'We're not getting any information': Woman and mother stranded on cruise ship in Dubai

Vivienne Clarke

Irish woman Megan Virgo has described the frustrations experienced while stranded in Dubai.

The situation was “terrifying”, hearing jets in the sky and explosions while she could not get through to any of the airline or consular numbers.

“We’re not getting any information,” she told RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show.

When asked about the €800 price of a chartered flight home, Virgo said she and her mother would be willing to pay anything to get home, but in the absence of any information she felt “we’re just going to have to look after ourselves.”

Virgo and her mother had been due to commence a cruise of the Gulf and had boarded the ship when the conflict started. They were fortunate to be able to stay on the ship, she said, but there had been “a lot of ups and downs with everything that has happened.”

“It's been terrifying, there's been times when we felt that things have settled a bit and then again you hear the jets in the sky, you hear the explosions and it's just something that you think you'll never go through.”

While some other passengers had left the ship to go into the city of Dubai, Virgo and her mother thought it was safer to stay on board until they had definite details of a flight home.

Their original flight home has been cancelled, but they have not received any details on when they will be rebooked.

“We don't know whether we should just go to the airport because you're hearing that actually people are getting on flights, we have not been able to get through to Emirates, so I keep calling but I'm on hold for too long to get through to anyone.

“I've tried the Dublin number, the Dubai number, which doesn't go through. The embassy as well, we have had no communication from them.”

“We’re not getting any information at all.” She said she did not expect an individual email, but thought the embassy could send a general email to those who had registered to let them know any update and offer some reassurance.

“I get that this is a crisis situation, I understand that, but to be honest, we feel really let down. I think somewhere in this crisis communication strategy that they have, they seem to have completely left the people over here out of the mix.”

The mother and daughter had considered taking a taxi to Oman for a repatriation flight, but they were getting mixed reports with some advice saying to stay in place.

“On one side you have them saying stay in place, stay in shelter, but then actually you have to make your own way to the airport and there's no clarity on how many people can go on, then there's obviously a pecking order of, of course people who have been there that have illnesses, pregnant women, the elderly, they have to be prioritised.”

When asked about the cost of the repatriation charter flight, Virgo said: “I would pay anything. I would leave my bags here, just get the passport, off we go. People have been in worse situations than I have been this week, we got on the ship, to be fair to the cruise liner, it's like a cruise, except we're not setting sail.

"People are in worse situations than us, and I understand that, so we're lucky that we haven't been one of those people that have been stranded at the airport, or have had to experience in real time, you know, when the debris hit the airport.”