Coral Princess cruise ship heads to Florida with sick passengers, as Zaandam awaits its fate with the same port

A Princess Cruises ship heading to Port Everglades - where authorities are already scrambling to figure out what to do with the Zaandam, a ship carrying passengers sick from coronavirus - has ordered its guests to stay in their rooms after some reported flu-like symptoms.

The Coral Princess, with 1,024 guests on board and an unknown number of crew, is expected to arrive at the Fort Lauderdale-area port in Florida on Saturday. Its approach and recent report of ill passengers adds another layer of complexity to a crisis that has commanded the attention of county officials, federal agencies, the Florida governor and President Donald Trump.

Broward County commissioners spent much of Tuesday discussing plans for Holland America Line's Zaandam, where four people have died, nearly 200 reported flu-like symptoms and two are reportedly in serious need of medical evacuation. Nine people have tested positive for covid-19, including two who died, according to an executive with parent company Carnival Corp., which also owns Princess Cruises.

Zaandam and a sister ship, Rotterdam - which took on some of the first ship's passengers after the illness started spreading - are awaiting permission to dock at the port. They are expected Wednesday night or Thursday if they get permission, the port said.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been vocal about not wanting people from the ship "dumped into South Florida," backed off from that language during a press conference Wednesday and acknowledged that he was not in control of the port. He said he would "clearly" be willing to accept any Floridians, and said he understood there were plans underway to handle passengers from other countries.

"I did speak with the president this morning about it," DeSantis said. "I think he would like to see a solution, and I think the administration has seen a lot of the cruise ships take up a lot of resources."

He said he expected more developments Wednesday.

For weeks, passengers on the Coral Princess have been frustrated but relatively comfortable, even as the rest of the world largely went into lockdown and port after port closed to the ship.

With no reports of the novel coronavirus on board, guests were free to mingle, dine and take part in activities: line dancing, shows, tai chi, according to a passenger. Some gathered to applaud health-care workers back home, even as they tried frantically to figure out how they would get there.

Early Tuesday, that all changed when the ship's captain announced everyone would be required to stay in their staterooms. According to an update from Princess Cruises, which has dealt with the largest cruise coronavirus outbreaks of the pandemic, the medical center had reported "a higher-than-normal number of people presenting influenza-like symptoms."

The operator said "many" of those tested positive for influenza, but did not provide numbers for how many were sick or how many had the flu.

"Given the concern surrounding covid-19 (coronavirus), and out of an abundance of caution, guests have been asked to self-isolate in their staterooms and all meals will now be delivered by room service," the company said. "Crew will remain in their staterooms when not working."

Coral Princess left March 5 from Santiago, Chile, on a South American voyage. Global cruise lines suspended operations and started working to bring ships back to ports on March 13. On March 19, all passengers were expecting to leave the ship when it was docked in Buenos Aires.

But according to updates from the cruise line, only some were allowed to leave, including those with passports from Argentina and some who had confirmed flights leaving that day. The ship left late March 19 after a presidential decree that would have forced it to stay in port "for an indeterminate number of days" without letting anyone off.

Efforts to disembark passengers in the following days in Uruguay and Brazil were unsuccessful, and Princess said the ship would go directly to Fort Lauderdale.

For passengers, the new restrictions were a blow that added to the uncertainty that has persisted for much of the trip.

"The mood is more resigned than anything as nothing we can do," passenger Gill Morgan, 66, said in an email. "Disappointed as we were nearly there."

Morgan, who works part-time for the National Health Service in Britain, said she has no idea what awaits.

“First issue will be whether FL will accept us and we don’t know when we will hear,” she said.