This was an entertaining and informative read. I found myself sharing what I learned from this book with those around me. I recommend it to fans of good and highly readable non-fiction.

This was a gripping account of the experiences of crew and passengers aboard the cruise ship Zaandam, owned by Holland America, and its journey during the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Having evacuated from overseas to the US during the time COVID was made a PHEIC by the WHO, and then working in the public health response locally from April 2020 on, I didn't think I could take another account about COVID. But having that prescient knowledge about the virus and what it could do drew me into the story, and like an outsider looking in, I watched the tragedy unfold. Most heartbreaking to me was the story of Wiwit Widarto. Highly recommend this title.

I’ll start by saying my favorite vacation is going on a cruise. My husband and I try to cruise once or twice a year.
This book is a true account about the Holland America-Zaandam cruise ship voyage in early 2020 right as the world realizes that we were in the the mist of a global pandemic due to the Covid-19 virus.
It’s written by a journalist reporter who spoke with crew as well as passengers who told their personal stories aboard this voyage that started for some to be the vacation of a lifetime, but quickly turned out to be nightmare.
Most boarded this ship thinking everything was going to be fine. The cruise ship companies were “Not” prepared for what was about to transpire on this voyage.
At this point the world has not yet shut down, thus no provisions were made for anything. They didn’t have Covid tests at all, medicine, enough medical personnel or areas to quarantine people. At this point very little was known about how the virus spreads or how to test or care for ones that contract the virus. They weren’t prepared for this at all. Cruise ships are the perfect environment for the spread of Covid-19.
As people started to become sick, they were totally overwhelmed as to what to do at all. There were only 2 medical staff onboard. Very quickly more and more people were becoming sick. Staff members scared of loosing their jobs kept working until they became so sick they ended up in the infirmary.
The captain tried to no avail to find anywhere to dock the ship but all ports around the world were not allowing any ships to dock. Things started to get dire very rapidly.
I finished this book in about a day. It was a very interesting read for me. I highly recommend, especially to those who love to cruise.
My husband and I are going on another cruise in early February.

Great book and enjoyed the characters . loved the slight romance and the how well the group worked together. Overall a great book . I would read this author again.

Truly hellish portrait of what happened aboard the MS Zaandam, one of the worst affected cruise ships during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The story is well told through human case studies and is blunt about the failures of leadership by the government and the owners of the cruise ship.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10949851/New-book-reveals-hellish-conditions-aboard-MS-Zaandam-cruise-ship-early-days-Covid-19-pandemic.html

I cannot sing the praises of this book enough! Though the topic is heavy, the writing flows nicely and the authors very effectively built narrative tension that made this nonfiction book read like fiction.

The story is told from the perspective and memories of several folks aboard the Zaandam, including passengers from various countries and crews working in different areas (and levels) of the ship. The coverage of the slow onset of COVID cases aboard the ship was as expected -- horrifying in how naive everyone was in March 2020 about how dangerous things would get. Of course, hindsight is 2020 and I probably would have boarded the ship myself, but those early weeks in March we a time when most people could not begin to comprehend the truly unprecedented times that were about to affect the whole world.

However, the coverage of the international relations aspect here was the most fascinating angle of the story. The efforts it took to get these people home and to proper medical care were astounding. It was hard to read at points, and to think about how people can be dying and others would actively deny help.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is in a place where reading about the early pandemic is not still too raw -- I know it is a trauma to many. This was an un-put-downable read that I will be thinking about for a long time (especially anytime I plan to travel anywhere internationally or -- god forbid -- go on a cruise).

This is creative non-fiction at its best. Smith and Franklin do an excellent job of capturing the emotions of the characters. I felt like I was there.

Nonfiction, for me, is sometimes difficult to follow because there's so much technical information added in to help the author illustrate their point and it comes off as dry. This was definitely not the case with this book. Michael Smith does an excellent job of portraying the harrowing circumstances aboard the Holland America Rotterdam and what the passengers and crew went through at the beginning of the Covid shutdown. It was easy to follow and keep track of the different characters and at times I could feel their anxiety and their confusion. I enjoyed this as much as you can enjoy a book about other people's suffering. This was well written and a great account of what happened.

This book is SO GOOD. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to read another pandemic book, but Cabin Fever is a well-reported narrative that reads like fiction. It is compelling, fast-paced and astonishing. Five stars all the way.

