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TravelBackinTimeonD-Day’s76thAnniversary
Journalist-led L.A. Times Expeditions take you deeper into your destination.HISTORY & POLITICSThe76thAnniversaryofD-Day
Itinerary: 7 Days
Departs: Jun 2, 2020
Travelers: 25The 76th-anniversary observance of June 6, 1944, is a vivid
reminder of a time when the fate of Europe hung in the balance
of a single battle. From Churchill’s War Rooms in London to the fortified
cliffsofPointeduHocinFrance,thistourwillretracethefirststeps
inthehistoricliberationofFrance.Thiscustom-designeditinerary
tellsthestoryofthebattleforFrance,fromtheplanninggroundsof
BOOK NOW |855.890.5298(7 a.m. – 5 p.m. PT M – F)View all our expeditions atexpeditions.latimes.comInsight is always on the itinerary.Official AirlineEngland, where the complex campaign for freeing Western Europe
from the Nazis was hammered out, to the landing beaches of Normandy,
wherethefruitsofthatlaborplayedoutfortheworldtosee.Times
managing editor Scott Kraft, who covered the 50th anniversary of
D-Day for The Times, leads this specially curated journey.
Friday night, but was mov-
ing 20 nautical miles “for lo-
gistical purposes.”
Pence said 24 people on
the cruise ship had tested
negative, and one test has
been inconclusive.
There has been one con-
firmed California death,
that of a man who disem-
barked from the Grand Prin-
cess last month in San Fran-
cisco after a cruise to Mexi-
co. The ship was scheduled
to return to San Francisco
again Wednesday after a
subsequent trip to Hawaii,
but it has been held offshore
while authorities evaluate
crew members and passen-
gers with symptoms of the
virus.
For much of the day, pas-
sengers contacted on the
ship had been in largely good
spirits. But the announce-
ment — and the way it was
delivered by Pence with no
advance warning for those
on board — left some frus-
trated and bitter.
One of those was Debbi
Loftus, on the ship with her
elderly parents.
“This really sucks that
the government decided
that they should be the one
to break the news,” Loftus
said minutes after word
broke. “Right now I and, I
know, my parents are ex-
tremely angry that we are
hearing this from the vice
president rather than our
captain.”
A source familiar with the
process said government of-
ficials knew for several hours
that there were multiple
positives from the testing
done aboard the cruise liner,
which has 3,533 people
onboard. These include
2,422 guests and 1,111 crew
members. In total, they rep-
resent 54 nationalities.
Karen, a Canadian pas-
senger who asked to be iden-
tified only by her first name,
said she fears what could
come next. “I’m not afraid of
this virus,” she said mo-
ments later. “I’m terrified of
a quarantine onboard.”
At 3:30 p.m., the ship’s
captain apologized to pas-
sengers that they had to
hear of the positive cases
from the vice president’s ad-
dress, according to one per-
son on board.The captain told passen-
gers that the ship was not
given advance notice of the
announcement. The captain
also told passengers that the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention was dis-
cussing with the ship’s medi-
cal personnel how to inform
people of their individual re-
sults.
In a statement, Princess
Cruises said it also was un-
aware of the test results pri-
or to Pence’s statement.
Visiting the CDC on Fri-
day, President Trump said
he would ultimately let
Pence, who leads the task
force in charge of the re-
sponse, decide whether to
allow passengers stuck on
the cruise ship to disem-
bark. But he said several
times that he would be in-
clined to leave them on
board because bringing
them ashore would increase
the number of official cases
on American soil.
“I like the numbers being
where they are. I don’t need
to have the numbers being
doubled because of one
ship,” Trump said.
Brian Ferguson, a
spokesman for the Gover-
nor’s Office of Emergency
Services, said in a statement
that federal and state gov-
ernment “have been working
in close collaboration
overnight and throughout
the day.” He added that
Trump and Gov. Gavin New-
som spoke Friday morning,
with the governor also
speaking with Pence
throughout the day.
Friday’s announcement
was the result of a helicopter
crew delivering kits to the
Grand Princess to test
about 100 passengers for
COVID-19. Princess Cruises
spokeswoman Negin Ka-
mali confirmed that the
CDC had “recommended
that guests should remain in
their staterooms for the re-
mainder of the cruise.”
Not all experts are sup-
portive of quarantining pas-
sengers aboard the ship.
Don Milton, an expert at
the University of Maryland
on the spread of infectious
disease, said such plans offer
risks of their own.
“Cruise ships, college
dorms and nursing homes,
take your pick,” Milton said.“There is a lot of recirculated
air.”
Milton said challenges in-
cluding narrow hallways and
the logistics of getting peo-
ple to shore would make it
hard to disembark passen-
gers without spreading the
virus further.
