Living With The Question Mark — Part 2
Last week I wrote about learning to live with the question mark of not having an answer to the questions of where I’m going next in my life and where are we going on this cruise. This week I have an answer to the question about the future direction of the cruise, which has only resulted in more unanswered questions.
Our captain announced today that the cruise is ending when we arrive in Freemantle, Australia on March 22 nd. Passengers will be asked to disembark and make arrangements to fly home at their own expense. Even though the ship will be leaving March 23 rdto return to Florida, there apparently aren’t enough ports allowing cruise ships to dock to provide adequate food for 1300 passengers. So, Holland America Cruise Lines is abandoning us in Australia.
Thank God for American Express and attorneys.
So, the new questions I must answer are: How I will get back home? Will flights be available to the United States? Will airports in the United States remain open? Will US citizens who are flying home from Australia be allowed to enter the United States? Will I be quarantined? Those questions will be answered at some point in time, and I must live with the uncertainty until they are.
As a change management professional, it’s difficult not to move myself into the consultant role and observe how this situation is being handled by Holland America leadership and by the passengers impacted — of which I am one.
Leadership made a huge mistake by making this announcement without having the details of how their passengers will be taken care of in Australia until they can get flights home. The average age on the ship is 83 and many passengers are unable to fly the 15 to 30 hours it will take to get back to the United States or Canada because of serious health conditions — that’s why they cruise. It’s stressful enough for passengers who are healthy and capable of making their own arrangements. For people who can’t fly to be stranded in Australia with no plan for how they will get home to their family and no one offering to help them, it’s much worse and likely to cause additional health problems.
Hopefully, we’ll be compensated someday, but in the meantime, Holland American leadership is creating confusion, fear unnecessary stress and unexpected financial impact.
Passengers reacted to the unexpected news in one of three ways. One reaction was to say that they would just refuse to leave the ship. A second reaction was to start a petition to stay on the ship and head back to Ft. Lauderdale since the ship is going back anyway. The third reaction was to not hear the word “disembark,” in the captain’s message and tell those who did that they just misunderstood. They only heard that we would not be continuing our itinerary and would be returning to Florida because they couldn’t possibly believe that Holland America would do this to them.
Denial takes many forms. The above reactions are examples of how we often react to unwanted news by:
1) Hearing what we want to hear instead of what was actually said. We can hear the same message and not hear the same message at all.
2) Believing that what is going to happen can’t happen because I have the power to stop it.
At the core of each reaction is denial that the cruise ship will abandon us in Australia. Understandable since this has been our home for 72 days, we paid for food and shelter for 128 days, and many of the passengers have made multiple trips with Holland America and believed their loyalty means something.
However, denial doesn’t solve problems.
This is a disappointing outcome but to deny that this is happening or refuse to leave the ship only delays my trip home. My best course of action is to book my flight home.
We’re living during a time of radical unpredictability that causes greater degrees of uncertainty than we’ve ever had to cope with in the past. All any of us can control are the decisions we make and the action we take.
I’m still trusting that travel details will be worked out, I will soon be safely back home, Holland America will be reimbursing my costs and I will always have the experience of traveling halfway around the world.
Maybe I am learning to live with the question mark.
Originally published at http://traveltheworldwithrita.wordpress.com on March 17, 2020.
