EXCLUSIVE: ‘They took me off the boat like I had the plague’: Vegetarian cruise ship passenger, 56, who is being forced to isolate in Tenerife ‘prison’ hotel after catching Covid says she’s starving because ‘almost every meal comes with meat’
- Yvonne Harnett, 56, of Stock, Essex, has been left alone in ‘squalid prison’ hotel
- She had been on Canary Island cruise with husband Shane, 52 and daughter, 17
- Yvonne tested positive on board ship on January 2, but her family were negative
- She isolated for three days in cabin before being transferred to hotel in Tenerife
A vegetarian holidaymaker forced to isolate alone in a dingy hotel in Tenerife after contracting Covid on a £9,000 family cruise claims she’s been left starving after almost every meal came with meat.
Garden centre owner Yvonne Harnett, 56, from Stock in Essex has been left alone in the squalid ‘prison’ after her husband was told he couldn’t stay with her but had to return home and leave her behind.
Yvonne and husband Shane, 52, had booked the two week cruise around the Canary Islands over Christmas and New Year with their 17-year-old daughter Ellie-J.
They embarked on 21 December and were enjoying the top-of-the-range trip – despite being wary when they heard Covid had been detected aboard ship.
Passengers were asked to take regular lateral flow tests and all three were fine until 2 January when Yvonne was given a positive test but her husband and daughter continued to be negative.
She then had to isolate in her cabin for three days while the cruise ship headed back to Tenerife where she was transferred to a quarantine hotel.
Garden centre owner Yvonne Harnett (pictured), 56, from Stock in Essex has been left alone in the squalid ‘prison’ in Tenerife, Spain, after her husband was told he couldn’t stay with her but had to return home and leave her behind
Ms Harnett said she is still served bacon (pictured) despite telling the hotel she is vegetarian
Ms Harnett asked for just potatoes and vegetables but the meal still arrived with chicken (pictured)
Happier times: Yvonne (pictured right) and husband Shane, 52, had booked the two week cruise around the Canary Islands over Christmas and New Year with their 17-year-old daughter Ellie-J
Yvonne said: ‘Shane wanted to come with me to the hotel as he knew I was terrified. I’ve never been alone abroad before.
‘But they wouldn’t let him. They insisted I had to go in alone.
‘They took me off the boat like I had the plague. I was wrapped in blue cloth and taken on an ambulance driven at high speed.
‘Then they just dumped me with all my stuff in this dark, dingy room.
‘It’s like a prison. It’s been utterly miserable. I’ve hardly slept and barely eaten. I told them over and over again that I don’t eat meat but they don’t seem to register it.
‘I spent ages on the phone going through the lunch options and said ‘please just give me the potatoes and vegetables’ but when it came it had a chicken breast on it.
‘The same happens with breakfast when they drape bacon on everything or lunch when I can’t seem to get cheese without ham. The food is terrible and even the stuff I can eat is slop.
‘Thank goodness my daughter forced me to download Netflix on my phone so I’ve had something to do. I’ve been watching old films like Grease, Ghost and Dirty Dancing and having a good cry.’
She added: ‘It was meant to be a last family treat ahead of Ellie-J doing her A’levels and hopefully going off to university but it’s turned into the worst holiday ever.’
Mrs Harnett should finally be released from the hotel on Sunday when she will finally be able to fly home to her family.
Her insurance company has agreed to cover the cost of her hotel quarantine and the new flight.
Mrs Harnett’s husband Shane said he is ‘furious’ over what she has been through (pictured together left)
Mrs Harnett should be released from the hotel on Sunday when she will finally be able to fly home to her family (Pictured: Some of the food sent to her room)
Mrs Harnett had to isolate in her cabin for three days while the cruise ship headed back to Tenerife where she was transferred to a quarantine hotel (Pictured: Pringles, sweets and water in Mrs Harnett’s hotel quarantine room)
Husband Shane is furious at the way she’s been treated: ‘When we were on the boat I tested negative, and Yvonne was positive, but they made me isolate with her – even though we pleaded with them that it meant our daughter was unaccompanied for three days
‘Then when we had plans for her to get home safely and me to stay with Yvonne they wouldn’t let me do that either. They told me I could stay on but not in the same hotel and if I didn’t want to do that to go home. And that was pointless as I couldn’t be with her. So she’s been left completely alone and really upset.
‘It’s been a shambles. And I don’t think she’d have caught the virus at all if the boat had been better managed in the first place. I’m furious.’
The cruise was a Marella trip run by Tui who have been contacted for comment.
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