Re-post from KSDK News 5
Passengers say they had to wait hours for food, weren’t properly isolated and couldn’t get a hold of medical staff.
SEATTLE — Passengers on a Carnival Cruise Ship that docked Tuesday in Seattle say more than 100 people aboard the ship tested positive for COVID-19, and the ship was overwhelmed.
Multiple people say right now they’re in hotels across the Seattle area to quarantine after testing positive or being exposed to someone with COVID-19. Carnival Cruise Line would not confirm how many people tested positive on the ship but said there were a number of positive cases.
Sieferston is in quarantine at a hotel after testing positive for COVID while on the ship. He lives in Nevada. He said he’s been on seven cruises since August and said every trip had COVID-19 positive passengers. He feels the response from the crew on this recent Carnival Cruise was chaotic.
“They didn’t have enough staff to handle the emergency that was happening, period,” said Sieferston. “They were overwhelmed, and they didn’t have a backup course in how to handle about 200 people affected with COVID. We all suffered.”
Another passenger, Walter Babij of Texas, agreed the crew was unprepared to handle the number of passengers who caught COVID on the ship.
“I think that they were unprepared. I think they were understaffed. I think that they were overwhelmed,” Babij said. “I don’t think they had clear guidance as to how to handle this.”
Passengers tell KING 5 they waited hours for meals, weren’t properly isolated and couldn’t get ahold of medical staff.
“We couldn’t call anybody. Basically, we sat in the room, you call and it would ring, ring, ring and ring all day long” said Sieferston.
Sieferston shared a photo with KING 5, which he says was hung outside the elevator of his floor, showing the name and room numbers of people who tested positive. He called it an invasion of privacy.
“It’s just unacceptable. This ship is so poorly managed. I’m fearful for the people that are going up to Alaska,” said Sieferston.
