Circumnavigating the World During a Global Pandemic

Circumnavigating the World During a Global Pandemic…

Ever wonder what its like to sail around the world during a global pandemic? If so, just find a SAS Spring 20 voyager and ask them all about it!

Here is a timeline of the 128th voyage of Semester at Sea and what we experienced on a day to day basis.

January 4, 2020:

Embarkation day in Ensenada, Mexico. At this point, we were not aware of the virus that was rapidly spreading through China. This was the planned itinerary for the voyage.

January 23, 2020 (Day 18):

After days of rumors about a new virus spreading through china, we received our first email (pictured below) about the Coronavirus.

January 24, 2020 (Itinerary #2 ):

On day one of Japan, we received our first diversion email. China was no longer on our itinerary and we were sailing straight to Vietnam after our time in Japan.

February 14, 2020:

The ship received information about a new, and imposed, quarantine in Son Loi, Vietnam. This resulted in mandatory health screenings by SAS when re-boarding the ship in Vietnam.

February 16, 2020 (Itinerary #3):

After being delayed about four hours leaving Vietnam, this email was sent out to the shipboard community. We were now having to divert from both Malaysia and India. This left us sailing to Victoria, Seychelles before continuing onto the rest of the planned ports.

February 21, 2020 (Itinerary #4):

After a (heated) ship-wide meeting, The Captain was able to secure us one extra day in Victoria, Seychelles as well as Port Louis, Mauritius.

February 26, 2020 (Itinerary #5):

10 Hours before we were due to dock in Victoria, Seychelles, the ship received news that the port agents were going to deny us entry upon arrival. Concerned about Mauritius also denying us, the captain made the decision to divert us from these two countries and sail to Maputo, Mozambique.

February 28, 2020:

Mauritius informed the ship that we would possibly be ale to change our technical stop on 2/29/2020 into a regular port of call. If that were to happen, our chances of extending our stay in Mauritius were high. At this point it was still unknown if we would still be sailing to Mozambique or not.

February 29, 2020 (Itinerary #6):

After clearing customs and health screenings in Mauritius, we were granted access into the country for the day. Later that night, after on-ship time, an announcement was made that we would be returning to Mauritius in 2 days. This left us diverting from Maputo, Mozambique.

March 7, 2020 (Itinerary change #7):

Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, travel by cruise ship was becoming more of a challenge. With the new CDC guidelines, SAS was forced to divert from another two ports on the original itinerary. Instead of docking in Ghana and Morocco, we would now be extending our stay in Cape town, South Africa and sailing to the Canary Islands before disembarking in Amsterdam 8 days earlier than expected.

March 11, 2020 (Itinerary #8):

With new information from the CDC, there was no other choice to move up disembarkation day yet again. The voyage would now be coming to an end after the 11 “planned” days in South Africa.

March 13, 2020 (Itinerary #9 ):

Back in the States, President Trump announced a new travel band on 26 European countries after The World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus a global pandemic. With this information, yet again, we were left with a new end date to the voyage (days earlier than expected). Upon arrival in Cape town on March 14, all voyagers were encouraged to head back to the states as soon as possible.

March 14, 2020 (last day of voyage):

The day that no one was expecting to happen so soon. The ship pulled into the dock in South Africa around 0900 and by 1400 I was already at the airport, getting ready to board my U.S. bound flight I booked less than 24 hours ago.

March 16, 2020:

I officially made it back into the United States before airlines started limiting the number of available flights back to the States.

March 20, 2020:

The last direct flight to the United States from Cape Town, South Africa.

The planned itinerary and the final itinerary

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