St. John's couple stuck on a cruise to nowhere in South Pacific

Joan and Pat Walsh are stuck on a cruise ship in the South Pacific where rumours are flying fast between 2,500 passengers, and nobody seems to know where they'll make landfall.

As of Monday morning, the plan was to dock in Honolulu but it remains to be seen if they'll be allowed to.

The couple has made two attempts to fly back to Canada — once from New Zealand and once from Fiji — but both were nixed when the ship was turned away by local authorities.

"I would like to be able to make it back to Canada," said Joan Walsh. "I'm watching the news reports daily in our room and it's very frightening."

The couple departed from Sydney, Australia, on Feb. 28, when news of the virus was just starting to spread around the world. At the time there were no restrictions or warnings from the Canadian government not to travel to that area of the world. Just to be safe they tried to cancel two days earlier, but were told they couldn't get a refund from Norwegian Cruise Line.

"Things were getting pretty heavy then but it wasn't as bad as it is now," Walsh said.

And so they set off from Sydney for a month-long extravaganza at sea. They got their first taste of trouble when the itinerary changed before the ship even departed. 

"That was an indication it wasn't going to be smooth sailing," she said.

It wasn't the last change — six times during the trip, the ship was turned away from ports in the South Pacific.

At one point, they were told they had to go to Tahiti to have their passports checked, but that didn't happen.

"We weren't told where we were going. We weren't told anything," Walsh said.

She did praise the staff for the measures taken to ensure cleanliness. Even at the buffet, Walsh said, all the food is served for you to avoid multiple people handling utensils and napkins.

Nobody on board is sick, she said, and there's no reason to believe anybody has COVID-19.

Her husband has ongoing medical issues, however, and has a compromised immune system, causing his family at home to worry.

Cruise ships have been hit especially hard by the virus, with one of the first major outbreaks happening on the Diamond Princess off Japan. Its sister ship, the Golden Princess, is stuck off New Zealand with 3,700 people on board and one person showing symptoms of COVID-19.

Walsh said they're trying to sift through the information they are hearing about docking in Hawaii, but in the meantime, they won't be booking a flight until they are allowed off the ship.

"It's been a great cruise weather-wise and stuff, but this is getting a bit extreme."

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