Norwegian Jewel, which was turned away from ports in New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii amid fears of the new coronavirus, is finally allowed to let its 2,000 passengers off the ship — in Hawaii.
After announcing last week that no ships would be allowed to disembark passengers in the state, officials said Sunday they were developing a plan with Norwegian Cruise Line to do just that. The ship already had permission to refuel and restock in Honolulu.
“The ship experienced propulsion problems that require repairs at the next port, which is Honolulu Harbor,” the Hawaii Department of Transportation said in a statement. “The repairs must be made without passengers on board, which has prompted the change to allow the passengers to disembark.”
Passengers were scheduled to board charter flights to Los Angeles, Sydney, London, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Frankfurt, Germany, on Monday and into Tuesday. Everyone will stay on the ship until three hours before their flight, according to the cruise line, and all passengers will go through “enhanced medical screening” before they disembark.
No one on Norwegian Jewel has a confirmed or suspected case of the virus. About 1,000 crew members are staying on board.
The voyage left Sydney on Feb. 28 and was meant to be a 23-day Australia and French Polynesia itinerary. No one has been off the ship since March 11, when passengers were able to disembark in Fiji, according to officials in Hawaii.
Jade Butay, director of Hawaii’s Department of Transportation, said in Sunday’s statement that passengers would be kept isolated to avoid straining the state’s resources, “while also addressing the well-being of the cruise line passengers who have been at sea for a very long time.”
Global cruise lines, including Norwegian, announced they would suspend operations for at least 30 days on March 13. As the coronavirus spread, ports around the world closed to cruise traffic, leaving several stranded at sea without an immediate solution on land.
As of Friday night, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, 30 ships were still completing their trips.
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For passengers on Norwegian Jewel and family members trying to help from afar, the repeated plan changes and uncertainty have been frustrating.
Gary Owens, a retired physician from Delaware sailing with his wife, said last week he already had canceled flights home from French Polynesia, New Zealand and Fiji. While he said crew members were “going out of their way to take care of us,” communication about the situation was “relatively infrequent and incomplete.”
After hearing from the captain that the ship was experiencing technical difficulties on Friday, he said the atmosphere on board became tense.
“The prevailing mood is very somber and passengers are more and more concerned about the ultimate fate of all of us,” he said in an email Friday. “Any help we can get in Hawaii and the ability to return to our loved ones is what we need now."
Sonja Missio, whose parents are on the ship, said in an email Monday she was relieved to have a resolution — but holding her breath until they touched down in Toronto.
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She said her parents were worried about the crew who would remain on the ship and bothered by poor communication from the cruise line throughout the ordeal.
But, Missio said, passengers rallied to help check on loved ones for family members back home, and someone organized a Facebook group with contact information to ask government representatives for help.
“How a group of strangers across the globe rallied around getting this ship home has been unreal,” she said in an email.
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