Cruise ship passengers desperately plead with Florida to allow them in

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When Andrea Anderson and her husband boarded the MS Zaandam cruise ship in Buenos Aires more than three weeks ago, they didn't know that their trip of a lifetime would disastrously coincide with a global pandemic that would leave them shut out and stranded at sea.

Unable to find a port willing to accept them, their ship has been stuck in a holding pattern for nearly two weeks as it desperately goes from country to country.

So far they have been rejected by Chile, Peru and Argentina, which all sealed their ports amid the coronavirus outbreak.

They are now charting a hope-filled course for the United States, namely Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“I don’t know if they are going to accept us, I hope they do,” said Anderson, 63, a fiber artist from Maineville, Ohio. “We need to get off this ship.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cruise-ship-passengers-desperately-plead-with-florida-to-allow-them-in/ar-BB1217h5?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=hplocalnews

What the fuck? If they're Americans they should be allowed back in.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

1. Were they stupid for going on the cruise?

Yes.

However, many of these folks are Americans.

We should have the resources and logistics to do a mandatory 14 day quarantine for these folks. It should be easy.

The problem is our incompetent government.

What's happened to this country is downright pathetic.

This shouldn't be difficult, but Republicans manage to turn this into rocket science.

[Alex4Martinez]

2. They left three weeks ago, Trump was saying there's nothing to worry about...

...and even in California there wasn't much concern.

I would guess that around the 7th or 8th of March most of us would have followed through with travel plans.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

5. Yes, but we are where we are. These folks need a place to dock.

Also, anybody who trusts a word out of Trump's mouth needs their head examined.

Why can't our government have designated ports where these ships can dock and where we can quarantine people for two weeks?

The problem is that our government isn't functioning properly and won't until the orange menace and his enablers in Congress are out of power.

This really shouldn't be difficult.

[brewens]

9. Not a chance. There had already been outbreaks on cruise ships hadn't there? I guess we have to

let them in, but if they don't, they shouldn't have listened to Trump and Hannity or Rush.

When the facts are out there, willful ignorance isn't an excuse. Tough way to get their teachable moment.

[Baclava]

17. A month long cruise? They do have to get off at some point

[dem4decades]

3. Trump undersold the danger, blame him not the Americans that didn't have

Access to the Intelligence reports and daily briefings.

This is all on Trump.

And the Republicans like Burr that warned their friends and screwed everyone else.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

7. I agree, but people should already know that Trump can't be trusted

Most of what comes out of his mouth is a lie.

He undersold the danger for his political benefit.

[TeamPooka]

13. tell that to his cult

[GP6971]

8. That's pretty insulting

calling cruisers stupid.

Welcome to DU...enjoy your stay.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

10. My apologies. Perhaps I was a bit harsh when referring to the passengers as stupid.

However, after what happened with the other cruise ships during this crisis, I would think people would have thought twice before going on a cruise ship?

Although I'm not exactly sure when these folks left for their cruise.

Now Americans are stranded with nowhere to go.

As I said before, we need to be able to help these folks but our government is incapable.

That right there is the real problem.

A government unwilling or incapable of helping Americans.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Why does DeSantis differentiate b/n people on a cruise ship and a bunch of drunken

20-somethings on his beaches?

[ZZenith]

6. Exactly!

We would like to know. Maybe if all the passengers agreed to buy a lot of alcohol and cheap souvenir trinkets he’d let them land. Fucker.

[SoCalDem]

16. Money money money

Until quite recently most of the non-compliant states were the "We don't have a state income tax" states. They were all just trying to wring every dollar they could out of anything commercial (MardiGras..spring break) since their states' primary income is property taxes and tourism.

Greed trumps everything

my state WA, is also a no income tax state, but thankfully we have a democrat in charge who bit the bullet and shut us down rather quickly.

[crickets]

23. Bingo. nt

[elias7]

11. There is no reason to quarantine people on a ship when the virus is already rampant in US

This makes no scientific sense whatsoever

[rockfordfile]

12. They should all be tested first

[dem4decades]

14. No tests, no swabs, easier said than done.

[SoCalDem]

15. Accept them and then bus them to Mar A Lago

charge Trumpie for medical care for them while they are guests

[DFW]

18. People on a cruise now probably booked the cruise four to six months ago.

If they boarded the ship a month ago, there was no real widespread panic in Western Hemisphere yet.

It isn't reasonable for the passengers to have known what was in store for them. A friend of mine works jobs on cruise ships, and was lucky to dock in Miami three weeks ago. There were no reports of any infections, so they let him off (he is a US citizen). He is in his mid 70s, so he would be in an endangered group, but he got lucky. If there are reported cases of the virus on a ship headed for the USA, you are in bad shape, especially if you are not a US citizen. US citizens stand at least a chance of being accepted back into the USA, but a cruise ship isn't going to make a special detour to the Philippines just to bring some crew home.

[bluedigger]

19. Drop anchor about a thousand yards off Mar a Lago and they'll find a port for them.

[Drahthaardogs]

20. Thete are 1400 people on board

And 300 Americans.

Limited resources. We get our people back and the others are their countries' problem.

[Demovictory9]

21. International travel will be suppressed for years now that American know the US govt

will block them from re-entry

[Steelrolled]

22. This cruise was supposed to end in Chile

Chile backed out and banned them. Nice move. /s