A St. Albert couple spent 21 days at sea on a cruise while scrambling to make arrangements to get back to Canada last month.
Marjolyn and Robert Audette spent 21 days at sea in South America without stopping on land, due to COVID-19 sweeping the world and shutting down international boarders.
“We were there 21 days at sea, and during this time it seemed like the world was going to hell in a hand basket," Marjolyn said.
The Audettes had planned on taking two cruises this spring, the first leaving March 2 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and ending in Lima, Peru, on March 23. The couple then planned to take a second cruise from Lima through the Panama Canal and up to Miami. Between them, the two cruises would have meant 31 days of vacation for the retired couple.
The septuagenarians, who have been on many cruises before, were getting nervous to travel as the date neared. As COVID-19 began expanding world and issues arose on other cruises, the duo watched the travel advisories closely.
“We were worried. We kept watching the Canadian travel website and there were no advisory saying we shouldn't go. So without that, our travel insurance wouldn’t have kicked in and we would have been out of a whole lot of money,” Marjolyn said.
“At that time, South America had no COVID-19 cases, at least that we could see on any of the map. We thought that it was reasonable given that our country hadn't warned against travel,” Marjolyn said, adding they did not take the decision to go lightly.
The couple flew to South America and boarded the Azamara Pursuit.
“People were not really talking about COVID-19 except it was something that was happening in Asia. I don’t recall there being a whole lot of conversation or worry about the virus at that point,” Marjolyn said.
For the first week and few days of the cruise, the couple said the experience was amazing. They were able to travel to Uruguay, down to the bottom of Argentina where they spend a day and a half, and they travelled up the west coast to Punta Arenas, Chile, and were able to spent time at sea seeing the glaciers around Chile.
The cruisers kept monitoring the pandemic on television. Their worry grew as the virus began to spread to the U.S.
On day nine, the cruise ran into its first problem: it was denied access to a small town on the Chilean coast. At first, the country wanted to have everyone on board test their temperature and sent the results in before they could disembark, but on the day of their arrival the country shut down their entry and denied the cruisers a chance to get off the boat.
“We knew we were in trouble at that point but ... life carried on,” Marjolyn said.
The 700 cruisers on the ship, none of whom had COVID-19, spent two days at sea travelling to their next port, Valparaiso, Chile.
“Everybody madly scrambled to get flights. We managed to get an Air Canada flight out on March 19,” Robert said.
But as they neared their destination, a slew of South American countries denied access to cruise ships.
The cruisers were left to wonder how they would eventually get home, although they added that the captain of the ship, Carl Smith, was “fabulous” in keeping everyone informed and feeling safe and calm.
The captain told the cruisers they would take on provisions and fuel from the Chilean government, the cruise as they knew it was finished, and they would now travel full steam ahead, trying to get to Miami before the situation in the U.S. worsened.
“The next hurdle was, were we going to be allowed to get through the Panama Canal, because there were many cruise ships parked in the harbour outside,” Marjolyn said.
“That was the chokepoint,” Robert added.
Ships ahead of them struggled to get through because they had members onboard who were sick. The couple said at no point were they worried for their safety because nobody on their ship was sick with COVID-19 and they felt safe floating at sea. They were not confined to their rooms and were allowed to move around the ship and enjoy their time, with enhanced safety precautions.
The cruise was allowed through the Canal and then barrelled full steam ahead toward Miami, with cruisers worried if they would even be able to disembark.
The cruisers arrived in Miami on March 29 and were allowed off the boat on March 30. The passengers were taken straight onto a bus that took them to a empty airport in Fort Lauderdale. The Canadians boarded an Air Canada flight to Toronto.
The senior couple said they were worried about getting through the airports and getting infected, but were relieved to see the airports were extremely empty.
Finally, the couple arrived back in St. Albert, after using every safety precaution to get home from the airport, and immediately self quarantined. Marjolyn kissed the ground of her house as she was so relieved to be home after a pretty stressful trip.
The couple said they already booked their next trips, and got a full refund for the second cruise the were not able to take and essentially another cruise for free if they rebooked with the company.
The couple said they were so impressed with the cruise company they were with, and so was everyone else on board, that the company was overwhelmed with people booking future cruises with them.
They will be heading to Iceland next year.
