On the fourth day of the Mexican Riviera cruise, Jesse Suphan and other passengers were denied entry at the port of Puerto Vallarta because of the number of onboard coronaviruses. Mr. Suphan was the first to hear about the problem.
Mr. Suphan said that the captain had announced that five people had tested positive for Covid. The captain told me there were between 100 and 150 crew members who also tested positive, but they didn't mention that.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans to avoid travel on cruise ships, regardless of their vaccine status. The Omicron variant has caused a surge in cases in recent weeks and the agency has issued a high coronaviruses warning.
Even as case numbers rise and criticism mounts about the safety of cruising and over cruise line protocols in reporting cases to passengers, ships keep sailing and guests keep embarking, adamant that the onboard environment is safe because of stringent health and safety requirements, including pre-departure testing and vaccine mandates.
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The German cruise ship AIDAnova celebrated New Year's Eve with fireworks.
New Year's Eve celebrations are held on ships around the world. Thousands of revelers packed into ship bars, casinos and deck venues, partying like it was 2019, one day after the C.D.C. announcement, as dozens of crew members and other passengers were confined to small cabins.
One positive case was reported after Harvey Freid returned from a 17-day sailing to the South Pole. Mr. Freid is going to go on a Caribbean cruise in late January despite the setbacks.
The cruise ships do a good job of handling Covid, and I think it is safer than my building in Miami and most places that I go on land because people are quickly identified and isolated.
The C.D.C.'s warning was called "perplexing" by the Cruise Lines International Association, which said that cases identified on ships "consistently make up a slim minority of the total population on board."
The group said that cruises provide one of the highest levels of mitigated against the virus.
Some passengers are questioning the effectiveness of health and safety protocols, and say they aren't being informed of the full extent of coronaviruses cases on board. If they had been made more aware of the positive cases, they would have been able to make more informed decisions about their behavior.
When Mr. Suphan booked his vacation, he was confident that Carnival had good protocols in place, which included pre-departure testing and vaccines for all crew and most passengers. Mr. Suphan was surprised by the number of people he met who said they had been exempt from the vaccine mandate. He said there wasn't enough crew members to enforce indoor mask rules.
The carnival said that a small number of passengers were exempt from the requirement.
Mr. Suphan was struck when a crew member told him that several crew members were isolated on the ship when it left Long Beach.
The fact that staff on the cruise ship had been exposed to an infectious disease means there was a chance of more cases after we left. They continued with the cruise so they could take everyone's money. It feels like a cash grab.
Four crew members were inQuarantine when the cruise left, while others were taken off the ship.
Most major cruise lines do not publicly announce the number of coronaviruses cases on board their ships, but they are required to submit daily figures to the C.D.C. An investigation is done when a certain number of cases are reported.
The number of people who tested positive was not disclosed by Carnival. The Jalisco state health ministry said 69 cases had been detected among the ship's 1,450 crew members. The Carnival president called into the ship and briefed the guests on the situation. She did not give updated figures for positive cases.
Chris Chiames, chief communication officer for Carnival, said the company takes its responsibility for public health very seriously and has implemented protocols that exceed C.D.C. guidance since restarting operations in the United States in June.
The majority of the crew who test positive are found out through the random testing protocol and put into isolation. Most crew have been moved off the ship to complete their isolation and have not required hospitalization.
The Omicron variant will require us to evaluate how to communicate moving forward, and Carnival declined to comment on its policies for reporting daily cases to passengers onboard its ships.
The idea of testing positive for the coronaviruses on a cruise ship conjures up images of the large-scale outbreak of the Pandemic in the early stages, when thousands of people were confined to their rooms for endless days.
The health and safety protocols that allowed U.S. cruise ships to restart operations in June have helped contain the virus and avoid large outbreaks, and until now, many of the small percentage of guests who tested positive have been satisfied with the handling of their cases. Some people were flown home by charter plane after receiving complimentary food and champagne.
Guests have started to complain about the condition of the Quarantine due to the emergence of Delta and Omicron.
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Breakfast was served to Richard Lewis during his stay on the Celebrity Apex.
The chairman and chief executive of the travel group caught the coronaviruses on two Caribbean cruises with his family. It was his first cruise during the Pandemic and the protocols met his expectations and the experience felt normal.
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The global surge. The Omicron variant of the virus produces less severe illness than earlier waves, but the last days of the year brought good news. Governments are focusing more on expanding vaccination than limiting the spread.
Mr. Lewis appreciated the information the captain gave him on the second day of the cruise. There were no announcements for the rest of the week. He and his family began to notice changes.
He said that the staff were masking up a lot more and that social distance was being enforced between passengers. Some of the staff we became friends with disappeared and we found out they had gone into isolation. It became a nightmare when I started developing symptoms and was positive.
Mr. Lewis was moved from his concierge class infinite veranda cabin to a standard cabin that had a slightly oversized porthole and no fresh air. He thought that he could get sick in his own room because the cruise line encourages people to book bigger rooms in the event that they will have to isolated.
Celebrity Cruises had a policy of moving coronaviruses-positive guests to a quasar zone. Those identified as close contacts are allowed to stay in their state rooms for 24 hours while they are tested.
Mr. Lewis shared a picture of the food in a takeout container. The first two meals were cold and came from the crew canteen. I was allowed to order from the regular room service menu after I kicked up a fuss.
The captain announced that there were five cases of coronaviruses, but when Mr. Lewis pressed the doctor, he was told there were 16 cases.
There is a lack of transparency and covering up in the cruise industry, and that is not going to help people make informed decisions. When a threshold of virus cases has been met or exceeded, passenger and crew members are informed.
The company said that publishing a dashboard of daily cases to all persons onboard is a less meaningful public-health measure than reinforcing continuous adherence to our industry-leading health and safety protocols.
One day after returning from a Caribbean cruise with friends, Milly Parkinson developed coronaviruses. Most cruise companies don't require passengers to test before disembarking at their final destination, even though more than 50 people tested positive for the virus on the ship.
Ms. Parkinson said that she took a test because she had symptoms, but that she thought of all the people who just walked off the ship.
