'Safest place in the world': Today hosts slam cruise company for continuing trip

A cruise ship passenger who is being quarantined in a Melbourne hotel has slammed the "appalling" conditions during an interview with the Today show.

Jan Richards was a passenger on the Greg Mortimer Antarctic cruise, which was stuck off the coast of South America for two weeks following an outbreak of coronavirus on the ship.

The ship's operator Aurora Expeditions confirmed 128 of 217 people tested positive for coronavirus.

Jan, and a number of other Australians who were aboard the cruise, arrived in Melbourne on Monday and is one day into her enforced two-week quarantine.

Chatting with Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon, Jan said she felt as though she wasn't receiving any "compassion" from the government, calling it a "nightmare of a journey".

“I personally – and I'm not speaking for everybody, I'm only speaking for myself – feel very let down by our government,” she said.

“We're now stuck in this hotel. I have no real idea of what my expectations was other than I thought it would be clean and we would have access to fresh air.

"Well, the hotel rooms are dirty, I mean really dirty. We have no access to fresh air. I'm not expecting five-star. I do expect some level of compassion from our own government. It's been a nightmare of a journey.”

Karl stepped in, saying, "I wholeheartedly sympathise with your journey... I know it's upsetting for you."

He continued, "The Prime Minister and every medical officer will say, ‘I'm sorry (but) you have to go through it in order to protect Australian people’. You do get that, don't you?"

Jan quickly responded, "One hundred per cent and not one of us would ever want to pass this on to anybody. But I do think we should be treated like Australians and be given a clean environment. No one is asking for five-star. We expected to do this. We want to do this. We certainly don't want to pass it on to anybody. But this treatment is appalling."

While some people on the Today Show's Facebook page slammed Jan for going on the cruise in the first place, it soon became clear that the blame lay elsewhere.

Ali explained that Aurora Expeditions made the decision to embark on their cruise four days after the World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus a pandemic and that they didn't offer any kind of refund on the trip.

“We know this cost you $35,000 not including airfares. The company told you there would be no credit or refund. How do you feel about the way they have treated all of you in this?” Ali said.

Jan said, "Appallingly, to be honest with you. I think they made a decision on commercial basis. We had to pay all upfront 90 days before the cruise. The world was not the crazy place it is now. Quite a few of us rang the company to say, 'Are you cancelling this trip?' We were all concerned. They said 'No'. Cancel (and) you lose 100 per cent of your money.

"When we got to the port, when all the other boats were cancelled, we were the only ones leaving. The CEO of the company was there confirming that it was perfectly safe and we were about to be in the safest place in the world."

Karl then slammed the cruise company, saying it was "100 per cent" their fault, "Some of these cruise ships, a small number have done the right thing. There have been others that blame lay squarely on them and they need to accept responsibility for that. They need to accept responsibility for the complaints you're making."

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