Their 4-month cruise cut short

Paul & Sandy Arnold’s not quite excellent adventure

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Drama is not a thing, typically, for farmers. They tend to be even-keeled, riding the waves and the seasons as they come.

So, a hastily arranged 45-hour journey from Dubai back to Argyle that cut short a world tour, racing back as ports even in their own homeland threatened to close against them was not what Paul and Sandy Arnold had in mind.

They set off on January 4 for an expected “trip of a lifetime.”

The Arnolds, 33 years at the helm of Pleasant Valley Farm in Argyle, were on a four-month Viking cruise around the world. Two years in the planning, it was suddenly cut short when the increasingly virulent Coronavirus pandemic changed the world.

Fortunately for the Arnolds, it wasn’t that the disease hit their ship.

Rather, they and about 900 fellow travelers were now on a boat with no place to go. Ports of entry — at planned destinations, and increasingly, everywhere — closed, as one country after another tried to stave off the disease by keeping outsiders, out.

Situation shifted in March

Things started getting rough in mid-March, Mrs. Arnold recounted to The Chronicle. It took until last Thursday, the 26th, for them to make it back to Argyle.

Viking was monitoring the Coronavirus situation, along with U.S. officials, almost from the start, Mrs. Arnold says.

“By the time we were leaving Australia, we knew we were not going to get to China.

“That was in February. Nobody anticipated it spreading around the world as quickly. By the time we got to Bali and Indonesia, March 5 or 6, we could see, things were going kind of crazy.”

Many of the 900 passengers opted to leave then, Mrs. Arnold says.

“About 361 of us stayed on the ship,” however. “At that point, all the countries except for Indonesia were still open.”

That changed very quickly, she says.

Realizing they were not going to make it to London for the planned flight home, the next thought was to sail all the way back to the United States by way of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

Mrs. Arnold says they were told it would take five or six days to cross the ocean — “but then, the U.S. government, which was also monitoring, was warning Viking, they were going to start closing their ports.”

Headed home by way of Dubai

“This was March 15. The decision was set: ‘Fly us all home, by way of Dubai.’”

Mrs. Arnold said the cruiseship traveled at just 15 miles an hour, having to stop every four days for supplies and fuel.

She says, “Absolutely no one” was allowed on or off the ship by then, but the mood was still “very good, fun.” Viking treated them well, people were upbeat.

“We sailed up to Dubai, and they booked every available seat, three charter flights, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Dubai closed the airport to flights on the Wednesday. There were still 96 of us, we were supposed to be on the last flight, scheduled that day.”

The first two groups got to ride on Dubai’s high-end Emirates airline, Mrs. Arnold reports. “Our plane was not quite as nice.”

“They found us a chartered plane from Spain — which was already hard. Dubai wasn’t so sure — a plane from Spain, and the virus there.”

But she says officials finally agreed.

“Then, we were delayed again. There were eight Canadians in our group. The United States said they wouldn’t let the Canadians into the U.S., not even just to land in Newark, get back on a plane and fly to Canada.”

“We had to leave them on the ship. They’re probably stranded there for three months now,” Mrs. Arnold worries.

Still happy with cruise company

On a most practical note, the Arnolds missed about half the trip, half the countries they’d hoped to see.

They remain upbeat. “Viking was very generous,” Mrs. Arnold enthuses. “They paid for everything. Those chartered planes — very expensive. They gave us all credit for [use] later. We will be able to make up the parts we didn’t get to see. They didn’t have to do that. Acts like this were excluded in the contract.”

The trip itself? “Every place was great,” Mrs. Arnold says.

“Polynesian islands, New Zealand, every part was unique. The animals, wildlife excursions, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, cultural stuff in the cities. So much. It was the trip of a lifetime. A little discouraging that we only got to half.”

Mrs. Arnold, with Paul in the background, spoke by phone with The Chronicle from a separate apartment on their farm. They are still keeping a 14-day quarantine — talking by text, phone or occasionally yelling through a window to their children, Kim and Robert, who have been running the farm in their absence.

Mrs. Arnold says she feels pretty safe from Covid-19: “We went from a private cruise ship to a private chartered flight. We were the only people in the airport in Dubai, flew direct to Newark.”

Copyright © 2020 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.