Holland America ships caught in COVID-19 pandemic dock in Florida; here's how disembarkation will work

After finally reaching a deal with authorities, Holland America was allowed to dock two of its ships at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday. 

Port Everglades traffic records confirmed the arrival of MS Zaandam and sister ship MS Rotterdam after 5 p.m. local time.

Photos showed critically ill people being transferred from the Zaandam to waiting ambulances. The sick and local residents are the only ones leaving Port Everglades on Thursday, a Holland America document outlining the disembarkation plan showed.

The Zaandam and the Rotterdam, which rendezvoused last week, were both given permission to disembark passengers at Port Everglades after days of negotiation with local officials who feared it would divert needed resources from a region that has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases.

"We were made privy of the details yesterday, and we’re hopeful that this new protocol that they’ve agreed to will sufficiently insulate our people in Fort Lauderdale at risk of (contracting) the disease," Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told USA TODAY earlier on Thursday.

The remains of four elderly passengers who died on the Zaandam were also scheduled for removal Thursday evening.  Two of the four deaths on board the Zaandam have been blamed on COVID-19, and nine people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the cruise line said.

Between the Zaandam and Rotterdam a total of 107 passengers and 143 crew members have presented flu-like symptoms since March 22, according to a Holland America statement provided by spokesperson Sally Andrews.

Symptoms of the flu and COVID-19, the coronavirus sweeping the globe, are similar. 

Disembarkation will begin Friday

Passengers who passed a health screening were transferred to the Rotterdam last weekend. The passengers on board both ships will be put into three basic categories, Trantalis explained.

In a document outlining the disembarkation procedure, Holland America said the first group, which includes around 1,200 passengers who are asymptomatic, will be allowed to disembark Friday or Saturday after passing a health screening.

They will also go through customs and border patrol processes at Port Everglades, rather than at the airport. 

"That way, they won’t infect anyone along the way," Trantalis said.

While South Florida residents returning home via ground transportation were expected to depart Port Everglades on Thursday, Aall others will return to the ship until Friday, when they will be bussed directly to the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. From there, they will board one of five charter flights bound for Atlanta, San Francisco, Toronto and Paris/Frankfurt. A fifth flight bound for London Heathrow will depart around 1 a.m. ET Saturday.

Guests whose countries are not currently accepting inbound citizens will be flown to Atlanta or San Francisco on Friday, the cruise line noted.

The plan for symptomatic passengers

Holland America said the second group, which includes 26 symptomatic passengers who are not yet fit to travel, will remain on board the ship. All those passengers will be required to quarantine on board. Once they are asymptomatic for 72 hours, they will be allowed to disembark under the same protocol as the first group.

And the third group, made up of only 14 people, contains 13 passengers and one crew member in need of critical care. All 14 will be taken off the ship. "Our local hospital system is willing and prepared to take them in," Trantalis said.

The rest of the crew will remain on board.

Trantalis also announced the agreement on social media, and shared some of his thoughts on the deal.

Officials had initially been apprehensive about the possibility of the ships docking in Fort Lauderdale given the risk that it could pose to the community and the potential to spread coronavirus due to the confirmed coronavirus cases on board the MS Zaandam.

"We're assuming people who get sick have COVID," William Burke, chief maritime officer of Carnival Corp., which owns Holland America Line, said Tuesday during a Broward County Commission meeting, though only nine had tested positive at the time.

Trantalis said that regulations in the agreement allowing the ships to dock will provide "strong safeguards" to the community.

"I met yesterday with the president of Holland America to share these concerns," Trantalis wrote. "Holland America agreed to a strict set set of protocols if the county decided to allow the ships to dock."

"They are representing to us that these protocols are intended to protect our community by ensuring there is no contact with local residents," Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief wrote on Facebook. "The vast majority of passengers are not ill and have no symptoms. They will be placed on private chartered buses, taken directly to the airport tarmac and board chartered flights out of our community. A small number of critically ill passengers will go to local hospitals. Others who are mildly ill or have symptoms will be quarantined at sea on the ships until they recover."

In a Thursday statement, Holland America expressed relief that a deal has finally been struck, ending the ships' saga, which began in mid-March when Chile denied the MS Zaandam permission to end the cruise there.

“These travelers could have been any one of us or our families, unexpectedly caught in the middle of this unprecedented closure of global borders that happened in a matter of days and without warning,” said Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line. 

Ashford continued, "We are so happy to be able to get our guests home and assist those few who need additional medical services. The COVID-19 situation is one of the most urgent tests of our shared humanity, and we must do everything we can to ensure we continue to act in ways consistent with our common human dignity."

The ships are carrying 311 Americans and 52 Florida residents.

Ready to disembark

Passengers on board the MS Zaandam and the MS Rotterdam who have been in limbo for more than a week were readying to leave the ship on Thursday.

On Wednesday night, Faye and Ed Hoover, among the passengers on board the Rotterdam received a message: Pack your bags.

"We've been told already last night to have our luggage ready to go this morning and to fill out the health forms and get our passports ready," Ed told USA TODAY Thursday afternoon. "We're sitting here waiting."

On board the Zaandam, Andrea Bergmann Anderson, who had not been able to make the transfer to the Rotterdam with healthy passengers because of an earlier reported sinus infection, received a similar message.

"We have packed our checked bags and put them out in the hall. This afternoon we will be called down for a wellness check," she said. "That is our last hurdle."

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Contributing: Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY; The Associated Press