Chuck and Susan Edwards have been on the ship for 30 days as it was turned away from ports because of the outbreak. It has docked in Miami.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A St. Augustine couple on board the Princess cruise ship Coral Princess, where coronavirus sickened 12 people, just found out two of those fellow passengers have died.

“The Captain told us that this morning,” Susan Edwards said.

Her husband, Chuck Edwards said, “The captain has been very transparent about everything that’s been going on.”

The couple took the cruise to see the penguins in the Falkland Islands of Argentina. When they departed, they weren’t concerned about coronavirus.

“Well, there was the outbreak in China and Italy,” Susan Edwards said. “But it wasn’t an issue yet in South America or the United States.”

The ship was at sea much longer than expected, because many ports refused to let it dock, due to the contagion. Finally, the port of Miami said yes.

“Guests requiring shoreside medical care will be prioritized to disembark first,” Princess Cruises spokesperson Negin Kamali said.

Anyone with respiratory symptoms, or who are still recovering from the virus, will remain on board until medically cleared by the ship’s doctors.

The cruise line expects it to take several days for all of the passengers to get off the ship, in part because of a shortage of available flights.

Guests who are fit to fly are expected to begin leaving Sunday, being transferred directly from the ship to Miami International Airport for flights home.

Susan Edwards said, when she and her husband leave, they’ll be wearing masks.

“They’re going to do a wellness check. Take our temperature and all that,” she said. “And supposedly - we can’t believe it, we won’t know it until we see it - they're providing a car and a driver to take us back to St. Augustine. We have to wear masks the entire way.”

The cruise line is taking special precautions with international travelers, Susan Edwards said.

“Princess is taking any of the Brits and Aussies, being loaded onto sanitized buses, transported to the tarmac to get on their planes to go home. They’re not being allowed to go into the airport,” she said.

The couple said Princess Cruises has taken good care of them throughout the crisis.

“You can’t go crazy. And you can’t get hysterical, which some people were,” Susan Edwards said. “Princess provided counseling via the telephone for anybody that was having issues.”

The cruise line said it has been deeply saddened by the deaths of its passengers.

“Our hearts go out to their family, friends, and all who are impacted by this loss. All of us at Princess Cruises offer our sincere condolences,” Kamali said.