Costa Deliziosa cruise docks in Spain to begin disembarking after trip that began pre-pandemic
BARCELONA, Spain — Some passengers from a luxury cruise ship that traveled the globe for 15 weeks while the new coronavirus spread on land have started to disembark in northeastern Spain.
Monday’s port-of-call in Barcelona marks the beginning of the end of the around-the-globe cruise of the Costa Deliziosa, whose owner Costa Crociere, an Italian company, says has no cases of the COVID-19 virus on board.
The boat sailed the last five weeks with virtually no human contact with the outside world.
Hundreds of the boat’s 1,831 passengers, including 168 Spaniards, were expected to get off the boat in Spain and the rest were expected to do so in the next and last stop, in Genoa, Italy.
The Deliziosa was originally due to return to Venice on April 26.
A company spokesman said a passenger left the ship earlier in the week in Marsala, Sicily, for health issues and had a COVID-19 test, which was negative.
Unlike other cruise ships that suffered outbreaks and were often put in quarantine to protect port cities, the Deliziosa has been virtually a floating virus-free bubble, allowing the passengers to use the ship’s facilities and entertainments.
Being on the liner for weeks during the pandemic “was not surreal, it was incredible,″ said passenger Carlos Paya, who lives in Valencia, Spain, and is sailing with his wife. He called being on the cruise ship “a stroke of good luck,” adding that they have family members in Spain.
The ship set sail from Venice in early January and stopped making ports of call after leaving western Australia last month, except for technical refueling stops.
French authorities had rebuffed a request by Costa for permission to disembark several hundred passengers from France and nearby countries at Marseilles. “The health situation on board the ships, with 1,814 guests and 898 members of the crew, doesn’t present any problem for public health and no case of COVID-19,” Costa’s statement said.
While people infected with the coronavirus often experience mild or moderate symptoms, possible complications like pneumonia can put their lives at risk.
The Deliziosa was originally due to return to Venice on April 26. After the U.N. World Health Organization pandemic alert in March, the ship, which had just made a port call in Fremantle, western Australia, made only technical and refueling stops, before the journey back toward the Mediterranean, which took it through the Suez Canal, according to the company.
Passenger Jean-Pierre Escarras, from Marseilles, shot a video of their cabin that their daughters shared on social networks, in which he says: “This is our place of confinement. We are lucky to have a window.”
The couple said that after a stop in Sydney, the ship’s activities were “reduced or sometimes canceled. We haven’t been able to get out on land since March 14 – that’s 34 days.”
The passengers said that ports in Oman, along the Suez Canal, as well as in the Seychelles and Indian Ocean ports, refused to let the ship dock.
The Spanish passenger, Payá praised the captain and crew.
Costa said the passengers were confined to their cabins only for the period until the ship heard back that the ill guest who got off in Sicily had tested negative. It didn’t say how long that period lasted.
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