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Coronavirus pandemic
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Coronavirus: passengers celebrate ‘best cruise ever’, after Westerdam ship docks at Cambodia

  • The cruise ship spent two weeks at sea after five nations turned it away over coronavirus fears
  • But the time stranded at sea was anything but uncomfortable, with passengers enjoying services such as free wine and three-course meals

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Passengers react after they disembark from the MS Westerdam on February 14, 2020. Photo: AP
Reutersanddpa
US President Donald Trump has thanked Cambodia for taking in the castaway cruise ship MS Westerdam in a rare message to a country that is one of China’s closest allies and has often been at odds with Washington.
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Five countries turned away the Westerdam, worried its passengers could be carrying the coronavirus despite it having no known cases, before Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Sen, agreed the passengers could disembark there.

“Thank you to the beautiful country of Cambodia for accepting the @CarnivalCruise ship Westerdam into your port. The United States will remember your courtesy,” Trump tweeted late on Friday.

The Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corporation unit Holland America, docked in the port of Sihanoukville on Thursday after being shunned for two weeks. Its 1,455 passengers began to disembark on Friday to head home.

More than half of the passengers on board the luxury cruise ship had disembarked by Saturday afternoon, a Cambodian official said.

Around 1,200 of the 2,257 passengers and crew disembarked at Sihanoukville on Friday and Saturday, with most flying to the capital Phnom Penh for further travel, said Kheang Phearum, a provincial government spokesman. About 827 passengers and crew were left the ship on Saturday, he added.

Everyone says ‘poor you’. But … we had free internet and free wine. We had three-course meals.
Zahra Jennings

The 1,544 passengers and 802 crew had never expected a port stop in Hong Kong to metastasise into full-blown fear that some on board could be carrying the coronavirus that has killed more than 1,500 people.

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