Amid pandemic, world cruise nears end of voyage

Passengers on a luxury liner’s around-the-world cruise, begun before the globe was gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, are finally approaching the end of their odyssey after 15 weeks at sea.

Their ship, the Costa Deliziosa, heads to ports in Spain and Italy, two of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus.

Costa Crociere, an Italian cruise company, said on Saturday that the Deliziosa, which set sail from Venice in early January with 1,831 passengers, has reached the western Mediterranean, with no cases of COVID-19 aboard.

The Deliziosa, a nearly 300-meter vessel, will see off 168 Spanish passengers first at the port of Barcelona, Spain, the company said. Then the Deliziosa will head to its final destination, Genoa, Italy, where the remaining passengers, Italians and those of other nationalities, will disembark on Wednesday.

A company spokesman said a passenger left the ship earlier in the week in Marsala, Sicily, for health issues and had a COVID-19 test, which was negative.

Being on the liner for weeks during the pandemic “was not surreal, it was incredible,” said passenger Carlos Paya, who lives in Valencia, Spain, and is sailing with his wife. He added that they have family members in Spain.

“The news that was arriving from home was causing us all a lot of worry and grief,” he said by text message on Saturday evening. “For us it was a stroke of good luck to be where we were.”

French authorities had rebuffed a request by Costa to allow several hundred passengers from France and nearby countries to disembark at Marseille. “The health situation on board the ship, with 1,814 guests and 898 members of the crew, doesn’t present any problem for public health and no case of COVID-19,” Costa’s statement said.

Last month, two other Costa cruise ships pulled into Italian ports, including one that earlier had aboard passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 before they disembarked in France.