'A stroke of luck' to be on global cruise during pandemic

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — For Spanish traveler Carlos Payá, being on an around-the-globe luxury cruise while the rest of world scurried into their homes for fear of the COVID-19 pandemic was beyond surreal. It was “a stroke of good luck.”

Now, his trip inside the virus-free bubble that the Costa Deliziosa cruise ship became on its 15-week odyssey is coming to an end. The boat is steaming toward Barcelona, Spain, where it will make its first port-of-call on Monday after 35 days of continuous sailing with no human contact with the outside world.

“It was not surreal. It was incredible,” Payá told The Associated Press by text messages on Saturday evening. ¨We have family in our home countries. The news that was arriving from home was causing us all a lot of worry and grief. For us, it was a stroke of good luck to be where we were.”

Payá, who was travelling with his wife, said when news started to reach the boat of the rapid spread of the coronavirus in their native Spain, their first desire was to get home to their two grown children in their hometown of Valencia.

But with ports denying the boat entry, they have had to temper their concern with the amenities on board.

Unlike other cruise ships that suffered outbreaks and and were often put in quarantine to protect port cities, the Deliziosa has found no cases of the COVID-19 virus, according to its owner, Italian cruise company Costa Crociere. So the boat’s 1,831 passengers were free to use the ship's facilities and entertainments.

Payá said that the ship, which set sail from Venice in early January, stopped making ports of call after leaving western Australia last month.

He said that the passengers' last chance to touch land was in Perth, where they docked after “70 wonderful days” of crossing the...