Tri-Cities cruise director remains on ship with coronavirus-infected passengers

The Tri-Cities family of Amanda Bogen has been anxiously following the journey of Holland America’s Zaandam as it has been turned away from one port after another.

The 2011 graduate of Hanford High in Richland is assistant cruise director on the ship, which had been searching for a port to dock since it was turned away March 17 from Punta Arenas, Chile, near the southern tip of South America because of the new coronavirus pandemic.

Her family got some good news Thursday and Friday as the cruise ship was allowed to dock at a port in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the U.S. Coast Guard helped offload more than 1,200 passengers from the Zaandam and Holland America’s cruise ship Rotterdam.

Four people on the Zaandam had died, at least two from complications of COVID-19, since guests last left the ship on March 14.

Amanda is in good health, her family reported, but 90 guests and 143 crew members on the ship have reported respiratory symptoms since March 22, when all passengers and ill crew members began self isolating in their rooms.

The ship carried 442 guests, including 311 U.S. citizens, and 603 crew members.

It didn’t appear that Amanda will be leaving the ship soon.

Fourteen of the most critically ill people on both Holland America ships were taken to Florida hospitals and healthy passengers were allowed to return to their Florida homes or were bused to an airport to take chartered flights home, The Associated Press reported.

Crew members remain on board with the remaining passengers who have symptoms but are not critically ill.

Hanford High grad

Greg Bogen of Richland, Amanda’s father said she does not appear to be at risk of serious illness.

“She’s 27 years old and in great shape,” he said.

She was on the state championship cheer squad at Hanford High, and has also served as the squad’s tumbling coach, and she cheered at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

But the healthy crew on board has been exhausted as they continue to serve passengers, with Greg Bogen describing the crew as “walking zombies.”

Talking to Amanda nearly daily has given her family some peace of mind, despite the difficult situation on the ship.

“As an advocate for her guests, it’s been a really challenging time,” said her sister, Leah Mercer of West Richland. The two sisters previously worked on cruise ships together.

There are not enough ventilators for all of the ship’s critically ill passengers and the ship was almost out of oxygen by Thursday morning, Mercer said.

Doing what she can

But Amanda has “a heart to serve,” her father said. Both Amanda and her family believe she is in the place where she is needed.

She not only continued to find ways to lift passenger spirits as the ship sailed toward Florida, but has been volunteering her extra time with guest services, answering phone calls from quarantined passengers and helping them get what they need.

“She’s been super positive,” said her sister.

“She’s not fearful or scared,” Mercer said. “She’s just stepped up and does what she can.”

On a typical cruise, Amanda helps keep passengers entertained, leading activities like line dancing and game shows.

With passengers quarantined, she has provided five 30-minute programs a day via the ship’s television station. She’s led exercise classes via the television, some geared toward the seniors on the cruise.

And she’s led televised quiz and game shows.

Greg Bogen has helped out from Richland, including sending her the questions and answers for a quiz show on the Olympics. The internet on board the ship has been spotty, making it difficult for his daughter to research information.

She also has been checking passenger lists for special occasions, like birthdays, and making sure guests get chocolate or another treat delivered to their room to mark the occasion.

The worst times for Amanda have been when she’s been isolated in her cabin when she is not working, her sister said. That has been trying given her high energy level.

As her family has watched mapped the Zaandam’s journey since the COVID-19 outbreak, they have been not only concerned about Amanda, but worried about the ship’s passengers, Greg Bogen said.

Turned away from ports

Holland America wanted to cut short the Zaandam’s South America Cruise that began in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 7, but was repeatedly dined permission to dock at ports along its route to the United States.

It sat for several days docked off the cost of Panama Canal before it was allowed through the canal. Then Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initially said he did not want the ship to dock in Florida, its destination when it set sail from Argentina.

“My concern is that we have worked so hard to make sure we have adequate hospital space in the event of a Covid-19 surge, we wouldn’t want those valuable beds to be taken because of the cruise ship,” the Florida governor told CNN.

On April 2, Holland America and the state of Florida reached agreement for the sickest passengers to be treated, and late that afternoon the Zaandam docked.

Amanda Bogen has made a living traveling the world on Holland America cruise ships for four years.

In a 2018 interview as she returned from a four-month voyage around the world, she told the Herald she was loving her job, including spending a day or two at a time being a tourist in ports around the world.

A favorite spot has been Bali.

It’s not only beautiful but “the people there are so kind, like the nicest people in the world,” she said.

A highlight of her travels was meeting anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu in South Africa and showing him around the ship she was on then.

More recently her Instagram account is filled with photos of whales and penguins in Antarctica, a casual tango lesson on a Buenos Aires street and doing a gymnastics flip in front of the Helsinki Cathedral in Finland.

She’s just finished three months of her current four-month contract with Holland America.

This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 1:28 PM.