Cruise Ship Worker Reunited With Family After Months at Sea Dances With Joy
An employee of Princess Cruises was reunited with her family recently after spending two months stranded at sea following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The video shows Ezra Freeman’s epic trip home to her family. After disembarking in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on May 9, she took a charter flight to Atlanta, Georgia. From there, she took another charter flight to Newark, New Jersey. She was met by her parents in Newark, and they drove her home, at long last, to Bowie, Maryland.
Freeman told Storyful Princess Cruises CEO Jan Swartz announced a 60-day pause on operations on March 10, which left the crew members at sea awaiting their repatriation plans for two months.
“I was on the Sky Princess from March 7 to April 25, when all North American crew members from Princess Cruises were consolidated onto one ship, the Emerald Princess,” Freeman said. “All North Americans from my ship then moved ships by tender boat with our luggage and remained in isolation on the Emerald Princess for two weeks, leaving our rooms only for temperature checks twice a day and meals.”
Freeman said she and the crew experienced periods of disappointment after being given several repatriation dates that failed to happen and after being turned away by American and Canadian authorities despite the fact that the crew had been without outside exposure for months and had frequent medical checks.
Princess Cruises reached an agreement with the Centers for Disease Control that would allow the crew to go home as long as they did not use any commercial transportation or stop in any public place and completed a 14-day quarantine once they arrived at their final destinations, according to Freeman.
After experiencing a few “emotional goodbyes to old and new friends,” Freeman was reunited with her family just before Mother’s Day in the US, something that made her very happy. The family had a cake and other homecoming decorations for her arrival.
Overall Freeman said she remained in good spirits throughout her ordeal and praised the cruise line for being transparent and accommodating, checking in on her after she disembarked, and for “fighting for us [the crew] every step of the way!” Credit: Ezra Freeman via Storyful
