How the deadly coronavirus brought an industry to its knees: The ‘cruise lines 9/11’

Jackie Ceren has seen a lot in 41 years working in the travel industry, but she’s never seen anything like what’s happened to the cruise industry since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.

Passengers have fallen ill and died as cruise ships become the sites of epidemics. In response, ports have denied vessels entry, travelers have canceled trips and the largest cruise companies in the world have suspended operations. 

“I’ve only ever seen them close cruise ports for like hurricanes or earthquakes,” said Ceren, a travel agent based out of Florida. “And I’ve been through SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu. I’ve seen it all.”

Every booking she had has now canceled. “This is like a travel apocalypse,” Ceren said. 

Two of her clients were actually stuck at sea. Ray Cutro, 73, and his wife Arline ultimately made the decision to abort their four-month Viking cruise trip around the world.

They were just over two months in, Cutro said, and the ship was sailing around Australia trying to re-chart a course that avoided China, then the epicenter of the new coronavirus pandemic. It was the end of February, he said, and ports around Southeast Asia were turning the ship away, fearing a situation similar to that which occurred earlier in February when an outbreak spread aboard the Diamond Princess in Japan.

The captain called an all-hands meeting with the passengers, Cutro said, adding that the captain and company handled the situation well. The message was, “you can get off or you can stay on, but we don’t know where we’re going,” Cutro recalled. His mind was already made up.

“We were fooling ourselves to stay,” he said, so he and his wife flew home to Florida last week. 

Cutro said he paid $100,000 for the four-month cruise that was supposed to be a celebration of him and his wife’s 50th anniversary. The Viking Sun voyage was supposed to set a record for the longest continuous passenger cruise trip ever. Cutro said the company is compensating them for at least some of the trip, but the decision to cut the trip short wasn’t easy, he said. As the virus continues to sweep across the world, he thinks he made the right decision.

“The whole world feels like a cruise ship now,” he said.