36 The last word
Escaping the cruise from hell
AP (2)fused travelers looked for a way home.
The Grand Princess was thrust into the
national spotlight after California reported
its first death from coronavirus—an elderly
man in Northern California’s Placer County,
who had been on the ship’s previous voy-
age to Mexico. The exact point at which
he contracted the virus is disputed. Princess
Cruises, which operates the Grand Princess
and the Diamond Princess, claimed he was
infected at some point during the Grand
Princess’ trip to Mexico and said he com-
plained of symptoms while still on board.
Public health officials in California dis-
agree. More likely, they said, he was
already infected when he stepped aboard
the ship, indicating the new coronavirus
had been spreading onshore for longer than
anyone knew. Genetic researchers this week
traced the virus that infected passengers on
the Grand Princess to the same family tree
of infections that spread through a cluster
of patients in Washington state and likely
originated from a patient who had traveled
to Wuhan, China. The finding suggests an
infected person may have traveled from
Washington to California and had contact
with the someone who boarded the ship.
What is certain, however, is that the
75-year-old Placer County man who testedpositive for the new
coronavirus died on
March 4—the first
death in California
attributed to the virus.
About 60 passengers
who traveled with
him to Mexico stayed
on the ship’s next
journey to Hawaii,
mixing with other
passengers.P
ASSENGERS HAD
little reason to
believe any-
thing was out of the
ordinary until the
ship slowly started
canceling events: first,
the shows that drew
large crowds, then
the smaller events like
music or dancing les-
sons that keep passen-
gers busy at sea. The
morning of March 4,
the same day the Placer County man died
at a hospital, Grand Princess officials told
the 60 passengers who traveled with him
they’d need to stay in their rooms until they
could be screened for symptoms.
Still, most were allowed to carry on, catch-
ing sun on the Lido deck and visiting with
their shipmates. The elderly Weissbergers
were playing cards with friends when news
of the potential outbreak reached their
daughter and son-in-law back in Florida.
“We called and asked if they were quar-
antined,” said son-in-law Chalik, an attor-
ney who has since filed a lawsuit on the
couple’s behalf, accusing Princess Cruises
of gross negligence for its “lackadaisical”
response to the outbreak.
“They said, ‘No, we’re playing bridge,’”
Chalik recalled. “We couldn’t believe it. We
asked, ‘You’re playing bridge with other
passengers? And you’re touching the same
cards?’ They had no idea.”
Later that day Gavin Newsom, California’s
governor, announced a state of emergency
and, citing those on board who had shown
symptoms, said the Grand Princess would
head back to California early for testing.
The toughest moment for Michelle
Heckert, a Bay Area woman traveling with
her grandparents, came when she learnedPassengers on board the Grand Princess only gradually came to realize they were central figures in the coronavirus
pandemic, said Mario Koran in The Guardian—and the president of the United States didn’t want them back.As the Grand Princess idled offshore, passengers were quarantined in their rooms.A
S RONALD AND
Eva Weissberger
boarded the
cruise ship bound for
Hawaii, the couple
was looking forward
to the trip of a lifetime.
The Weissbergers, the
74- and 69-year-olds
from Florida, had heard
stories about the boat’s
sister ship, the Diamond
Princess, which had
been quarantined for
weeks off the coast of
Japan and ultimately
resulted in more than
700 confirmed cases
of coronavirus. But to
them, the Diamond
Princess “seemed like
a world away,” says
the couple’s son-in-law,
Jason Chalik.
Little did they know,
what would start as a
15-night cruise through paradise would
turn into a waking nightmare for the
3,500 people on board.
As passengers headed up the gangway
to the Grand Princess and toward their
rooms on Feb. 21 they had no idea that
a 75-year-old man from Placer County,
Calif.—who’d stepped off the boat in San
Francisco—was carrying Covid-19, the
novel coronavirus that by Friday afternoon
had infected more than 2,000 Americans
and killed more than 40.
The cruise ship they boarded has since
become the center of a dramatic U.S. crisis
that has forced national and state gov-
ernments to take measures that seemed
unimaginable even a week ago. It has also
become a potent symbol for everything
from America’s woeful lack of test kits,
which had to be flown in by helicopter, to
the racial politics of who will shoulder the
burden of the outbreak.
Between the boat’s departure and its
return, the nation’s handling of the virus
would shift entirely. The World Health
Organization declared the outbreak a
pandemic. Markets tumbled. Schools and
theme parks shuttered and professional
sports halted. And President Trump would
suspend most travel from the European
Union, setting off chaos at airports as con-