Passengers on Ruby Princess coronavirus cruise ship will get a full refund

On Thursday, the Ruby Princess cruise ship docked in Sydney with dozens of undiagnosed coronavirus cases onboard.

Almost 2,700 passengers - some coughing and spluttering - were allowed to leave the ship at Sydney Harbour, catching trains, buses and even overseas flights to get home.

More than 130 people from the cruise have now tested positive, making it the biggest single source of infections in Australia. One passenger died in hospital on Tuesday.

The saga has caused much anger: why was the ship allowed to dock and unload people?
What passengers were told

Passengers have vented their anger over how the situation was handled by ship operator Princess Cruises and Australian authorities.

Elisa McCafferty, an Australian woman who flew home to London with her husband immediately after disembarking, told the BBC: "Nothing was said at anytime about anyone being sick onboard. It was a distinct lack of information coming through from Princess the entire time."

She only learned of the danger while collecting her bags at Heathrow Airport.

"I turned on my phone and I started getting all these notifications from people back in Australia saying 'there's been confirmed cases on the Ruby,'" she said.

"And I was just absolutely petrified. We had just been on two full flights - what if we had infected someone?"

[link to www.bbc.com (secure)]

april 5


Police have launched a criminal investigation into whether the operator of the Ruby Princess downplayed potential coronavirus cases before thousands of passengers disembarked in Sydney last month.

Key points:

A 17-minute triple-0 call was made from the vessel the day before passengers disembarked in Sydney
Police said Carnival Australia said COVID-19 was not an issue on the vessel
Nearly 200 crew who are still on board are showing symptoms of COVID-19

Eleven passengers have died from COVID-19 since the vessel docked at Circular Quay on March 19 — the latest being a 78-year-old who died in Queensland earlier this afternoon.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said there were "many unanswered questions" about the cruise, which was operated by Carnival Australia.

"There seems to be absolute discrepancies between the information provided by Carnival and what I would see as the benchmark for the laws that the Federal Government and the State Government put in place in terms of protecting Australians from cruise ships when coronavirus had started," Commissioner Fuller said.

"The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation."

Nearly 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark despite others on board experiencing flu-like symptoms.

More than 600 confirmed COVID-19 cases have been linked back to the cruise, which remains off the NSW coast with nearly 200 sick crew onboard.

[link to www.abc.net.au (secure)]

april 18

A family in the US is suing Princess Cruises for more than $US1 million ($1.6 million) for "recklessly" failing to alert passengers to the risk of exposure to coronavirus on the Ruby Princess.

Key points:

The latest death brings the global number of fatalities from the Ruby Princess to 21
The family of the man is seeking damages, claiming the cruise operator was aware of a coronavirus outbreak
The ship is now the subject of a police investigation and a separate independent inquiry

The death toll from cases linked to the ship has reached 21 after US man Chung Chen, 64, died from COVID-19 after returning home.

The lawsuit says the cruise operator, Princess Cruises, "chose to place profits over the safety of its passengers, crew and the general public in continuing to operate business as usual".

The lawyer representing his wife and daughter, Debi Chalik, said the family were not aware there was an outbreak on the ship until after they got home.

She said the ship's decision to sail despite the coronavirus risk goes against what a responsible cruise line would have done.

"The case against Princess Cruises is based on corporate negligence and corporate gross negligence, they sailed on March 8th knowing that there was a huge risk of putting their passengers exposed to COVID-19," she said.

Mr Chen died in Torrance, Los Angeles County, on April 4 after contracting COVID-19.

He is the second known international fatality from the cruise ship, following the death of another Californian man, Steven Lazarus, earlier this month.

More than 600 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths are now linked to the cruise, which disembarked 2,700 passengers unfettered on March 19.

[link to www.abc.net.au (secure)]

Who the fuck was still going on cruises in March? Stupid is as stupid does.

its even worse. the captain unloaded about 3000 sick people onto the wharfs right in the middle of sydney. pretended everything was fine and let them out.

full refund!