Life in the Time of Coronavirus
I Worked Onboard a Cruise Ship and Watched Coronavirus Unravel the Industry
The latest in our series about how this pandemic affects our lives, our loved ones, our work, and our way of life
Life in the Time of Coronavirus is a new GEN series where we are interviewing people across the country who have had their lives upended or are experiencing the stress of the unknown.
Ordinarily, on the day a cruise ship embarks from the port, there’s an energetic buzz among crew members and passengers. But walking onboard this time around immediately felt eerie. It felt like the beginning of the end of an era. The ship was a ghost town; we set sail at less than half capacity.
I have spent almost all of the last year and a half living and working aboard luxury cruise ships. I am a pianist and vocalist, and on ships, I perform shows to entertain our guests at sea. It’s not uncommon to see our travel itineraries intersect with regions as they weather major disasters: the worst wildfire season in Alaska to date, historic swells and 191 mph winds in Hawaii, devastating bushfires that scorched New South Wales, or a fatal volcano eruption in New Zealand. Though we could often watch these events unfold just miles away, we were always relatively immune in our floating tin can. That was until the coronavirus outbreak.
I was scheduled to join my latest ship assignment on March 11. Just two days earlier, the State Department had released a statement warning Americans against taking cruise vacations after passengers on several different ships tested positive for Covid-19. That was the “oh shit” moment for me. But I also knew that people would still embark on their trips. Cruise fans are often intense die-hards. Federal warnings wouldn’t be enough to derail their plans.
Many did stay home though. Onboard, there were no lines. There was an increased presence of hand sanitizer…
