Stuck At Sea; Travel Writer Says Her Cruise Ship with No Coronavirus Cases On Board, Not Allowed To Dock Seychelles Port As Scheduled.

?Photo courtesy of Heather Griffin Phillips Via Facebook

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED-

They have finally made it off the ship and they are now waiting for their first plane ride home!

Updated March Twenty First

Heather and her Husband Clayton, could be on their way home…finally: ???❤???

Today is our last day on the ship. We are docked at Cape Town and have a beautiful view of the city from the ship. No fresh food has been brought on board; I guess they figure we can suck it up for another day!

At breakfast today I talked to a woman that was unable to get a flight home. She is being allowed to stay on the ship until it leaves Cape Town on the 24th but doesn’t know what will happen to her after that. She isn’t able to be in South Africa, the ship is leaving, and she has no way to get home. She is contacting the US Embassy for help.

When we got back to our cabin, I received a message from a friend that Thailand had just changed their entry requirements. Starting March 22nd (we would arrive on the 23rd), all those arriving in Thailand (foreigners and citizens) would be required to present a medical certificate issued within the past 72 hours that verified they were COVID free. There is no way possible for us to obtain said certificate, so we would not be able to board our flight… click the link to read the rest of Heathers Update: https://travelswithheather.com/2020/03/

Updated March Eighteenth 2020

A travel writer and blogger Heather Griffin Phillips of Travelswithheather.com said that her cruise ship, the NCL Spirit, was still not being allowed to dock at the Seychelles like they were scheduled to. Eventhough they had no suspected coronavirus cases on board, the Government there would not allow them to dock. They are hoping that the ship will be able to dock at any other port; as they were set to disembark from Cape Town, South Africa in two weeks.

In a new update today, March 18th, Heather wrote us to say that, “We have been at sea for 14 straight days. We will be in Cape Town tomorrow, but most likely will not be allowed to disembark. We are hoping that the ship can restock supplies and refuel. I will post more when I know more!”

In an update on the 13th of March, Heather and her husband Clayton Phillips, were told that The Norwegian Cruise Lines were canceling all of their cruises and so they were told that they would be disembarking the ship for good at their next port:

Today will be a most interesting day. We just woke up to the news that Norwegian Cruise Lines is suspending all cruises, effective immediately. As for those of us already on cruise? “Guests on voyages that are underway will conclude and guests will be disembarked as soon as possible and assisted with travel arrangements.”
The problem is that we are not sure when and where we will be disembarked! The last cruise ship through this area ended up in New Zealand, because nowhere else would allow them to dock. Yikes!
Good thing we are flexible…I will keep you updated as we know more.

Heather Griffin Phillips

Then today, she wrote that they had just found out that They “will be docking in Cape Town on March 22nd, bringing the total number of sea days to 17 out of the 20 day cruise! We are supposed to dock somewhere tomorrow, but I am not holding my breath. Updates are on www.TravelsWithHeather.com/blog.”

And then, just a couple of hours ago, she left us one more update on their days Stuck @ Sea,

One final update: our last port was just cancelled so we will be at sea for the next 8 days?. We can’t even stop to restock supplies. I don’t think we will starve to death ?.

Heather Griffin Phillips

That is an awful long time at sea, even if you are stuck on a luxury cruise ship. Below is the original story that explains what they have gone through along with a really cool video walkthrough of the ship. Take a Look:

In an earlier update Heather says that instead of their scheduled port of Madagascar, they were told that they might be able to get off the ship and visit a smaller island, Le Digue. Where she says that there is not much to do there but visit the beach; and almost no taxis to take you anywhere else, so the cost to travel by taxi to the beach is around 30 Euros (60 Euros round trip)

As it turns out nothing is going to schedule on this cruise. Heather wrote on her travel blog, about what has been happening on the ship over the last couple of days:

TravelsWithHeather.com – “Two days ago, everyone on the ship had to fill out a health questionnaire for Seychelles immigration  that also included questions about where we had visited in the past 28 days. When we turned them in, we had to have our temperatures checked by the ship’s physician. When we docked at Le Digue , early on March 10th, immigration officials would plow through the forms and let us know who could and who could not get off the ship. Clayton and I, like many of the passengers on board, had embarked in Italy, a hotbed of coronavirus activity, and so weren’t too sure we would pass muster.”

The RightWay reported earlier that Italy has quarentined entire cities, there are almost 16 million people that have been put on lockdown there. So the fact that The Norwegian Spirit had docked in Italy prior to their landing at Seychelles did not sit well with the Government there:

The RightWay Via Facebook: March 9th “The Government is asking people not to get on Cruise Ships, as thousands are getting ready to depart a quarantined ship. Italy has quarantined as many as 16 million people. And a staff member of the Trump admin says that it may become necessary to quarantine entire cities here and put them on lockdown::

Heather continued- “In the end, it did not matter. At around 9 pm on the 9th of March, the captain came over the ship’s loudspeaker to let us know that the officials in the Seychelles were denying us the opportunity to dock, other than to refuel and pick up new crew members. We would not be stopping at Le Digue at all, adding another sea day to our already sea day-loaded itinerary. We would dock just long enough on the 10th to refuel. And, our stops in Mauritius and Reunion Island are also up in the air. NCL is talking to the officials in those countries. The Sun Princess was just denied docking in both locations, so I cannot possibly imagine they would allow us to dock. That leaves our 3 port stops in South Africa. Since we are supposed to disembark in Cape Town, I profoundly hope that we can dock there!”

We will be talking with Heather to get more first hand reports from the ship. You can also check out her website and read about all of her wonderful adventures. Also, here is a virtual walkthrough of the Cruise Ship the NCL Spirit – ???❤???

We were supposed to dock in the Seychelles tomorrow but the country is refusing to let the ship dock. No coronavirus on board, but they don’t care. We are waiting to hear if any of the ports will allow us to dock. Should be an interesting couple of weeks! We are supposed to disembark in Cape Town, South Africa in a couple of weeks. It will be really interesting if they won’t let us dock!

Heather Griffin Phillips Travelswithheather.com Via Facebook

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Jason Haugen

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