Carnival Spirit, which sailed through the Panama Canal, departed Miami on April 17 and arrived in Seattle on May 3, according to a statement from the cruise line. The ship holds 2,124 guests and 930 crew members, Carnival said.
The vessel’s color status helps the CDC determine the scope of the investigation, the agency said.
Carnival Spirit is one of 62 cruise ships currently sailing in orange status, the CDC said in a statement to CNN.
Both the cruise line and the CDC said there were no severe outcomes or serious health problems among those who tested positive, and Carnival said most guests were asymptomatic.
“Our health and safety protocols exceed CDC guidelines and were closely followed including vaccination requirements and pre-cruise testing of all guests. Our crew are also vaccinated and wear masks,” Carnival said in a statement to CNN.
“Our protocols are designed to be flexible as needed and additional measures have been implemented during travel,” the statement added. “In addition, all guests who were scheduled to continue on the ship’s next Alaska cruise were tested and any guests and their travel companions who tested positive were disembarked.”
The ship left Seattle for Alaska later on May 3, according to Carnival’s statement.
The CDC is working with the cruise line, as well as state and local health agencies to “adopt existing Covid-19 agreements and protocols,” the statement added.
Passengers say cruise ship was ‘sunk’
Several passengers who were aboard the Carnival Spirit alleged that crew members mishandled the Covid-19 outbreak on the ship.
Darren Siefertson, who is from Las Vegas, Nevada, told CNN that he boarded the ship on April 17 from Miami and was informed by April 26 that there was an outbreak of Covid-19 on the ship.
After testing positive, Siefertson said he was promised he would be moved to an isolation cabin, but ended up being forced to stay in the same room as his roommate.
Siefertson said when he called the medical center for an update, the center had already closed before its scheduled closing time and no one was answering the phone.
When Siefertson’s cabin mate went to guest services to ask what they should do, he was told there were no more isolation cabins and he would have to stay in the same room as Siefertson.
Guests on the ship also complained that room service took “hours to get food to those in quarantine,” Siefertson said.
“There were times we ordered our food at 1 p.m. and it didn’t show up until 7 p.m.,” Walter Babij, who was on the cruise with his wife, told CNN. Both Babij and his wife tested positive for Covid-19 while on the ship and were quarantined in an isolation cabin.
“There were also times when we didn’t get our full orders. We would have to call several times to find our food. We were totally dependent on them,” Babij said.
Siefertson also complained that a few days after he tested positive, his cabin and two other cabins near him began to smell of sewage.
“You couldn’t even call to get someone to fix the problem because no one would answer the phone and we couldn’t leave our room, so I had to stay in this room that smelled like a toilet. It was horrible.” Siefertson said. “Carnival said they managed the situation, but that’s not quite true. They were too overwhelmed.”
Both Siefertson and Babij told CNN they thought the cruise line was “overloaded.”
“I don’t think they expected that level of cases and when it got to a certain level they didn’t know what to do. It was a perfect storm,” Babij said.
