An 80-year-old man who disembarked from The Diamond Princess, part of the Princess Cruise Line, in Hong Kong, was later diagnosed with coronavirus. With that, the ship was quarantined on February 5th as it entered Yokohama.
Over 175 of the 3,700 passengers and crew have now been diagnosed with the virus that kills roughly 2% of its victims and the passengers will remain in quarantine through at least February 19th.
Besides offering full refunds for this cruise and a credit for what each passenger paid for a future cruise, the cruise line is reportedly providing free Internet and phone service to passengers. It’s also expanded the passengers’ TV and movie options, along with offering games, puzzles, etc., to keep them busy.
But some passengers, as well as an outside company, are inventing their own distractions.
Jan and Dave Binskin are an Australian couple who are currently stuck on the Diamond Princess. According to their Facebook page, after being quarantined on the 5th, the wine club they’re members of happened to call them on the 6th. The Binskins asked if they could do free freight to Japan and they would up getting 2 cases of wine delivered by drone.
And they did. There are photos of multiple bottles of Kim Crawford pinot noir on their Facebook page.
Meanwhile, as per the New York Post, CamSoda, a live streaming webcam platform, is offering free access to its models for anyone on the ship who is interested (the Post suggested it would be good for anyone who had cabin fever, but I thought that was a little too inappropriate. No one ever said the NY Post was appropriate, though).
“They are not only dealing with the fear of infection, which is terrifying, but boredom,” CamSoda VP Daryn Parker said in a news release.
“We like cruises just as much as the next guy, but without activities or human interaction, the boredom must be crippling,” he added.
“In an effort to keep their minds off of the coronavirus and to help with the boredom, we’re offering passengers and crews the ability to have fun in a safe and controlled environment with camming,” said Parker.
Also according to the Post, this isn’t the first time CamSoda has made such an offer. They also offered free webcams to the football players of the competing teams of the Super Bowl while they were away from home.
Isn’t that nice of them? 😉
Seriously, going back to the cruise, it sounds as if Princess is doing the best they can for their passengers, under the horrific circumstances they’re under. I’m sure that February 19th can’t come quickly enough for them.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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