A Royal Caribbean International cruise passenger live-streamed her removal from the Freedom of the Seas cruise ship after testing positive for COVID-19 during a four-night sailing from Miami earlier this month, railing against the cruise line for an alleged mix-up.
According to the Miami Herald , 57-year-old Laura Angelo posted several profanity-laced videos to social media of herself and her travel partner, Valerie Murphy, 62, being escorted off the ship in Nassau, Bahamas by crew members wearing protective suits and masks.
Angelo and Murphy claim that Royal Caribbean mistakenly identified the duo as being fully vaccinated during the boarding process in Miami on July 5, giving them purple bracelets meant for inoculated passengers that allow access to certain areas of the ship. The cruise line allegedly realized the mistake two days later, prompting crew members to administer COVID-19 tests, with one coming back positive. The passengers were subsequently disembarked in Nassau and put on a private jet to the U.S. while Freedom of the Seas continued on its voyage, returning to PortMiami on July 9.
"These two guests provided a negative PCR test at check-in but did not take part in the required boarding day test per our policy for unvaccinated guests," Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson Jonathon Fishman told the Herald in an email. "Once this was recognized, we immediately made the guests aware and tested them on board." Fishman also confirmed that 90 percent of the passengers and crew on the ship were vaccinated and close contacts of Angelo and Murphy tested negative for COVID-19.
Angelo told the Herald that she first got COVID-19 back in March and had tested negative three times since April. She also claims that she has tested negative three more times since returning home.
"I feel they didn’t want us on the ship telling our story," she said. "If we had been given the proper entry, the right bracelets, we would have followed protocol as it was given to us," added Murphy. "The ship was making it up as they went. Their employees were not ready."
Royal Caribbean currently recommends that all passengers sailing out of Florida are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus but doesn’t require it as a new state law bars cruise lines from requiring passengers to be vaccinated. However, the company does require unvaccinated passengers to pay for COVID-19 tests and bans them from participating in certain onboard activities. Beginning in August, unvaccinated Royal Caribbean passengers sailing out of Florida must purchase travel insurance.
