Broadcasting Live From The “Grand Princess”: YouTubers & Redditors Share Chilling Details From Latest US Outbreak

Since reports that a cruise ship preparing to dock in San Francisco had been linked to a sick passenger in Cali (that passenger has now died), we’ve been closely following the trials and travails of the ‘Grand Princess’, the latest coronavirus ‘Nightmare at Sea’.

The ship was supposed to dock on Thursday, but it has been drifting listlessly at sea for the past two days after being barred from entry by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In California, negotiations between the state and federal officials about where the ship should dock has become a political hot potato, as state officials battle it out with federal officials. State officials have been trying to find a ‘non-commercial’ (i.e. military) port nearby where the ship can dock and where its more than 3,500 passengers and crew can be tested, USA Today reports.

San Francisco with at least 21 infected passengers and crew (mostly crew) on board. A state source close to the ongoing negotiations told the LA Times that talks would resume on Friday. The Princess Cruises ship remained at sea last night, but the captain notified passengers that it would move 20 nautical miles off the coast for easier delivery of supplies and other ‘logistical reasons’.

Officials have scrambled to provide updates as quickly as possible, but passengers aboard the ship have taken to the Internet to share their experiences independently. Two women have been posting videos offering their takes on the news. They offered some interesting details about how officials put the pieces together to figure out that the cruise ship might be infected. Notice how the women are clearly ill, but claim to have been tested and come back negative for the virus.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM1dlIvOglY]

These two Youtubers shared a copy of the letter they received from the Captain, which was also shared by a Redditor posting in the r/Coronavirus subreddit.

Here’s the letter:

Just like with the Diamond Princess, which reportedly led the staff to work in unbelievably brutal conditions, the staff aboard the Grand Princes, (so far, mostly staff have been infected) are being put in similarly undesirable conditions.

Waiting for dinner on #GrandPrincess . I feel sorry for the staff on the ship feeding all of us passengers via room service. @PrincessCruises they can’t be paid enough.

— Mark Pace (@markdpace) March 6, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

One individual claiming to be a passenger invited questions with a Reddit AMA entitled: “I am a passenger on the Grand Princess cruise ship quarantined off the California coast. Ask me (almost) anything”.

The traveler said the passengers are given an update every few hours by Captain John Smith (yes, we get the Titanic references) but it’s “almost always a rehash of what he said earlier.”

According to the subreddit, there’s still no word on when passengers will disembark.