What Happened to the Rotterdam Cruise Ship?

By Robert Palmer

On March 10th 2020, the cruise ship Rotterdam was forced to make an unexpected change in its itinerary. After reports of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading rapidly around the world, the Holland America Line, which operates Rotterdam, decided to cancel all planned cruises until April 11th 2020.

The Rotterdam had originally been scheduled to sail from Vancouver, Canada to Tokyo, Japan. However due to the global pandemic, they were forced to alter their plans and instead returned to Vancouver where they were met with a great deal of resistance from local authorities. The city requested that all passengers be tested for COVID-19 before disembarking and that any passengers who tested positive be isolated on board the ship.

The Rotterdam crew was able to comply with these requirements and all passengers were tested before disembarking. Thankfully none of them tested positive for COVID-19 but it did cause a delay in their return home. After being back in port for nearly two weeks, the Rotterdam finally departed on March 22nd and headed back towards Vancouver.

Unfortunately however, just two days into the journey; the cruise line announced that they had received confirmation from Canadian authorities that all passengers would have to remain on board until further notice. This meant that instead of returning home as planned; the passengers would have to remain on board until an alternate destination could be found for them.

Conclusion:

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 throughout the world, The Rotterdam Cruise Ship had its planned itinerary cancelled and was forced back into port in Vancouver where it remained for two weeks with its passengers onboard before heading out again. Unfortunately only two days into its journey they received word from Canadian authorities that they must remain at sea until an alternate destination could be found for them. As of now it is unclear what will happen next or when exactly this situation will be resolved.