Coronavirus: how a luxury cruise became ‘a floating prison’ during quarantine in Japan
- Passengers on board the luxury liner have become caught up in the global coronavirus crisis
- The vessel that once had 3,711 passengers and crew is now a ghost ship of deserted reception areas, swimming pools and hallways
It’s ending with him quarantined in his cabin aboard the Diamond Princess for two extra weeks, eating a “lettuce sandwich with some chicken inside” and watching 20 infected people escorted off the ship, heading for hospitals for treatment of a new virus.
Tests are still pending on some passengers and crew who have symptoms or had contact with infected people.
“It’s not going to be a luxury cruise; it’s going to be like a floating prison,” Abel said on Facebook from the ship in the port of Yokohama, outside Tokyo.
As Japanese officials loaded the ship with supplies on Thursday to make the quarantine as bearable as possible, passengers took to social media to highlight kindnesses by the crew and to complain about dwindling medicine, the quality of the food and the inability to exercise or even leave their cabins.
For many passengers, it’s going to be absolute boredom.
Their photos and videos showed the vessel that once had 3,711 passengers and crew is now a ghost ship of deserted reception areas, swimming pools and hallways. Babies on the Hong Kong ship were reportedly running out of diapers and milk.