'I was stuck on the 'Covid Cruise', I know what the hantavirus cruise is going through'

As five cases of Hantavirus are confirmed aboard the MV Hondius, the passengers trapped inside have become embroiled in a saga that is equal parts terrifying and "mundane." For 60-year-old Elaine Spencer, the news triggered a visceral sense of déjà vu. "Here we go again," she thought. Elaine spent 16 days in a windowless quarantine cabin on the Diamond Princess in 2020 at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by another 14 days in isolation in Liverpool. Now, as the the ship sails toward the Canary Islands amid a diplomatic firestorm, Elaine is warning current passengers that the "unknown" is the most dangerous part of the ordeal. The ship was floating near Japan when Elaine and her husband John, 61, were trapped in an airless, windowless cabin, waiting out the quarantine period. After being anchored for three days near Cape Verde, the MV Hondius is sailing to the Canary Islands where it is expected to dock towards the end of the week. However, it was for a time uncertain, with the president of the Canaries, Fernando Clavijo, openly opposing the plan. "I cannot allow [the boat] to enter the Canaries," he said to Spanish radio. "This decision is not based on any technical criteria and nor have we been given enough information." However, the Spanish authorities have said it is going ahead, and that everyone disembarking from the Oceanwide Expeditions operated cruise ship will have to undergo a medical assessment, before being allowed to travel to their home countries, and any Spaniards onboard will undergo a quarantine in Madrid. Elaine tells the Mirror that writing a diary during the endless hours trapped inside her cabin helped keep her "sane" - something she has since published as a book. She tells the Mirror that passengers on the MV Hondius are likely feeling pretty "vulnerable" at the moment. "We didn't have a window or a balcony in our room, so we couldn't get any fresh air. I'm sure passengers will be feeling quite vulnerable and scared now the Canary Islands don't want them to disembark, they'll have that 'where do we go next' feeling." On what advice she would give to the trapped passengers, she said: "Just keep focused. We were just watching films and reading books. My husband exercised in the mornings, but the days were very long. The time difference meant we could only talk to our family in the evening. We had regular announcements every two or three hours, but they weren't always in English. "It's the unknown that really gets you, and that will be the hardest part for them.” Elaine continues, describing her experience, "We weren't allowed out of the room. And we weren’t getting much food. Originally we weren’t allowed out of the room for three or four days and then we were able to go out for 30 minutes at a time. It was pretty scary. "My son was giving us updates from news reports because we weren't being told what was happening on the outside. The lovely captain kept us sane with his announcements. But it was a very surreal situation." On the moment they were finally allowed to leave the cruise ship, she said: "We felt quite safe in that room. And then we were then being herded out in the dead of night. They put little stickers on us and then put us onto a coach that we sat on for another seven hours before we were even allowed to get onto the plane, because we weren't allowed to go to the airport. That was quite scary because we thought, 'now what's next?' It felt like we weren't wanted in the country. We were a little bit like lepers." However, Elaine has been undeterred when it comes to taking to the seas and exploring the world by cruise ship: "We still travel with Princess and we won't travel with anyone else because they looked after us, but we're still sailing," she tells us. Despite the fearfulness that came with the first days of COVID, when they were finally allowed to leave quarantine in Liverpool, Elaine found herself shocked when she entered a service station to get "provisions" and saw no one around her was wearing a mask at that early stage. "The only contact we were allowed with people, whenever you saw someone you had to have a mask and gloves on. And in fact, the staff are all in hazmat suits," she explains about the jolting experience, adding that not longer after she and her husband got back to Kent, lockdowns were enforced across the UK. The Diamond Princess was a much larger boat than the MV Hondius, with Elaine's cruise ship holding 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew, 3,711 altogether. The hantavirus stricken adventure cruise ship only has 147 who are for the most part confined to their cabins in the 107-meters vessel. Diamond Quarantine: A cruise wrecked by Covid-19 by Elaine Spencer can be purchased on Amazon