Denise Goolsby

Special to The Desert Sun

I didn’t think much about the coronavirus when I boarded the Star Princess in Los Angeles on Feb. 27 for a 15-day “bucket list” cruise to the Hawaiian islands. This Princess cruise would make stops in Honolulu, Kauai, Maui and Hilo before returning to the mainland and docking back at the Port of San Pedro on Friday, March 13.

I'd wanted to take this trip since I first started writing about local World War II veterans for The Desert Sun. We launched a 13-month series in November 2009 to commemorate the upcoming 65th anniversary of the end of the war.

To our shock and great surprise, the series became wildly popular and by the end of the run, I’d interviewed more than 400 local World War II vets. During this time, I had the great opportunity to interview around a dozen Pearl Harbor survivors. I heard stories about their travels across the Pacific and learned of the horrors they experienced the day the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

I wanted to see for myself what it would be like to travel by ship to the islands — albeit under exceedingly better conditions — and to pay my respects to those who perished in the attack. The survivors I interviewed lost many friends that day. When I finally found myself looking down from the Pearl Harbor Memorial to the wreckage of the battleship USS Arizona in the water below — the final resting place of much of its crew — I felt the spirit of my Pearl Harbor survivor friends, most of the whom have now passed away.

Experiencing history and honoring our veterans was my main focus. At sea, the coronavirus threat was in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t really worried since it seemed like the odds were very low that someone on the ship could have contracted the virus. The same day that I boarded the Star Princess, Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess cruise ship had disembarked its last guest.

Then reports starting coming in that people on a sister cruise ship, the Grand Princess, had tested positive and the ship was not being allowed to dock in San Francisco. A Carnival cruise ship was also held off the coast of Long Beach, Calif.

All of a sudden, people seemed to become more attuned to their fellow passengers. The reactions to someone coughing — up until then, this occurrence would almost go unnoticed — brought a look of concern to people’s faces. They would move away. Some would whisper among themselves.

Then I started to become a little wary. Aboard a crowded tour bus on one of the islands, a woman in front of me kept coughing and coughing. Sitting out on a balcony, I could hear someone coughing in a room right above me. Then someone in the dining room was coughing. Pretty soon it seems like everyone is coughing. It’s probably nothing. But your mind does start to wander and wonder.

A couple days after the ship began its return voyage, I started noticing little things. The table with all of the coffee condiments — milk, cream, sugar and other sweeteners, paper napkins, stirrers, et cetera — was gone. At first I assumed it was because the sea had been rough and maybe staff had worried things would slip off the table and break. These items were now safely behind the coffee bar on Deck 5.

But the gentleman handing out the Americanos and lattes was now wearing blue, surgical-style gloves — and adding the cream and sugar to our coffees himself.

Later, in one of the elevators, a passenger shared the news that all of the utensils — pre-wrapped in cloth napkins and set on the table for the taking in the buffet area — were gone. And the staff was now serving passengers in the buffet area. People were no longer allowed to serve themselves. Of course, I had to head up to Deck 14 to check out the buffet situation for myself.

It was true — and some passengers started to ask questions. From a server, the answer was basically the same: The company was taking precautions to protect the passengers. The area where you could serve yourself coffee, tea and water was cordoned off. The beverages were now served by the staff.

At lunch that day in one of the dining rooms, most of the usual table trappings were missing. Gone were the salt and pepper shakers, utensils, butter dishes and baskets of bread. The servers now handed out the rolls and salted your salads, mashed potatoes and other food items.

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At that point, the coronavirus was all the talk on the ship. A couple sitting next to me near the coffee bar one morning had a debate about why the coffee condiments were behind the bar. The man said he thought it was because of the turbulent waters. The woman kind of brushed him off and said, "If that’s what you want to believe.”

People all around the ship chatted about the chance of someone having the coronavirus. They speculated in line at the discount T-shirt sale table, in the souvenir stores and on the walking deck. Some wondered when or if the captain would make any kind of announcement — one way or another. Was the ship coronavirus-free? Were there ill people aboard that were being treated in the ship’s medical facility? Would we be able to dock in Ensenada, the last stop before heading back to L.A.? Would passengers be allowed to disembark in L.A.?

I'm still on the ship. We're due back on Friday. Now there are times when I wonder: What if we have to be quarantined? Some passengers said they’d rather know now than later so they can make plans. I have a great friend who is taking care of my dogs and cats. What if I can't come back home for another 14 days?

While working on this this story, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was interviewed on TV.

As I looked up at the screen in my cabin, Dr. Fauci warned, “And above all, don’t get on a cruise ship.”

Well, that advice is a little late for those of us aboard the Star Princess. But from what I’m seeing, most people are just taking it day to day and hoping for the best.

What else can you do when you’re out in the middle of the ocean?

Denise Goolsby is a contributor to The Desert Sun.