Morecambe man stranded on cruise ship in Caribbean for 10 weeks finally on his way home

A Morecambe man who works as an entertainer on a cruise ship is finally on his way home after being trapped on board a liner for 10 weeks after the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
Chris Gruby on board the liner in his face mask.Chris Gruby on board the liner in his face mask.
Chris Gruby on board the liner in his face mask.

A Morecambe man who works as an entertainer on a cruise ship is finally on his way home after being trapped on board a liner for 10 weeks after the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Chris Gruby, 37, was working on the Freedom of the Seas when the coronavirus crisis started.

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And while the 4,000 passengers were able to disembark, Chris and around 1,000 other staff members were left on board the Royal Caribbean Cruises ship with limited access to information, food and money.

Chris Gruby on board the liner.Chris Gruby on board the liner.
Chris Gruby on board the liner.

He was forced to wear the same flimsy paper face mask for five weeks.

But Chris and his colleagues are now on another ship, the Majesty of the Seas, on a 3,300-mile journey to Southampton, and is due to arrive in the UK on June 1.

His mum Denise said she was looking forward to her son returning home – although he will be staying with a friend to allow his parents to continue to isolate in safety.

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Denise said: “It is surprising how many of these cruise ships are still stuck out there. They have been feeling quite low as they feel they have been abandoned.

Staff queue on board the ship.Staff queue on board the ship.
Staff queue on board the ship.

“There have been days where he has been down, especially when they were in quarantine for 14 days in their cabins.”

The nightmare began for Chris and his friends on his birthday, March 13, when US president Donald Trump made a statement saying that all cruise lines would suspend sailing.

Chris said: “At first we were quite happy as we thought, ‘some time without guests, we could all just enjoy ourselves until this blows over’.

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“We went just over a week and things were normal on the ship – no masks, the pool was open, the bar, slides on the ship, etc.

Chris Gruby on board the liner.Chris Gruby on board the liner.
Chris Gruby on board the liner.

“Funny to think now as this was the most important phase as guests had just left and they were from all countries around the world.

“Then things slowly went downhill; we heard rumours from other ships – which has been the story of the last 70 days – that we were going to be put into isolation for 72 hours.

“They moved us all to individual cabins. I remember having my last cigarette at 10.45am as the lockdown was going to begin at 11am and it is prohibited to smoke in cabins as it’s a fire hazard.

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“We got our food delivered to us, breakfast, lunch and dinner; for me the food was terrible, breakfast was a glass of orange juice, bread roll, two slices of melon and cereal of some kind; lunch and dinner rice and chicken pretty much all the time or just pasta.

Chris Gruby on board the liner.Chris Gruby on board the liner.
Chris Gruby on board the liner.

“Then on the second day we heard the captain come on the tango and it was the news we were all dreading that the isolation had been extended to a week.

“After a couple of days it was extended again, 15 days in the end. At this point we were all confused, as it had been nearly four weeks and we had no cases.

“On our day of release we were told we had to wear masks now, and to use social distancing rules.”

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Chris said staff were served at the buffet by people putting food onto their plates and then sitting one to a table.

But he said that when lining up to get food there was no way of social distancing as more than 1,000 crew members were being fed within a few hours.

“They opened the bar the first night but then because of one member of staff posting a picture online they then punished us all and closed the bar for two weeks,” Chris said.

Chris Gruby on board the liner.Chris Gruby on board the liner.
Chris Gruby on board the liner.

“After a couple of days it got worse and they closed the gym. The one thing we had to keep our minds occupied they had now taken away.

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After 40 days of quarantine and no cases on board, we were on the safest place on the planet – or that’s what we thought.

“We then all heard of the regulations we were having to follow in order for us to be able to fly home through USA airports.

“We were given dates we were due to leave; I as a Brit was asked if I wanted to fly home or sail home at some point, and due to the safety of myself and putting people at home at risk I decided to sail.

“These dates were then changed and plans changed five times. In my time on board I think I saw 20 westerners leave, and the company put on one charter flight for Indonesians from Barbados.

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At this point people were getting very frustrated and getting no information as to why we can’t get home like others had. We all heard of other companies like Disney and Norwegian who had got nearly all of their crew members home.

“Again, rumours on social media were circulating, just taking people to breaking point on the ship. After about 45 days of passing they had re-opened the bar which was nice as we could go and talk to friends and have a drink to take our minds off what was going on. While this was going on they had an army of security people constantly policing people on social distancing, but this only went on in the bar area – yet other parts of the ship there would be mass gatherings like the smoking areas.

“And again we were nowhere closer to finding out if we were going home. I got an ultimatum to potentially fly home on May 24 if flights would go ahead, or sail home on board one of the two ships leaving for Southampton.

“At this time we had docked in CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, to transfer crew around from other ships on the fleet, including celebrity ships.”

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On May 18, Chris was told to pack his bags and join another Royal Caribbean ship, the Majesty of the Seas, which set off for Southampton the following day.

“I am glad I made the decision to do the long transatlantic crossing,” he said. “And I have finally got a new disposable mask after five weeks.

“But we have no idea how we are getting back yet; I just know I am due to get to Southampton on June 1 at 6am and we have 1,600 crew members on board from different countries including some that cannot get home as their borders are closed, including Mauritius.”

Chris moved to Morecambe from Loughborough in Leicestershire when he was 18.

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He studied at Lancaster & Morecambe College, and worked at the Headway Hotel in Morecambe and the Royal in Bolton-le-Sands in between managing entertainment in hotels in Spain.

He joined the army in 2009 and served six years, including a tour in Afghanistan, before returning to the entertainment industry in 2017 and joining Royal Caribbean Cruises in 2019.

He had been due to leave Royal Caribbean to work in Majorca next month.