CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nancy Winterton and her husband John boarded the Celebrity Eclipse on March 1, but it will likely be closer to April when they can disembark.
The cruise departed from Buenos Aires, with several scheduled stops around South America and a final destination of Santiago, Chile.
"We did all our excursions, and everything went as planned," said Winterton. "It was a wonderful 14 days, until 5:30 on the morning we were supposed to disembark."
That's when, Winterton says, the captain notified them Chile would not let the passengers enter.
"They feared that if we had any virus on the ship, it would infect their port and their people," Winterton said.
The Florida resident says no one on the ship was presenting coronavirus symptoms nor was anyone singled out as infected, but the captain informed them a previous cruise ship that had docked there had a coronavirus case, making the country wary of taking any more cruise visitors.
"They really took three days to figure out how they would get an international group of 2,500 people back to all over the world," Winterton said.
Eventually, she says ship would be allowed to dock in San Diego, and the passengers would be able to fly home from there. But first, they will spend another fourteen days at sea.
Fortunately, she says the cruise line has taken several steps to make passengers feel comfortable. Still, she's ready to go home and remains positive in the meantime.
"You've just got to go with the flow because it's not going to change and panicking doesn't help," said Winterton.
After they dock in San Diego, Winterton and her husband still have to fly home to Florida. Her fear, however, is that somehow flying home could get complicated too.