Trudy Clement savoured dinner with the new friends she had made on the cruise. In the last 10 days, the massive cruise liner, the Diamond Princess, had taken them through Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Hong Kong. They had seen the majestic caves of Ha Long Bay, sat at the foot of the Sakurajima volcano, toured the gorgeous coasts of Okinawa.

But the trip was almost over now. Some of the passengers had more adventures planned, but most of the Canadians were set to head home. Clement, like many of the passengers, had kids and grandkids waiting back in Canada.

With just a couple of days to go before they docked at their final destination of Yokohama, passengers began to sense something was up. The news was reporting on a mysterious virus ravaging the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Unbeknownst to these passengers, Princess Cruises had learned Feb. 1 a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong had tested positive for that virus, COVID-19. But the passengers wouldn’t learn that for another two days, when the captain took to the intercom.

“When we first got the announcement, my husband and I looked at each other, and our tablemates, because we were having dinner, and it was: ‘You have got to be kidding me,’” Clement said.

Even then, as they sat in Tokyo harbour, within sight of Yokohama, “life went on as normal on the cruise ship,” Rose Yerex told the Toronto Star. There was dancing and dining and karaoke. If there was fear of the virus, it wasn’t obvious amid the revelry.

But the next morning reality struck. Japanese health officials boarded the ship, turning an idyllic cruise into a quarantine. The captain informed the passengers they were not to leave their cabins. Nurses would screen each passenger, one-by-one, for signs of the virus.

Yerex waited for the knock on the door. When it finally arrived, the health officials — cloaked in containment suits, plastic gloves and face masks — stood outside her cabin door. “Because of the language barrier, they basically handed us a form with all the various signs and symptoms, and through gestures asked us if we experienced any of them,” she said.

Over the next days, the number of confirmed cases on the ship started to mount. First it was 10, then 34 — ultimately, nearly 700 passengers tested positive for the virus, 47 of them Canadian. It dawned on everyone aboard that they would be there for some time. One Ontario couple, channelling the Eagles, wrote on Facebook: “You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave…”

The crew tried to make their confinement as bearable as possible. They delivered food, water, Sudoku puzzles and Origami paper. They uploaded movies to the entertainment system and made the ship’s internet freely available — even if it regularly crashed under the weight of the passengers trying to communicate with the outside world.

Jennifer Lee, from Vancouver, took the opportunity to do some work. When she needed a break from the four walls of her cabin, she opened her balcony door to exercise. “I think my T’ai Chi is getting better now,” she said, searching for a silver lining.

Raymond Lau, a retired engineer, began his own comic strip about the ordeal, starring a tiny brown mouse. Lau shared the strip with his fellow passengers. Not physically, of course, but through Facebook groups. One passenger suggested he name the mouse Princess.

On Day 1, Princess stared up at a growing sapling, an apt metaphor for the long wait ahead. On Day 3, Lau’s mouse, a mask covering her face, looked out longingly at the Yokohama Bay Bridge.

Eventually, the crew cordoned off an area on the deck for passengers to take walks. They emerged into the fresh air, a few at a time, dutifully wearing their masks, keeping at least six feet apart.

“Think of those passengers who had booked inside cabins or had rooms with only a window,” Yerex said. “Thank god for social media.”

Helen McKenna and her husband, John, were among the lucky ones with a window and a balcony. She posted videos to Facebook to update friends and family. In one, she turns the camera to the window, pulling back the curtain to reveal the Yokohama port — and an array of military vehicles and ambulances.

Days later, Helen and John recorded a happier video, them, masks on, dancing on the balcony in the afternoon sunlight.

The ship became its own little community. One guest celebrated a birthday, and the crew came by with a cake and sang Happy Birthday. A couple marked their 48th anniversary aboard the ship; a bottle of champagne appeared. For Valentine’s Day, the passengers all received chocolate.

