RTL 5minutes – Testimonial: “The horror cruise” of two Luxembourgers because of the Covid
It must have been a getaway, a breath of fresh air, but a cruise turned into a nightmare for a Luxembourgish couple. We contacted them.
In any case, the Gobillot family will remember for a long time to come those few weeks which must have been anything but stressful: from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in Argentina before setting off to explore the Antarctic in November.
It was in the Argentinian capital that the problems began to befall them, even before the boat docked. An acquaintance of the couple has just tested positive for Covid-19 at the terminal. He indicates the couple from Luxembourg as people with whom he was in contact in his statement, but Francis Gobillot specifies without getting angry: “yes we knew him but we were surely not the only ones“.
They therefore had to quarantine, first together in a cabin of the ship, and the next day separately, each on their own, without any possibility of performing a PCR test or leaving the boat without making the trip. , the tour operator never offered them these options. Despite a booster and a negative PCR test before their arrival in Argentina, they find themselves trapped 24 hours a day in two cabins, without windows, without being able to go out, even at night. A traumatic experience for the wife of Francis Gobillot who cannot forget these interminable days.
Every day, an antigen test should be performed. After ten days, Francis’s is positive, and the remainder for 3 to 4 days. While he hasn’t seen anyone for ten days. His wife’s results were all negative. After 16 days of isolation, she was therefore able to leave her cabin and participate in three small excursions with other passengers. Francis was only able to get out of his cabin at the end of the cruise, a little fresh air after being locked up for 20 days.
Chosen inexplicable: he did not see the shadow of a PCR test during his entire stay in Argentina and he does not even know if he really caught the Covid. His positive antigen test may have been due to a mild cold he probably caught from the air conditioning in the cabin. Nothing is really certain.
That strict measures are taken to stem the spread of the virus, they understand it but they do not accept to be left both in the dark, without concrete information and in the face of a total lack of empathy on the part of the people who took charge of them. No response either from the tour operator, which does not facilitate the return to Luxembourg which was to be filled with good memories and especially with the strength to resume life after health problems in the family. Small spaces make them very uncomfortable and the car is only used for short trips.
Will they retry the experience of an Antarctic cruise? Francis is more motivated than his wife, who shakes her head. The couple aren’t expected to be back on an ocean liner anytime soon.