What happened on Diamond Princess? Peacock's Hell of a Cruise to revisit 2020 pandemic chaos

Peacock is releasing a documentary that will shed light on the coronavirus outbreak on the luxury ship Diamond Princess in 2020, titled Hell of a Cruise. Directed by Nick Quested, the story of one of the first covid clusters will come to the streamer on Wednesday, September 14.

Peacock's synopsis for Hell of a Cruise reads:

When passengers and crew members boarded the luxury Diamond Princess cruise ship in January of 2020, they had no idea that the deadly novel coronavirus boarded the ship with them, turning the floating paradise into their worst nightmare.

It adds:

With access to hours of never-before-seen self-shot footage from passengers, this premium two-hour feature documentary will explore what went wrong and why only one week later were other cruise ships sent out to sea - where the same nightmare occurred again.

Read on to find out more about what happened on the luxury cruise at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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What happened on Diamond Princess, the subject of the documentary Hell of a Cruise?

The Diamond Princess is a luxury cruise liner that embarked on a journey on January 2020, from Yokohama for a 14-day cruise to China, Vietnam, and Taiwan before returning to Japan, according to Wired. The ship had thousands of passengers and crew aboard it and was captained by Gennaro Arma.

Three days into the voyage, news of the outbreak of coronavirus in China's Wuhan province - also considered to be the origin of the virus - reached the ship's officials. Consequently, the ship had to be anchored at Tokyo Bay for medical testing of both passengers as well as the crew.

The first set of test results revealed 10 infections, and the number kept increasing by hundreds with every round of testing. With over 3,700 people on board, Captain Arma called for a quarantine within the ship that marked the first massive outbreak of the virus outside of China.

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Hell of a Cruise revisits the 2020 pandemic

The trailer for Hell of a Cruise was released on August 31, 2022. The documentary will follow a series of exclusive interviews and will include footage of what went inside the Diamond Princess after it was anchored for a two-week quarantine period.

In the trailer, Arma can be heard making the following announcement, in addition to asking passengers to report cases of fever.

"A Hong Kong resident tested positive for coronavirus. The ship will remain under quarantine for 14 days."

The documentary will not only reflect on the experience of the ship's executives in handling the outbreak of the virus but will also focus on their mismanagement that could have led to the spread of infections.

Wired reported that while officials discussed the situation of a passenger testing positive, others onboard were handed out schedules for events taking place instead of implementing social distancing protocol.

As one passenger rightly asked in the trailer, "Why did the cruise ships keep sailing?"

Hell of a Cruise will also shed light on the politics that surfaced within the testing and rescue system, wherein, the elite was prioritized. For example, a crew member told the publication that while passengers were asked to isolate themselves, the workers were left to the mercy of masks and gloves.

Eventually, the US insisted on getting its citizens tested and flown back home instead of having them quarantined on an infected ship.

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Hell of a Cruise will be out on Peacock on Wednesday, September 14.