Fear, boredom, adventure fill every day on quarantined ship

Fear. Surprising moments of levity. Soul-crushing boredom.

Life on the Diamond Princess, the cruise liner quarantined in a Japanese port with scores of cases of a new virus, means experiencing each one of these things, according to interviews by The Associated Press with passengers and an evergrowing stream of tweets and YouTube videos.

At times there’s been an almost festive atmosphere, as when locals on Jet Skis buzzed the ship, shouting greetings. Other times, there is deep worry as new cases are confirmed, pushing the full total to 218 - the largest cluster of infections outside China. Five of those patients have extreme symptoms and so are in intensive care or on artificial respirators, the health ministry said.

Others have reported surprisingly mild symptoms, including one Australian woman who described the initial terror to be whisked to a hospital while covered in protective plastic.

The days pass with petty frustrations and inconveniences - cramped rooms, dirty sheets, boring food - and difficult work for the hundreds of crew members.

With the amount of illnesses increasing, there’s also a nagging doubt about whether this sort of quarantine works. Some professionals question if keeping some 3,500 passengers and crew in such close quarters might spread the viral disease, recently named COVID-19.

With another week or more of quarantine to come, the AP looks inside vacation cruise that’s gone seriously off course:

Positive outlook

Even through the quarantine, it can seem to be like Cheryl and Paul Molesky remain on vacation.

The couple from Syracuse, N.Y., is seen within their YouTube videos lounging, often in plush bathrobes, on the balcony, enjoying the sweeping views of a glittering, sun-streaked ocean and, sometimes, snow-capped Mount Fuji.

“We make an effort to have an upbeat presentation and make sure that our attitude results in that, we’re not hurt, we’re not in pain ... we’re actually just enjoying ourselves,” Paul Molesky, a 78-year-old potter, said within an interview. “It’s been excellent.”

There was the time a man came to the docks in a Spider-Man costume and played music for an hour . 5 to the delight of the passengers.

And the time, early in the quarantine, when eight persons on Jet Skis cruised up, yelling out “Welcome!” and playing music. The passengers clapped and waved from their balconies.

The ship, which includes 17 decks, has upped its internet service, and Cheryl Molesky spends a long time daily answering emails and texts and editing their YouTube videos.

“Now that we’re within quarantine we’re getting so much attention. We never get that much attention in the home,” the 59-year-old retired art and media teacher said.

Passing time

Elsewhere on the ship, a Japanese man in his 30s who refused to provide his name as a result of privacy concerns said he spends his days taking photographs of every meal and posting them anonymously on Twitter.

“All I can do is to hold back and tweet,” he said.

The ship includes a sushi restaurant, Japanese style bath and theater, but passengers are actually mostly confined to their rooms. Many cabins - spread across decks with names such as for example Aloha, Dolphin and Emerald - are no more than, if not smaller, than many resort rooms.

More affordable rooms aren't much wider when compared to a double bed and don’t have much seating space aside from a desk chair, according to pictures posted on the ship’s website. The least expensive ones don’t even have windows. Many balcony rooms remain 21 square meters or less, the website said. A lot of the interior rooms, which feature large mirrors in place of a window, are just about 15 square meters.

Guests must often change their own sheets, clean their bathrooms and do their own laundry because connection with the crew has been limited.

The times often revolve around food service. Knocking on four doors simultaneously, an elaborate delivery choreography occurs: one masked and gloved crew member hands out the plates, another the silverware, while another checks off names and room numbers.

The boat has added more movies and TV channels to attempt to help with the boredom. People without balconies are permitted to walk on the deck for approximately an hour every day, given that they keep 2 meters apart. Passengers chat and wave to the other person from their balconies.

Passenger Matthew Smith has been compiling regular food reviews on Twitter. In a single, he noted that he feels, while sitting in his room between meals, exactly like his cat “looking forward to her daily serving of canned food. Could it be time? Is it time?”

For japan man on the ship, the food is among the biggest reasons he wants to leave. “I miss Japanese food.”

Growing concern

In a recently available video posted on Twitter, several men wearing Diamond Princess jackets, masks and what seem to be the uniforms of kitchen staff stood before a camera.

“We are scared. We appeal to the Indian government and the United Nations to greatly help us, segregate us urgently,” a guy recognized as crew member Binay Kumar Sarkar said after removing his mask. “We have to be rescued immediately and reunited with this families before it really is too late.’’

Some crew members who’ve tested positive for the virus are restaurant, bar or housekeeping staff who most likely had contact with passengers until Feb. 5 when the first test outcomes were released and restaurants and bars were closed.

“Before quarantine started, everything was business as usual, and everyone was freely moving around up to speed, so there are several possibilities of infection throughout that time,” said Kazuho Taguchi, director of global health cooperation at the health ministry.

Crew members still share rooms, as the quantity of cabins for them is bound, Taguchi said.