Cabin Fever

The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic

By: Michael Smith, Jonathan Franklin

Narrated by: George Newbern

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

The true story of the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam, which set sail with a deadly and little-understood stowaway—COVID-19—days before the world shut down in March 2020. This riveting narrative thriller takes listeners behind the scenes with passengers and crew who were caught unprepared for the deadly ordeal that lay ahead.

In early 2020, the world was on edge. An ominous virus was spreading on different continents, and no one knew what the coming weeks would bring. Far from the hot spots, the cruise ship Zaandam, owned by Holland America, was preparing to sail from Buenos Aires, Argentina, loaded with 1,200 passengers—Americans, Europeans and South Americans, plus 600 crew.

Most passengers were over the age of sixty-five. There was concern about the virus on the news, and it had already killed and sickened passengers on other Holland America ships. But that was oceans away, and escaping to sea at the ends of the earth for a few weeks seemed like it might be a good option. The cruise line had said the voyage (three weeks around the South American coastline to see some of the world’s most stunning natural wonders and ancient ruins) would carry on as scheduled, with no refunds. And it would be safe.

Among the travelers there is a retired American school superintendent on a dream vacation with his wife of fifty-six years, on a personal quest to see Machu Picchu. There is an Argentine psychologist taking this trip to celebrate her sixty-fourth birthday with her husband, though she finds herself fretting in her cabin on day one, trying to dismiss her fears of what she’s hearing on the news. There is an Indonesian laundry manager who's been toiling on Holland America cruise ships for thirty years, sending his monthly paycheck to his family back home.

Within days, people aboard Zaandam begin to fall sick. The world’s ports shut down. Zaandam becomes a top story on the news and is denied safe harbor everywhere. With only two doctors aboard and few medical supplies to test for or treat COVID-19, and with dwindling food and water, the ship wanders the oceans on an unthinkable journey.

©2022 Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Riveting... It’s an impressive example of narrative journalism...A worthy addition to the historical record."—Associated Press

"The best nonfiction, in my mind, reads like a novel. It's filled with compelling characters and takes you to a place you'd never otherwise experience. It tells a story that grabs you by the throat and won't let you stop reading. Cabin Fever falls into that category...I couldn't put [it] down."—Star Tribune

"Cabin Fever is riveting, taut, and extensively researched. Smith and Franklin have written a page-turning adventure that will keep you reading late into the night."—Martin Dugard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Taking Paris

Pretty interesting pandemic tale

Listening to this audiobook brought me back to the early days of the pandemic. This is a true story, and it seemed shocking that Holland America ran the South American cruise in spite of bad COVID outbreaks on other cruises. This book tries to tell the story though some of the passengers and crew. It also tries to cover the politics of the many countries in their refusal to help this ship in distress. I enjoyed this quite a bit, but wished that I had gotten to know some of these people even better. This book kept me engaged and I learned a lot. Very readable nonfiction!

Excellent

This is a great telling of what happens to various “levels” of people at the start of the pandemic. Mistakes, hopes, tragedies, fears, and suffering. I particularly liked how some people’s “me” focus is contrasted with others “we” focus.

really really great story telling

The authors write a gripping true life story of Covid 19 on cruise ships. They tell the story of the lives of the healthy and the sick, the customers and the crew, You think you know about what it was like when Covid hit and what it must have been like on cruise ships? uh-uh you can't even imagine this great book tells us. I highly recommend + the man who reads the story did a great job, just perfect i think.

Heartbreaking Story of Covid on a Cruise Ship

This was a heartbreaking and harrowing story of the Covid-19 outbreak on a Holland Lines cruise ship. Looking back in hindsight, I cringed with all the false and conflicting information given during the early days of the outbreak. The parent corporation was more concerned with earning funds than passenger and crew safety. The heroic effort of some crewmembers to passengers on the cruise of a lifetime begin to get sick and are quarrantined in their cabins getting sicker all the time. It should be noted that many of the passengers were senior citizens, many of whom Covid would be a death sentence. A number of people died and few countries in the worldm including the US, wanted the sick passengers and crew on their shores and the ship spent more time than necessary out at sea running low on supplies. It was the cruise from hell. Well written, though narration was a bit snarky.

Real life page-turner

The story is gripping, hard to put down. These were very human stories, made sure by the fear, mismanagement and incompetence of the worlds political and corporate leaders at the start of the pandemic. There are heroes still as these two gifted writers show.

The content

Very interesting and so sad. The point of view from the ship was very telling

An amazing book, a story well-told, and a nightmare for everyone onboard.

I had no idea that all of this happened to these ships during the pandemic. I was in the middle of trying to schedule a cruise and was frustrated at how many times we booked one, and then it got canceled. Now I feel guilty for complaining even once. The true heroes in this story, in my opinion, were the amazing employees on that boat who continued to serve and cater to the needs of the sick and the needy on that ship. What an amazing story. I highly recommend it. Such a sad story