‘We are both still alive’: Holland America passenger’s diary recounts two weeks on infected ship
“Homeward bound,” Andrea Bergmann Anderson, a passenger on Holland America Line’s MS Zaandam wrote on Facebook Friday.
After than two weeks at sea – nearly all of it spent isolated in their cabin on a ship with confirmed cases of COVID-19s, including four dead and dozens of people with influenza-like symptoms – she and husband Rob stepped onto dry land in Fort Lauderdale, Florida along with more than 1,160 other passengers deemed fit to travel. After going through health checks and customs at Port Everglades, they boarded a bus to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Friday to catch a charter flight and begin their way home to the Cincinnati area.
The docking wasn’t even settled until Thursday, when Florida officials and Holland America reached an agreement that allowed the Zaandam and its sister ship, MS Rotterdam, to disembark their passengers without draining resources at a time when the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in the region. That evening, the critically ill and local residents disembarked.
Others who were fit to travel, like the Andersons, went through health checks and customs before returning to their cabin to await their bus to the airport Friday. They received instructions to wear face masks at all times when traveling and go immediately into 14 days of self-quarantine when they arrived home.
Passengers who aren’t fit to travel will remain on board until they are asymptomatic for 72 hours, officials have said. Most of the crew will remain as well.
Andrea told The Cincinnati Enquirer that she and Rob hope to be home this weekend. They’ve been told this will involve charter flights with no food or drinks. They’ve been told they must wear their masks the entire time, and they cannot leave their seat.
They’re used to such restrictions.
From March 22 onward, the Andersons wore masks anytime they opened the door and spent 12 days confined to a 200-square-foot room. They were only allowed outside once, for about 30 minutes, and they were told not to touch the handrails.
The two-week cruise around South America was a bucket-list adventure intended to celebrate Rob’s retirement from his job as a data analyst.
Then four people on the Zaandam died.
How the saga unfolded
Anderson began documenting her trip in daily Facebook posts. It started with entries about empanadas in Argentina, rain in Uruguay and a slow eater at the dinner table on the cruise.
She called her journals the Anderson South American Adventures. By day 13, she had re-labeled them a misadventure.
Anderson and her husband left for their trip on March 4. At that time, no one in Ohio had been ordered to stay home. This vacation had been planned for a year and a half, and they thought they might be safer in South America, where they said only two documented cases of the coronavirus had been reported at the time.
Almost a month later, Florida officials tried to keep their cruise ship from docking in Fort Lauderdale out of concern the passengers and crew might spread the illness.
Eventually quarantined in her room on the boat, Anderson started making paper airplanes out of motivational quotes slid under the doors every day. Her goal was to throw them from the bed to the door. It took her several days.
Her husband did crossword puzzles. Rob slept a lot, because there wasn’t much else to do.
They watched marathons of “Flea Market Flip” and “Guy’s Grocery Games.” They used Wi-Fi to make phone calls to family, who often knew more than they did. Her husband had a low-grade fever. Medical officials on the boat told him it was just a cold.
He wonders now if it was COVID-19.
The Enquirer spoke to Andrea Anderson on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before their ship would finally dock. The couple seemed in good spirits. The worst was behind them – they hoped.
The following story is a first-person account of a dream vacation that turned into a nightmare, put together using Andrea’s journals and an interview.
Editor’s note: These posts have been condensed and edited for clarity. They remain Andrea’s words.
Before the cruise:
Tomorrow we leave on another Anderson Adventure. We fly to JFK then to Buenos Aires. We will spend two days there touring, including the Yarn District, pictures to follow. Then we will board a cruise ship, yes, a deadly cruise ship. Yes, I have heard all of the warnings and I am not concerned.
Stay tuned. Bon voyage!
Day 1:
We get to our seats [on the airplane] and since I promised everyone that I would be safe I pulled out a Clorox wipe to clean the seat, arms and tray. I hand one to Rob so that he can clean his seat.
Day 5:
We ate dinner with two ladies from North Dakota. Both were former teachers. I like meeting new people.
I took a couple of pictures of the Buenos Aires skyline as we sailed away. I told Rob that I would give him photo credit for his picture, he had a better angle than I did. His is the one with the window frame and thumb in it.
Day 8:
I see crew members all over the ship cleaning the handrails in the halls and on the stairs. I have now gotten very adept at operating the elevator with my elbow. We even use disinfecting wipes when we return to our cabin just to be safe.
Day 10:
When your morning starts with the captain making an announcement at 7:30 am you know that it is not good. Our South American adventure is going to be cut short.
At dinner the captain announces that we have been refused entry to the port of Ushuaia.
Day 11? [Andrea is not sure]
We had a Chilean Naval ship guarding us all day. At least after a while they no longer had the guns aimed at us.
Day 13:
All of the airports are being closed. The captain said that he would not put us off in a port with no way to get out and nowhere to stay. We are sailing for San Antonio or Valparaiso to refuel and restock.
No one will be allowed off of the ship.
Day 16:
We have signed up for a model boat building competition. They do not give you any supplies, you have to provide your own. Ours will be built on two Lysol wipes containers, held together with rubber bands and named the “Get Me the Hell Off of this Ship.”
Day 19:
“This is your captain speaking. I need everyone to listen and pay attention to what I am saying.”
Rob and I were about to go for a walk so that I could take pictures of the calm water and we could get some fresh air. This is when the captain came on.
They had a sudden upswing in passengers and crew going to the medical center with respiratory symptoms. In order to halt the spread of anything we were all told to immediately return to our cabins. We could be remaining here for the next few days or for the remainder of the cruise.
Day 21:
We are surviving, a little bored but surviving. Rob decided that I needed to learn how to play cribbage.
We watch HGTV and Food Network. We are limiting how much we watch the news channels. It is all the same things about COVID-19 and what Andrew Cuomo has to say today.
Day 23:
Dinner finally came and for the first time we got it before 8:00, and no eggplant. We did have an interesting side dish, two face masks.
Day 24:
This morning we kept waiting for the announcement from the captain. He said that there was a statement to read to us and we were wondering what it had to do with the face masks. He finally came on and told us that one passenger had passed away overnight, two yesterday and one the night before.
I know that I am supposed to keep my spirits up, but it is getting rougher.
If you happen to have a little spare time we could use any prayers you have to offer.
I am trying hard to keep my spirits up, but stress has taken over. Rob is having to force me to eat, I just do not have an appetite.
Day 25:
As far as we know no one else passed away overnight and they are still at two cases of COVID-19.
I try to not let this situation get to me, but come on, it does.
When they have paper for us they slide it under the door. I now hear that paper sliding under the door and across the carpet and wonder what news they have for us now.
Day 28:
This is Day 10 of confinement and we are both still alive, even if we did not get our Coke Zero delivery.
TV is still sparse. One of the channels has videos of all of the great places that we will visit on this cruise. Kind of cruel at this point.
Day 29:
The captain makes an announcement and we are told that plans are in place to get us off of the ship and back home. They are not finalized but we should start to gather up things in our cabin.
They are going to run wellness checks on all of us. We did not pass the last one. We are both still coughing but neither of us has a fever. We are hoping that we pass and can go home.
The end is in sight.
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