But the days stretched on and on. Princess, Lau’s cartoon mouse, on Day 11, stared down a long road winding off into the distance. That’s the day officials decided everyone on board would be tested for the virus.

On Day 15, Lau drew Princess lying down, head in her hands, staring at six large hourglasses that measure the time slowly passing.

One by one, on Feb. 20, the Canadians got the news: Most tests had come back negative, and the lucky ones would be sent back to Canada aboard a chartered aircraft.

Among the unlucky ones was Yerex and her husband, Greg. Though neither had symptoms, both tested positive for COVID-19. Later, at a Japanese clinic, Rose’s tests came back negative, while Greg continued to test positive. “So now we were faced with a decision,” she said. Would she stay with him at the clinic, surrounded by others who had tested positive for the virus? Or would she wait in a hotel until he recovered?

“I was not leaving without him.”

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The other passengers landed at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. After being screened again, they were bussed to Cornwall’s Nav Centre, a hotel and conference space turned quarantine facility, replete with on-site testing lab, where the vacationers would be held for two weeks.

Princess, arriving in Cornwall on Day 17, waved a little Canadian flag while facing a barren tree in a snowy field.

While leaving sunny, warm Japan for the cold of eastern Ontario might not have seemed like an upgrade, the Canadians were able to come and go throughout the Nav Centre as they pleased, so long as they wore masks and kept their distance from each other. They could even go for walks in a fenced area outside.

Helen McKenna told her Facebook friends that what hit her hard about being back in Canada was the food — especially the sweet potato french fries. “They were so good it wasn’t even funny.”

Mostly, those quarantined just tried to pass the time. On Day 19, Princess trudged through the snow outside, leaving tracks in his wake. Helen and John used the time to level up on Pokemon Go. Clement says she binged on reruns of Grey’s Anatomy. Something subconscious about her television choices? She laughs. “No, I don’t think so, just entertainment.”

Lee says she and her husband of 30 years had never spent so much time together in such close quarters. She confesses she has a fear of enclosed spaces, while her husband “is more of a nervous type.” Despite it all, “we didn’t fight.”

Rose Yerex says that during her time at the Japanese clinic she kept her wits about her simply by talking with her husband. “Communication is so key,” Rose said. Finding the humour in it all helps, too. “You’ve got to laugh. If you don’t laugh you cry.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada arranged for counsellors, on-site and via Skype, to help anyone struggling with the stress of isolation.

Finally, the news came: Everyone’s test was negative. On March 6, the Diamond Princess passengers would at last be free to return to their homes. Princess the mouse began packing her bags.

Back in Japan, Rose had good news, too. Greg’s tests had come back negative, and he could be released. They hightailed it to the airport, bound for Ontario.

“It was a huge, almost overwhelming emotion of relief” to go home, she said. Their son met them at the airport and, wearing a face mask, greeted them with a hug.

The Canadian government asked the couple to self-monitor for another two weeks. They decided, given everything, to prolong their unexpected vacation into an extended staycation.

“We’re self-quarantining because we know there is concern and fear out in the community,” Rose said. A quarantine at home is much more comfortable, she reports.

In Cornwall, at the end of their quarantine, the former Diamond Princess passengers walked into reception, greeted by a thunderous round of applause from the Red Cross volunteers who had managed the quarantine.

“I started crying,” Clement said. “The first two weeks, it was a long go. These last two weeks have been even longer.”

Lee and Clement both came to meet the throng of reporters waiting outside the Nav Centre. Both seemed shell shocked.

“It’s a little intimidating,” Clement began. “Seeing all you new people, new faces without covers. It’s wonderful,” she said, choking back tears. She confesses she didn’t even recognize her fellow passengers when they finally removed their face masks. “We had no idea what each other looked like.”

On Day 31, Lau drew Princess jumping for joy while brightly coloured masks rain down around her.

A day later, as Lau prepared to go home, he doodled a plane carrying a banner that simply said: “Thank you.”

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