Esther Verdaas from Breda will be allowed back on shore with her family at short notice. The cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, where she and 2,000 other passengers are staying, appears to be free of cholera. The ship had been anchored in the Indian Ocean for days on suspicion that the infectious disease was circulating on board. The Norwegian Dawn is now admitted to the port of Mauritius, but the authorities will not allow anyone to disembark for the next 24 hours. “You feel the relief,” says Esther.
Esther and her family take a cruise from Cape Town, South Africa, to the island of Mauritius. Due to fears of a cholera outbreak on board, the cruise ship is at a standstill in the port of Mauritius’ capital Port Louis. Southern Africa is currently experiencing one of the worst cholera outbreaks in years.
“The test was negative, so the ship is allowed into port. But we are not allowed to leave yet, at least not for the next 24 hours,” says Esther. Each time they receive only piecemeal information. “Short messages coming from the authorities. We don’t know anything else. They are like Rutte’s press conferences: at the end you still know very little,” she jokes.
Although much is still unclear, the atmosphere on the ship is cheerful, she says. “Everyone chats with each other, you feel relieved that we can get off the ship.”
Passengers have been urged by the captain not to book return flights before five o’clock on Tuesday afternoon. As a result, passengers expect that they will be able to disembark after that time. Esther has a flight planned for herself, husband Corné and daughters Isabeau and Zahra on Tuesday. The plane leaves at eleven o’clock in the evening.
“The question remains whether we will achieve that. It will be quite a logistical operation to get more than two thousand people back home. I am in contact with our travel agent. We are calm about it.” The question remains when Esther will be back in Breda with her family, but it should happen sometime this week, as it looks now.
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Esther is stuck on a cruise ship due to fears of a cholera outbreak