Jeremy Josephs, a British-Israeli dual citizen on the Celebrity Eclipse with his wife, complains that people on board the cruise being forced to circle off the coast of Chile are not being given a lot of information.
“A lot of people are scrambling around and making lots of alternative arrangements, even though they don’t really know what to make alternative arrangements for, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says.
The Josephs, who split their time between Netanya, the UK and France, say they spent several thousands of dollars buying new return tickets trying to avoid flying over Madrid. “But we don’t know when we will reach the airport in Santiago,” he said.
Jeremy Josephs, right, and his wife, in an undated picture. (Courtesy)
“It’s organized chaos, as the British say. In fact, it’s not so organized, as so often in such situations. What’s going on on the ground is one thing. The other problem is lack of communication. The captain, a very nice Greek guy, keeps telling us every hour that he will update us,” he says.
The cruise started from Buenos Aires on March 2, and docked in Montevideo, Uruguay, before heading to Chile.
“The situation with corona deteriorated as we went along. Obviously, had we known it would end like that we won’t have gotten on board in the first place,” he said.
Josephs adds that the people on the ship are not suffering. “I don’t want to create the false impression that we’re in any kind of hardship here. It’s like we’re on a floating luxury hotel. The bars and restaurants and the pools are open, and we’re not restricted to stay in our rooms. So it’s not exactly like we’re on army base.”
— Raphael Ahren
