Inside Edition spoke to the disgruntled passenger, who claims the test resulted in a false positive.
What was supposed to be a relaxing post-pandemic cruise actually saw a passenger meltdown after the cruise line said she tested positive for COVID-19. In a video that went viral, the unvaccinated passenger rants as a team in full hazmat gear escorts her off the cruise ship.
“I felt like I was in a Stephen King movie,” the passenger, Laura Angelo, told Inside Edition.
Angelo boarded the Freedom of the Seas in Miami for the cruise. Before boarding, she says she informed the cruise line that she was unvaccinated, which meant she was not allowed in certain areas of the ship. But two days into the cruise, she was tested for COVID-19. The test came back positive.
She insists the test result was not accurate. She said she had COVID-19 three months earlier, but had fully recovered, and was no longer contagious.
Angelo live-streamed as she and her friend were taken off the ship in the Bahamas. You can hear her anger as she is taken off in a wheelchair to a waiting ambulance. She was medevaced home to the Bronx, where Inside Edition spoke to her Wednesday.
“I was angry. I was infuriated. I know I don't have COVID,” Angelo said. “You're waiting for over a year to go on this vacation, you finally get to go on it, you don't even get to enjoy the ship for 24 hours. You’re locked in your room. You’re not allowed out.”
In a statement to Inside Edition, Royal Caribbean says that once Angelo tested positive for COVID-19, the cruise line "immediately enacted our onboard health and safety protocols."
“They want to offer me my money back, and then 100% for a future cruise? I don't want to go on their cruise,” Angelo said.
Angelo says she's had three COVID tests since leaving the ship, and they were all negative.
