Imagine boarding a cruise ship for a trip through the South Pacific. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to see places you’ve only heard about. While I’ve written about how you can visit the islands of the Polynesian Resort in WDW by plane, it’s more romantic to visit them by ship.
What happens if a global pandemic happens while you’re onboard? Passengers aboard cruise ships are finding out about that right now, as many island nations are forbidding cruise ships from docking.
ABC.net.au reports that ships were told not to dock on the Cook Islands and Vanuatu
Two cruise ships with thousands of passengers each were told to stay clear of islands in Vanuatu and Cook Islands respectively this week — the latter full of holidaymakers from virus hotspot Italy.
The island nation of Tonga has also forbidden several cruise ships from docking in their ports in the fear of bringing coronavirus.
While the inability for these ships to dock in ports on the South Pacific islands is a significant disappointment to those onboard, it’s a bigger problem for the cruise line that was planning to restock and refuel. I’ve heard reports of ships running low on food and even talking about rationing meals so there’s enough to last for the rest of the voyage.
Final Thoughts
While the entire worldwide travel economy is being affected by the coronavirus outbreak, no industry is being harder hit than the cruise lines. Here’s a list of some of the companies that have canceled cruises as of the publishing of this post:
While other cruise companies have said they’re going to continue operations, I can’t help but think it’s only a matter of time that they’re going to suspend operations. Especially if ports are going to keep them from docking.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
