The Coral Princess ship, going on more than two weeks at sea, can't find a country that will let it dock even though none of the passengers have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
The daughter of an Escondido couple onboard is worried if her parents don't get home soon they'll be stuck in another country for weeks.
The couple started their journey at the beginning of March, just days before the pandemic started affecting daily life here in the U.S.
“I’m extremely, extremely worried. I mean, there’s no one I’m closer to than my mom,” Lori Bessler said, adding that she's been trying to hold in her emotions.
Bessler has been texting her parents, Jerry and Leslie Goldstein, nonstop for any updates.
“It’s tense and it’s very scary,” she said.
The Coral Princess left Chile the first week of March. It sailed to Antarctica and then the Goldstein's were supposed to disembark in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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However, the Argentinian government decided to close the borders and not allow international passengers to get off the ship.
“Here we have a situation where there’s passengers on board, no one's sick,” Bessler explained.
The cruise started around the same time crew members and passengers on the Grand Princess were getting diagnosed with COVID-19.
After a week stuck off the Northern California coast, that ship was allowed to dock and disembark in Oakland.
With travel beginning to come to a halt, Bessler hopes her parents will be able to get back home soon.
“My mom is very anxious of the unknown. You know you can tell they might be safer there provided that they have provisions, but they don’t have any idea of what we’re going through in America right now,” she said.
Princess Cruises said the Coral Princess is sailing to Uruguay where it hopes to dock if it’s allowed. Meanwhile, the U.S. has issued an advisory against international travel suggesting Americans return home immediately or they may be stuck indefinitely outside the U.S.
