If you close your eyes and picture the absurd delights of a cruise ship,

you'll probably picture a boat that looks a lot like the Costa Deliziosa.

It's got a humanoid robot that greets guests when they get on board.

On Italian night, the waiters in one of the ship's restaurants do this coordinated

dance routine while bringing you food. But this week, the passengers on the Deliziosa

said the boat felt less like a luxury cruise and more like Noah's Ark. That's because this ship

was the final carnival cruise to disembark its passengers.

They'd gotten aboard months ago, pre-pandemic.

By the time they got off, cruise ships like theirs had become notorious viral hotspots.

No one on the Delizioso was infected.

The company just had trouble finding a place to let passengers off.

Some reportedly wanted to stay, wait the coronavirus out together on the high seas.

I didn't realize cruise ships were still in the water.

Yes, that's correct.

Austin Carr's been reporting on Carnival for Bloomberg Business Week.

We were sort of surprised ourselves that so many ships were in the water and they were

trying to get back to port.

The CDC issued a no-sale advisory on March 8th.

So that's, you know, God, about a month and a half or more ago.

And when I asked Carnival, I said, you know, guys, I don't understand why didn't you

after that advisory, not just get all your ships home immediately?

And their chief communications officer simply just told me, he said, look, the advisor is not an edict. In other words,

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