“How do you get people
off the ship and into a better
quarantine facility without
exposing a lot of other peo-
ple?” he asked.
On Thursday, the Sunny-
vale Department of Public
Safety said another man
who had been on the ship
was found unresponsive at
his home and officers per-
formed CPR. He later died.
On Friday, Santa Clara
County officials said that the
man tested negative for
COVID-19.
On Wednesday, a 75-year-
old Placer County man who
had tested positive for
COVID-19 died after return-
ing from the cruise.
Placer health officials
said the man had underlying
health conditions. His was
the county’s second con-
firmed case of COVID-19. Of-
ficials said close contacts of
the man were being quaran-
tined and monitored for the
illness.
Passengers on the vessel
— both current and those
who may have been exposed
earlier — told the Los Ange-
les Times that the response
to the outbreak by the com-
pany and health officials had
been filled with missteps.
In particular, passengers
said that Princess Cruises
was lax on health screening
protocols prior to boarding
and withheld information
about the risks they faced,
even as the ship’s condition
became international news.
Meanwhile, significant
precautions over the virus’
spread in California were an-
nounced Friday night.
Stanford University said
that it will move classes on-
line for the final two weeks of
the winter quarter. USC said
it would conduct lectures
and seminars online rather
than in classrooms for three
days next week to test the
ability to operate remotely.Times staff writers Noah
Bierman and Taryn Luna
contributed to this report.21 on ship test positive
[Cruise ship,from B1]been informed. The cruise
line and the captain of the
ship both later said they
were unaware of the results
prior to the televised an-
nouncement. Multiple pas-
sengers interviewed by The
Times said they would have
preferred the news be given
to them first.
Adding more uncertainty
for some passengers was
President Trump’s state-
ment Friday that he would
prefer any quarantine take
place on the ship rather than
allowing passengers to dock
in California — in part to pre-
vent increasing the number
of confirmed cases on U.S.
soil. Pence said the vessel
would be allowed to dock at a
noncommercial port this
weekend, though he did not
say where.
“It’s apparent to me that
President Trump is not con-
cerned about the crew and
passengers aboard Grand,
but rather the numbers,”
said Karen, a Canadian pas-
senger who asked to be iden-
tified only by her first name
for privacy reasons.
As passengers on the
Grand Princess cruise ship
ended their first full day con-
fined to their cabins, the re-
ality of a possible quarantine
began to set in, along with
boredom and anxiety. Fears
of the future were mixed
with minor but immediate
concerns.
Food service has been de-
layed as an overburdened
staff attempts to bring room
service to more than 3,
passengers. Coffee was late,
one meal was sandwiches
and chili, a few waited hours
for delivery. The crew passed
out forms asking what pre-
scriptions might be needed
if a long stay was mandated.
“We’re trying to stay pos-
itive and hoping for a great
outcome,” said Karen, early
in the day.
Her biggest frustration
Friday morning was that
room service, “understand-
ably overloaded,” hadn’t yet
brought coffee. She was
passing time waiting on hold
to report the missing java,
watching the ship’s webcam
on television so that she
could “feel like I’m outside.”
The previous night, the
captain told passengers
they were working with the
crew to arrange for “deck
time for exercise and fresh
air.”
Karen said hearing that
“kinda scared us into think-
ing this may go on longer
than expected.”
Despite two updates
from the captain during the
day, there was little new in-
formation. Passengers
played cards, watched mov-
ies and browsed the internet
— multiple people said the
broadband was limited. The
crew dropped off Sudoku
sheets, puzzles and a craftkit. Outdoor time never ma-
terialized.
“My take on this,” Karen
said in the afternoon, is
“hope for the best, prepare
for the worst.”
Another way some pas-
sengers spent time:
cleaning. With no cleaning
services coming in and a fear
of germs in abundance,
Karen tried to get a pair of
gloves before cleaning her
bathroom. Another passen-
ger wiped down her walls.
One washed clothes in the
bathtub.
Those who spoke to The
Times all agreed on one
point: The crew was doing
its best, delivering thou-
sands of meals three times a
day, answering requests and
attempting to maintain the
quarantine as anxiety
mounts. Many of the crew
members are Filipino or
other foreign nationals,
guests said.
“Our captain and crew
[are] doing the best they can
under such unforgiving con-
ditions,” Karen said.
About 62 people have
been under lockdown longer
because of possible expo-
sure on the previous cruise
to Mexico. For one of those,
the experience was already
feeling grim.
“I am in solitary,” said a
person who has been iso-
lated for days.
Now, there is worry that
the end is not in sight.MEMBERSof the Guardian Angels and federal health investigators deliver co-
ronavirus test kits to the Grand Princess cruise ship off San Francisco’s coast.
Chief Master Sgt. Seth ZwebenCalifornia Air National GuardHope, then anger at Trump
[Wait,from B1]