My family and I were on Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship Serenade of the Seas that stopped in a few towns in Southeast, including Juneau during the week of May 8-15. The ship departs Vancouver, British Columbia, every Sunday.
There are now multiple cases of COVID affecting people who were on that ship.
The four people in our party, spread over 2 staterooms on different decks (all with negative tests taken less than 72 hours before boarding) are now COVID positive and very ill. Simple math indicates there will be hundreds of cases from people on one ship who traveled to the small, mostly rural towns in Southeast — towns we know are not prepared for another round of this pandemic among their residents.
Royal Caribbean has so far not done any contact tracing or initiated any communication with passengers about this situation.
As an FYI — masks are very optional on board — we wore them, but very few people other than the crew do so even as people are packed tightly together in elevators, crowded dining areas, lounges and many other public locations.
I strongly urge self-administered antigen tests be provided by the cruise line to every passenger with a negative result required before anyone disembarks.
Our health and your health is far more important than anything anyone on the ships might buy while in town.
Jim Goettler,
Port Ludlow, Washington
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