{"id":16351,"date":"2020-02-14T14:35:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.travelcenter.uk\/?p=16351"},"modified":"2020-02-14T14:37:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:37:39","slug":"a-cruise-ship-rejected-the-permit-to-dock-by-5-countries-due-to-a-coronavirus-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/a-cruise-ship-rejected-the-permit-to-dock-by-5-countries-due-to-a-coronavirus-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"A CRUISE SHIP REJECTED THE PERMIT TO DOCK BY 5 COUNTRIES DUE TO A CORONAVIRUS SCARE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A cruise ship that might\nhave been fated to sail the oceans of the world without finding a welcome on\nland was rescued by Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MS Westerdam, carrying more than 1,450 passengers, spent the last week in an attempt of looking for a port that would permit it to dock, after concerns rose over a possible outbreak of coronavirus.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship’s owner, Holland America Line, has\nmaintained that there have not been any known cases of the illness on-board and\nthat the ship was not in quarantine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this was not enough to persuade the authorities as the virus spread throughout the region and the\nship, which set sail from Hong Kong on February 1, bound for a two-week\nitinerary around Japan and Taiwan, was prohibited from entering the ports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was supposed to stop in Manila,<\/span><\/strong><\/a> the capital of the Philippines, before two stops in Taiwan, several in Japan and one in South Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Japan said that the MS Westerdam would not\nbe able to dock at any of its scheduled stops around the country, and when it\nrequested for shelter in a different location it was rejected by the\ngovernments of Taiwan, Guam, Bangkok and the Philippines. At one point, Holland\nAmerica said the ship was \u201cin a holding pattern off the coast of Japan\u201d while\nit looked for \u201ca new port of disembarkation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cruise line thought it had found harbour in Bangkok<\/span><\/strong><\/a> this week until the Thai Public Health Minister said that the cruise passengers will not be allowed to disembark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Holland America on Wednesday, the ship\nwas now bound for Sihanoukville in Cambodia, where the cruise will end and\nguests, who will be able to go ashore, will fly home via Phnom Penh after a\nwait of a few days. The cruise line said it will arrange and pay for all\nflights, issue full refunds and provide 100% future cruise credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holland America stated, \u201cAll\nguests on board are healthy and despite erroneous reports there are no known or\nsuspected cases of coronavirus on board, nor have there ever been, we sincerely\nthank our guests and the crew on Westerdam \u2014 and their loved ones \u2014 for their\npatience during this extraordinary time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the future voyage\nplans of the Westerdam are now being assessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information about the\nsituation on the ship was revealed by a passenger, a woman by the name of\nChristina Kerby, who has been tweeting while on-board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

She said on February 9th<\/sup>\n\u201cWe\u2019re being treated very well, so grateful for the upbeat crew, great\nentertainers and the captain keeping us well informed. Everyone on board is\nhealthy and well cared for. We\u2019re in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

She also stated about the fitness\nclasses continuing, entertainment, facilities and the on-board menu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the ship was headed for Cambodia, she said\nshe was \u201celated at the prospect of touching land\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the story\nthe of Diamond Princess, another cruise ship in the region, is far less\ncheering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vessel, carrying 2,666\nguests on a two-week cruise of China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan, has been in\nquarantine since February 4; its number of cases of coronavirus now stands at\n174, with 39 added last Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been in quarantine\nsince arriving off the Japanese coast early last week after the virus was\ndetected in a former passenger who got off the ship last month in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the boat arrived in Japan, authorities\ninitially tested nearly 300 people of the 3,711 aboard for the virus, gradually\nevacuating dozens who were infected to local medical facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent days, testing\nhas expanded to those with new symptoms or who had close contact with other\ninfected passengers or crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who remain on the\nship have been asked to stay inside their cabins and are allowed only briefly\nonto open decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have been asked to wear masks and keep a distance from each other when outside, and given thermometers to regularly monitor their temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cruise ship that might have been fated to sail the oceans of the world without finding a welcome on land was rescued by Cambodia. The MS Westerdam, carrying more than 1,450 passengers, spent the last week in an attempt of looking for a port that would permit it to dock, after concerns rose over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":16354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16351"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16358,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16351\/revisions\/16358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcenter.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}