News / Anger as cruise passengers come ashore after reported viral outbreak onboard
Bus companies refused to take tourists around the isles after being told of a sickness bug among some
THOUSANDS of passengers from a visiting cruise ship were left in Lerwick after a reported viral sickness bug onboard led to bus companies refusing to take them.
A Lerwick shop owner and bus company director were left furious after people descended on the town before tour guides were told of people had taken ill onboard.
Tourists were sitting aboard buses when bus companies J & DS Halcrow and R. Robertson and Son were informed of quarantines aboard the 290-metre long Costa Favolosa, which can carry almost 4,000 passengers.
R. Robertson and Son managing director Sonia Robertson took the decision to pull the plug on all the tours, with other companies agreeing to do the same.
Robertson said that was after one passenger got off one of their buses to be “violently sick three times”.
All of the company’s affected buses have had to be thoroughly deep cleaned.
Robertson said it was “ridiculous” how late companies were warned of the illness onboard, with passengers already sitting on their buses.
And Lerwick shops were then puzzled to find an influx of visitors – only to be warned by local tour guides why there were so many cruise passengers now in the town.
Blyde Welcome owner Celia Smith said there had been a “complete disregard for the local community’s safety”.
“Almost 3,000 passengers were allowed to roam free,” she told Shetland News.
“They were just left to do their own thing, and more and more people kept coming ashore.
“The street was heaving.
“People were picking up things and putting them back again, we were having to disinfect everything.”
Both have questioned why the passengers were allowed to come ashore, particularly if people were being quarantined onboard.
Robertson said J&DS Halcrow had been told by the cruise operator there had been a “viral gastro” illness onboard, and that this was “going around the ship”.
Costa Cruises was approached but has not responded to a request for comment.
Lerwick Port Authority said any enquiries about today’s cruise ship should be directed to the cruise operator, or to its shipping agent.
Robertson said she had decided not to keep the passengers on their buses this morning after being warned about the illness onboard.
She said that information “wasn’t brought to the attention of operators soon enough”.
“I’m a little bit baffled as to why we came to that position,” she said
“It’s a little bit of a worry how late on we actually got any information about this.
“Something like this could cripple the whole company and affect a lot of our staff and services. It could be catastrophic for school transport, for public bus services.”
Robertson said deciding to pull the plug on the tours and thoroughly disinfecting their buses was “going to cost us quite a fair bit of money”.
However she was adamant that they had made the right decision, and added she “would like to have thought we wouldn’t have been left in that position”.
Smith said they had only been told about the reported viral sickness aboard the boat through “word of mouth” by the tour guides.
Both her and Robertson said that nobody from the Lerwick Port Authority had been in touch with them.
“We did consider closing,” Smith said.
“We’re a coffee shop serving food, we have to be ultra careful.
“But we’ve just taken extra measures. We did go and get face masks from Boots and the Peerie Shop café were also wearing face masks.”
She said her and two other staff members have vulnerable family members at home, which has added extra stress for them.
“We’ve been really cautious about that,” she said.
“As soon as anybody has left we’ve been disinfecting everything, like door handles.
“It’s been like being back at the heart of Covid.”
Smith said she thought the Costa Favolosa passengers would have been kept onboard if they knew about the illness, adding they had “let so many people ashore”.
The Costa Favolosa sails for Hamburg in Germany tonight, with three cruise ships – the Sea Spirit, Le Champlain and National Geographic Explorer – due to arrive on Wednesday.
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