Three guests and 52 crew members onboard Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas have tested positive for COVID-19. The cruise ship was scheduled to dock at Curacao today, however due to the current status, the vessel was denied clearance by the port authority, and disembarkation of guests was canceled.
One of the passengers currently on board the ship shared a post in a Facebook group saying “We are stuck on the ship in Curacao for now. Scheduled for 30min ago to get off but we're still held up. Capt just came on to say there is some conference going on about the passenger's getting off and is televised to Curacao TV. He said a decision to let us off will be made in an hour”
According to our source Captain’s latest announcement on the PA system is that the stop in Curacao was canceled as well as all shore excursions and guests will receive a refund. Guests have been advised to stay in their cabins until further notice.
Hanging out at port waiting for Curaçao health officials to say is we can get off the ship. @RoyalCarribean #odysseyoftheseas Still a beautiful day at sea, sun is out and drinks are flowing. Staffing causing show cancellations and casino half open, pic.twitter.com/zjil39bTuw
— Dodson (@LifeAsDodson) December 22, 2021
A Royal Caribbean spokesperson released the following statement "During routine weekly testing of our fully vaccinated crew members, there were test results that came back positive for COVID-19. Close contacts were quickly identified, and they each immediately went into quarantine."
Devin Hackwith who is onboard the Odyssey of the Seas shared several posts on his Twitter account saying that the ship officers were calling different people's names to contract tracer from the PA system “literally the entire day.” He also wrote that hallways were disinfected in order to try to contain the spread of the virus.
No one is talking about the fact that all day long they were calling different peoples names to contract tracer for the PA system literally the entire day? No one is talking about the fact that masks are not being in forced to be worn properly by the crew
— Devin Hackwith (@DevinHackwith) December 20, 2021
Odyssey of the Seas departed from Fort Lauderdale, on Saturday for an 8-night Southern Caribbean Holiday cruise, and had to return to its homeport on Sunday to disembark a passenger with COVID-19, reports USA Today. According to our source, the ship is currently sailing with 3802 guests onboard.
