagascar, but were notified of an itinerary change a few days before this leg of the cruise began. Instead, we would visit Le Digue, a small island  in the Seychelles where there are plenty of opportunities to visit the beach, but not much else. Very few taxis exist, so the cost to get to the beach is 30 Euros (so 60 round trip).

Two days ago, everyone on the ship had to fill out a health questionnaire for Seychelles immigration  that also included questions about where we had visited in the past 28 days. When we turned them in, we had to have our temperatures checked by the ship’s physician. When we docked at Le Digue , early on March 10th, immigration officials would plow through the forms and let us know who could and who could not get off the ship. Clayton and I, like many of the passengers on board, had embarked in Italy, a hotbed of coronavirus activity, and so weren’t too sure we would pass muster.

In the end, it did not matter. At around 9 pm on the 9th of March, the captain came over the ship’s loudspeaker to let us know that the officials in the Seychelles were denying us the opportunity to dock, other than to refuel and pick up new crew members. We would not be stopping at Le Digue at all, adding another sea day to our already sea day-loaded itinerary. We would dock just long enough on the 10th to refuel. And, our stops in Mauritius and Reunion Island are also up in the air. NCL is talking to the officials in those countries. The Sun Princess was just denied docking in both locations, so I cannot possibly imagine they would allow us to dock.

That leaves our 3 port stops in South Africa. Since we are supposed to disembark in Cape Town, I profoundly hope that we can dock there!

So, of the 20 days on this cruise, we have docked in Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, and Muscat (which we have visited 2 to 3 times each previously); we may dock in Richard’s Bay, Port Elizabeth, and Mossel Bay, South Africa (TBD), and will have been at sea 13 days! Not exactly what we had planned, but at least the toilet is now working (most of the time). We have only had 3 non-toilet days on this leg.

When we entered the buffet this morning for breakfast, we found that new procedures had been put in place overnight – no more serving yourself so much as a cup of coffee. Instead, the buffet was bustling with servers that would dish up your food for you. We got there early since we are early risers, so there were no issues. I am curious how things went when the crowds showed up. For lunch, we ate at a restaurant rather than the buffet. The menus had been replaced with sheets of paper, which were then disposed of after we used them. The captain’s announcements at noon included a reminder that if you were having any gastrointestinal issues that you could be screened at the medical center for free. Cruise ships rarely do anything for free, so I am wondering if there are norovirus cases on board. I don’t think norovirus would prevent entry to the ports that have been cancelled (coronavirus fears is to blame for that), but would explain the extra hygiene efforts.

We shall see how things progress over the next few days. I will post an update as new information becomes available.