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One Year Later: The Diamond Princess Cruise

Last weekend marked one year since the Goldmans left for their dream cruise on the Diamond Princess, a trip that would capture the attention of the world and alter the couple’s lives forever.

On Jan. 17, 2020, KHTS owners Carl Goldman and Jeri Seratti-Goldman boarded the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama, Japan for an over two-week cruise through Southeast Asia.

“It was the cruise we had waited many years for,” Jeri recalled. “We always dreamed of going to the Orient, that was our dream vacation.”

Carl had given the cruise as a dual Christmas/birthday gift for his wife, and the couple had an adjoining cabin with their good friends Jerri and Mark Jorgensen. As they departed from the Port of Yokohama, they had not even heard of the coronavirus.

“Little did we realize that it would be a two-month journey and, now that a year has gone by, that it would be the start, the epicenter of what’s become the key story of the year and probably the story of the decade, maybe the century, with the pandemic crisis hitting the entire world,” Carl said.

On Jan. 20, three days into the cruise, a passenger from Hong Kong boarded the Diamond Princess, leaving the ship five days later. After disembarking from the cruise line in Hong Kong, that passenger began to present symptoms and sought out medical attention.

On Feb. 1, the passenger was officially diagnosed with COVID-19.

“We did not realize that there was even any issue until we were mid-way on the cruise,” Jeri said. “When we landed in Hong Kong, when we got off the ship, they were checking our temperatures.”

The Diamond Princess headed for Yokohama, the same place that the couple had boarded over two weeks prior, where Japanese health authorities boarded the ship and screened all of the 2,333 passengers and 1,100 crew.

After testing, health officials initially discovered ten patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. They were sent in ambulances to hospitals in Yokohama. The ship was placed on a 14-day quarantine, and no passengers were allowed to leave their cabins.

“Once we started quarantining inside our cabins, we made the best of it,” Carl said. “We were looking at it as a positive thing, taking it one day at a time, not projecting into the future, not dwelling upon the past and just looking at it as one of those things that we would make the best of, and turn lemonade out of lemons with it.”

The pair had already opened the balcony shared between their cabin and the Jorgensens earlier in the trip, so the two couples were able to share each other’s company during their quarantine. Each day, the four would exercise, do what work they could from their laptops, and enjoy movies together in the evenings.

It was at this time that Carl also began to chronicle their experiences with a series of journals, which were read by hundreds of thousands of people across the world.

“We purposely don’t publicize our trips when we’re away, but around the second or third day of the quarantine we saw on social media that a number of the other passengers were writing things that just weren’t the case,” Carl recalled. “They were making it look like Princess was starving them, that they were trapped, they were inside prison, and none of that was really true.”

In fact, despite an initial day to figure out logistics, Carl said that they were all provided three meals a day, and all of the passengers were given refunds for the trip. While certainly not the most comfortable, the Goldmans and the Jorgensens made do.

See Related: Carl Goldman Searches For Answers As He Battles Continuing Health Problems: Part 40

Then, on the night of Feb. 14, the first dominos began to fall.

“Jerri took her temperature and found out she had a fever and went to her room right away to stay away,” Jeri remembered. “It lasted maybe about two hours overnight. That morning she was getting ready and felt fine, and she got a call from the medical staff that she had tested positive and she had one hour to vacate the ship.”

Jerri was taken to a hospital in Fukushima, where she remained for 14 days on her own as her husband and friends prepared to depart for the United States.

“That’s when it really hit us,” Carl said. “This thing hit home, rather than us just watching people getting taken off the ship.”

Later that afternoon, they received word from the United States Embassy. Two days from then, all 339 American citizens would be flown to the United States on one of two military transport planes. All would be tested for COVID-19 before leaving the Diamond Princess before being driven from the ship to a military airport, then flown to Travis Airforce Base outside Sacramento, California. Some members would then be flown to Lackland Airforce Base, near San Antonio, Texas.

However, in the time between Jerri’s departure from the ship and the other three’s departure date, Carl and Jeri voluntarily decided to take a COVID-19 test to be safe. The pair would not learn of the results of that test until they were already on the plane.

Carl had tested positive for COVID-19.

A few hours into our flight, I came down with a high fever,” Carl wrote at the time. “Jeri and I already had a dry cough. We thought that was from the dry air in our cruise cabin. I walked up to the hazmat folks. They confirmed I had a high temperature. I was placed in the quarantined area of our already quarantined cargo plane.”

Eight hours later, the pair landed at Travis Air Force Base, where officials unloaded all but three couples off of the plane to quarantine. Those who remained on the plane, including Carl and Jeri, were then told that they would be heading to Omaha for specialized treatment.

“In Omaha, I was put in the biocontainment area,” Carl said. “Being one of the first victims of COVID in the United States at the time, they decided to be safe about it, and I am thankful that they did because I was in probably the best hands ever.” 

Jeri was cleared to come home two weeks later on March 2, while Carl did not return home until March 16.

In the months since, Carl and Jeri have had their blood tested multiple times to better understand the virus, as Jeri never got sick despite her proximity to people who did.

The couple also had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. to meet with then-President Donald Trump to share their experience.

While the cruise industry still remains largely shut down due to the ongoing pandemic, Carl expressed that Jeri and he are “looking forward to cruising again.”

“Will I still cruise? Absolutely,” Carl said. “Will I have still gone on the cruise If I knew I would have gotten COVID, then no, that would be silly to say. But once they start cruising again, we’re looking forward to cruising again and going out there.” 

Read All Of Carl’s Journals Here: Carl Goldman Coronavirus Journals


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One Year Later: The Diamond Princess Cruise

2 comments

  1. Poor Carl, now the doctors don’t recommend another test once you test positive for Covid. They said you can continue to get positives for several months and you are not contagious 10 days from your first symptom.

    Carl went through a horrible nightmare being insolation quarantine. Only to find out, he wasn’t a risk to others after 10 days. Even though tests show positive results. Talk with your doctor if you doubt this info. This was what was told to us. We had Covid and we were told to take vitamins. Acetaminophen for any fever. Stay home 10 days.

  2. Wow….a year already. I really enjoyed reading Carl’s daily updates on his condition and the virus. I was so glad when each of them was able to return home. It’s been a long year. Luckily, we may be able to emerge from this nasty virus sometime this year, and return to a relatively normal life. Thank you, Carl and Jerri for sharing your experiences with us. I’m glad you’re both still with us!

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About Michael Brown

Michael Brown has lived in Santa Clarita his whole life. Graduating from Saugus High School in 2016, he continued to stay local by attending The Master’s University, where he achieved a Bachelor's Degree in Communication. Michael joined KHTS in January of 2018 as a news intern, and has since gone on to become the News Director for the KHTS Newsroom. Since joining KHTS, Michael has covered many breaking news stories (both on scene and on air), interviewed dozens of prominent state and federal political figures, and interacted with hundreds of residents from Santa Clarita. When he is not working, Michael enjoys spending time with his family, as well as reading any comic book he can get his hands on.