SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A San Francisco couple is back home after being stranded for nearly a week in Doha, Qatar as tensions escalated in the Middle East.
Rebecca Roque and her husband, Ed, had been celebrating her 70th birthday on a Celestyal cruise with stops in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Doha. But as the trip was coming to an end, the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, triggering widespread flight cancellations across the region.
“We were supposed to depart either that evening or the following day for Dubai, but we never made it,” Roque said.
For days, the couple and dozens of other passengers remained stuck on board the ship, watching flights cancel one after another.
“We were glued to the TV,” Roque said.
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Roque added that they tried to stay positive, even as they woke up to late-night alerts and could hear explosions in the distance.
“I mean, we were even psyching ourselves up, what if this goes on for a month? We’ll just go along,” Roque said.
Roque shared a photo of the small outdoor area where passengers were allowed to get fresh air.
At one point, Roque thought her only way out might be via bus from Doha to Riyadh. But the cruise line kept them informed and worked closely with the U.S. Embassy in Qatar as the days went on. She gave a lot of credit to the cruise line.
“They really made us feel at home. We were their priority. I think that’s the that’s the training that celestial imparted in there to their staff,” Roque said. “So there was there were plenty of activities for us to be, to, keep our minds, away from what was going on. We could see some of the, you know, the explosions and bomb and sounds.”
Ultimately, Celestyal and the embassy arranged a repatriation flight for more than 70 American passengers. A repatriation flight is a government-organized rescue flight used when commercial travel is disrupted or unsafe.
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“We felt like it’s not final until it’s final, until we take off,” Roque said.
Roque and her fellow passengers got picked up at a bus at 4 a.m. and then boarded their flight. As the plane prepared for departure, she said the emotional weight of the ordeal finally hit her. Being Catholic, Roque started praying the rosary.
“That’s when I started to cry,” she said. “I had a bit of fear, what if there was a drone or missile or whatever it is.”
The couple eventually flew from Doha to Madrid, then to Los Angeles, before finally landing in San Francisco.
Days later, Roque said she’s relieved to see other passengers also making it home safely, and grateful for the crew members who supported them throughout the ordeal.
“The cruise ship said, ‘We want you to be here until you leave.’ So that gave us an assurance that we were being taken care of,” she said. “They really made us feel at home.”
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