Status: 04.01.2022 5:34 p.m.
Due to corona cases, the AIDAnova cruise for 3,000 passengers in Lisbon came to an end – the return transport was anything but smooth: A vacationer reports about crowds and one night on the floor.
It should have been recovery from the madness of the pandemic for Mareike Sack from Darmstadt and her husband: an Atlantic cruise with New Year’s Eve fireworks on Madeira and a visit to the Canary Islands. But Corona is ruining the trip: Because of 60 positive cases among crew members and some among passengers, it’s already over in Lisbon.
“Very sad that the dreams and wishes for the winter simply did not come true. My soul could have used a little sun,” says Sack – and describes her emotional state as follows: “From the absolute bewilderment to the fear of the crowds . “
Special flights arrived late
Crowds at Lisbon airport – because the return journey is going differently than planned: Yesterday the harbor master explained that the holidaymakers should disembark in small groups in order to keep their distance and not arrive at the airport terminal in one go. But that’s exactly where several hundred people were standing close together.
The shipping company AIDA Cruises had organized a number of special flights – machines from Condor and TUIfly were in special use – but some of them were very late. There was chaos in the check-in hall, says Sack. AIDA single contact person was responsible for almost 3,000 passengers. She and her husband stood in line for almost six hours before they finally had a boarding pass in hand that evening.
“After security, we stood here at departure and had no information about how things are going to proceed now. We then spent the night here in the terminal,” she says. “It was very cold, we tried to retreat to a corner and slept on the floor for a few hours.”
400 people stay overnight in the terminal
Around 400 passengers were stranded in the terminal at night – without any information as to when they will be home. When asked, the travel company Kreuzfahrten.de confirmed that the repatriation campaign for passengers was stalling.
After all: Mareike Sack and her husband are supposed to come back to Frankfurt today, in any case they had new boarding passes on Tuesday afternoon. Your cruise odyssey would then be over – a trip that you would never have thought in advance that it could turn out like this despite the pandemic.
“The concept sounds good: 2Gplus, vaccinated with a PCR test at the terminal. That actually sounded as if it were feasible, like its own micro-cosmos,” she says of the booking. “That it will end in such a fiasco – I don’t think any of the passengers or the crew expected that.”
The coronavirus is currently shaking up the cruise market. Yesterday a ship had to interrupt its voyage in Dubai, today another with the destination Canary Islands – the “MS Amera” returned to Bremerhaven after crew members had also tested positive there.