It feels kind of wrong to say that I 'enjoyed' this book, when it's obviously a true story about a terrible event, so instead, I'll say that this was a wonderfully written piece of narrative non-fiction. The world was watching during these outbreaks on cruise ships early on in the pandemic, but it feels as though society quickly forgot them as covid spread; I did not realize how long guests and crew were stuck on these ships, some for months.

The authors did a great job at bringing humanity to this story, while remaining objective in telling the facts of what occurred. I would recommend this book to anyone who is ready to read about the early days of the ongoing public health crisis.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This is the true story of the Holland America cruise ship, Zaandam. In March of 2020, COVID was already hitting some cruise ships, but Holland America announced that there would be no refunds. The Zaandam and 1,200 passengers (most over the age of 65) and 600 crew members, set sail. In just a matter of days, COVID strikes the ship, as well as the rest of the world, which is unprepared for the virulence of this disease.

The authors did a wonderful job of taking us behind the scenes with passengers as well as the crew as ports shut down and the ship became known as the Pariah Ship. The stories are emotional and heartbreaking as passengers are confined to their staterooms, the already overworked crew is doing double-duty and everyone is getting ill. With the world's ports shut down, Zaandam cannot find a safe harbor and wanders the oceans on an unthinkable journey.

I realize the world was unprepared, but I’m still left with so many questions. We had a small weekend getaway planned for the week after this ship set sail, and our hotel as well as the concert venue canceled everything by March 7. Why did this ship ever leave port? Outbreaks of respiratory infections and GI infections can spread like wildfire on a cruise ship, so why did people get on a cruise ship with this “novel” virus making a deadly entrance? Why would a public health nurse make the decision to sail, as well as continue to have close contact with people who were coughing?

This was extremely interesting and appears well-researched.

https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/

This book is a five star for me! As I read, I felt totally immersed in the story, as if I too were a passenger on the ship. It was eye-opening and I loved how the story is told through the eyes and experiences of different passengers and crew members. It's obvious that this book was well-researched and the writing is solid. As the story progresses, I kept thinking about what an excellent film this would make as well.

It is also a little heartening to be reading this two years later and realize that we now have so many tools to deal with COVID and to know that while the danger is still here, it has been lessened by vaccines and new medicines. I think this book is being published at the perfect time for readers; not too soon and not too late.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I couldn't put it down!

This was a very interesting read, and not dry like a lot of nonfiction is. It did drag a little in the middle and get repetitive (yes, we know all the countries have abandoned the poor cruise ship and won't let it dock). I took a cruise in February 2020 and always think about how that could have been me if it had been just a few weeks later. It's such a shame that the cruise companies care so much about money that they put their customers and staff at risk, and many died. What a nightmare it must have been for the cruisers, some of whom were stuck on the ship for 50 days, and even more so for staff who were on it for much longer. Even more disgusting is how they made the lowest paid employees continue to pay for internet on the cruise ship to communicate with the friends and family during the pandemic!

Cabin Fever is an engrossing account about several passengers on a Holland American cruise ship during the early days of the COVID pandemic. It reads like a novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

Cabin Fever by Michael Smith and Johnathan Franklin is an amazing, well written account of the cruise ship, Zaandam - one of the last ships to depart before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a worldwide lockdown. It is a poignant, real life story of the passengers and crew abandoned by their counties and forced to travel as people were sick and dying from COVID- 19. The individual stories were heartbreaking and it was terrifying to imagine their fear of illness and dying while the crew was dealing with depleting food, fuel and medical supplies. As a health care professional, I have my own horror stories from the pandemic. Cabin Fever opened my eyes to the struggles and horrors of cruise ship employees.

Amazing book!

Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for this free Advance copy i return for my honest review.
What a great book. This shines an unfortunate spotlight on the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam on its voyage of March 6, 2020, a voyage that was so terrible it was dubbed the "Pariah Ship." The authors are able to interview crew, staff, passengers and others, and also got access to certain documentation to give us an almost day by day look at what happened on the Zaandam as it was overwhelmed with Coronavirus infections. I am a cruiser but after reading this book I may never cruise again. The ship was a breeding ground for Covid, and this voyage should have never left port in Buenos Aires (Final destination Port Everglades, FL). By the time this boat left the world had begun to be overrun with Covid, and numerous ships had well publicized Covid outbreaks. Nonetheless, the boat took off and shortly thereafter Covid struck, but the ship was ill prepared for this outbreak and it ravaged so many people on the cruise. So what we have in this book is a classic example of what not to do in crisis situation. Holland America corporate refused to participate in this book and I can understand why! Terrible. This book grabs you and will not let you go. I read it in under two days. The stories are shocking, heartbreaking, and heroic. Bureaucracy runs amok, all countries close their ports to this ship with dead and dying passengers until the are finally allowed through the Panama Canal. Then they are denied entrance to other ports in the Caribbean and even the US. This is a non-fiction book that all of us should read, and read about our fears, our inhumanity to suffering people, heroism by staff and crew members and the suffering that was imposed upon every passenger on the boat as it drifts aimlessly trying to get fuel, food, medical supplies and a friendly port. Covid was a pandemic nobody was ready for but decisions made from the very start doomed this ship, and that should never have happened.
You can see my full review on www.viewsonbooks.com

5 stars! We knew back in Feb 2020 that abnormal numbers of people were leaving ships with coughs and flu-like symptoms. I was one of those people and it made me mad to read about the questionable decisions made only one month later on Holland America’s Zaandam.

The path to Zaandam's ultimate lockdown in the Pacific was a rocky one and well documented in this revelational book. A fascinating and in-depth insider look into the early pandemic days on the high seas..

I applaud rock star Captain Smit who expertly navigated an unprecedented and ever-changing ‘make it up as you go’ manner as ports opened and closed willy nilly. I commend his remarkable and overwhelmed staff who worked tirelessly for the passengers and co-workers.

The decision to throw in lots of social activities to get people to forget there was a pandemic building was a particularly bad one and our so called CDC experts' mixed messages didn’t help. People knew a pandemic was lurking but so many chose to ignore it.

Captain Smit and his crew's dedication to passengers was inspirational. On the other hand, Holland America’s corporate office clearly chose profit over people, denying refunds to nervous passengers prior to boarding, knowing and hiding that covid was on their doorstep. The ship was woefully unprepared for its’ arrival.

Few topics can be more in the forefront of our thoughts than the recent Covid 19 Pandemic. As a glutton for punishment and a frequent cruiser for the last couple of decades, I was immediately intrigued when I encountered "Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic," written by Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin and published by Doubleday. I began reading the ARC almost as soon as it hit my computer. This is the story of the Holland America Zaandam and its struggle to contain an outbreak of the Covid pandemic on a cruise which occurred just as the world's nations closed their ports and borders. It is a quick read but a gut-wrenching one. None of us can remain indifferent to the worldwide traumatic consequences of this outbreak, and this represents a kind of anecdotal account/case study of the experience of the pandemic on one ship (of the many affected). The narrative is journalistic in nature and follows a variety passengers as well as crew and ships officers. The authors are to be complimented on the way in which they eschew the quick and dirty view of things which simply seeks to scapegoat people. Instead, their balanced but painful account does a superb job of looking at the complexity of the problem and the many difficulties and structural challenges which it provoked. The reader is left sad yet impressed at the individual examples of courage and determination which shine throughout the text. I finished the book late last night, and it left me drained and impressed and, candidly, in tears. If you are ready to confront this kind of thing (it is not for the faint of heart) and have an open mind, this book may be for you. For me, its greatest strength is in the way it reveals the ways in which our bureaucracies failed individual human beings. It is a cautionary tale, and it offers many lessons.

Recently I’ve read several books that have explored the COVID-19 story so far. It was interesting to see it all put together in this book. I am so glad this book exists. When I looked to see what was written about the last time we had a pandemic of similar proportions in 1918, it was hard to find anything about it. I wanted to try to understand how people coped and eventually moved beyond the crisis of the pandemic to living again.

I just have to say “wow”. Cabin Fever is probably one of the best books I’ll read this year. It was heartbreaking and hard to read at times. It could easily pass for a sci-fi, but knowing that it’s true and people had to endure it all makes it that much scarier than fiction.

The authors did a really great job with telling about the passengers and crew without being political, but being fair to all. This book will stay with me for a while.

Thank you Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC to review. ~I was given this book and made no commitments to leave my opinions, favorable or otherwise. ~