Passengers return from Covid cruise

All passengers on board the SeaDream 1 cruise ship have disembarked and flown home, according to UK passenger and British journalist Sue Bryant.

SeaDream Yacht Club’s SeaDream 1 was the first Caribbean cruise to set sail since the pandemic. However its voyage quickly turned into a PR disaster after the first guest tested positive last Wednesday and the ship returned to Barbados.  

Of the 53 passengers and 66 crew on the SeaDream 1, eight people tested positive for Covid-19, despite all apparently returning a negative test prior to boarding on Saturday 7 November.

According to Bryant, who is also The Times and Sunday Times Cruise Editor, 10 passengers left last Friday (13 November). This included the group of six Californians who were from the same travelling party – five of whom tested positive, a couple who tested positive and another couple who had booked a villa in Barbados, said Bryant.

The remaining passengers left on Saturday having been given permission by the Barbados authorities and were sent to the airport on an approved transfer.

The group of six Californians – of which five tested positive for Covid-19 – flew back to the US on a private jet.

It’s also understood that one crew member of SeaDream 1 tested positive and is staying in the isolation facility in Barbados.

"I flew back to the UK with my two negative tests (one result on Thursday, one on Friday taken by the Barbados health authority). Barbados is a travel corridor so technically I don’t have to quarantine but because I was potentially exposed to Covid last Wednesday (the last time we were mixing with other passengers) I am self-isolating."

Barbados is on the UK’s safe travel corridor list, which means quarantine is not necessary. However the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) says people may have to quarantine and/or undergo a further Covid-19 test at any stage of their stay if the Barbados authorities deem they have been in close contact with a Covid-19 positive individual or mandatory monitoring highlights potential COVID-19 symptoms.

While Bryant praised the strictness of the cruise line and the authorities at the airport and shoreside, she criticised the handling of the boarding of the British Airways flight, calling it ‘bizarre’.

"We had to take buses to a remote stand (daft, as the aircraft was easily within walking distance) and there was no social distancing on the buses, or the queues to get on them. I saw two people with masks hanging off their ears and one woman sipping a rum punch out of a plastic cup on our bus, no mask. I can’t believe they let her carry that through the boarding pass check and onto the aircraft. BA needs to have words with its handling agent."

Bryant’s comments regarding the handling of the return flight with BA are echoed by fellow passengers, cruise bloggers Cruise with Ben and David.

They tweeted: "And people think cruise is bad which is ridiculous considering how much effort goes in! No social distancing, condensed lines, people knocking into us, masks around chins, crammed into airport trams like sardines! People not wearing masks on flight!"

SeaDream Yacht Club CEO Andreas Brynestad said in a statement last Thursday that it was awaiting authorisation from the Barbados government to disembark guests safely.

It has not responded to further requests for comment.

BA did not respond to a request for comment by TravelMole.

By Louise Longman, Contributing Editor (UK)