( BARCELONA, Spain)– For Spanish tourist Carlos Payá, being on an around-the-globe high-end cruise while the rest of the world scooted into their houses for worry of the COVID-19 pandemic was beyond surreal. It was “a stroke of all the best.”

Now, his trip inside the virus-free bubble that the Costa Deliziosa cruise liner ended up being on its 15- week odyssey is pertaining to an end. The boat is steaming towards Barcelona, Spain, where it will make its first port-of-call on Monday after 35 days of constant cruising with no human contact with the outside world.

” It was not surreal. It was extraordinary,” Payá informed The Associated Press by text on Saturday evening. ¨ We have family in our home nations. The news that was arriving from home was triggering us all a great deal of worry and grief. For us, it was a stroke of all the best to be where we were.”

The 58- year-old Payá, a sports writer taking a trip with his wife, said when news started to reach the boat of the fast spread of the coronavirus in their native Spain, their first desire was to get home to their 2 grown children in their home town of Valencia.

However with ports rejecting the boat entry, they have had to temper their interest in the features on board.

Unlike other cruise liner that suffered outbreaks and were typically put in quarantine to secure port cities, the Deliziosa has actually found no cases of the COVID-19 virus, according to its owner, Italian cruise business Costa Crociere. So the boat’s 1,831 guests were free to use the ship’s centers and entertainments.

Payá stated that the ship, which set sail from Venice in early January, stopped making ports of call after leaving western Australia last month. Overall, he applauded the ship’s captain and crew for their care.

He said the passengers’ last possibility to touch land was in Perth, where they docked after “70 wonderful days” of crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

” Obviously, for those of us who have kids in Spain, we would have preferred to return,” Payá stated. “Other guests, on the other hand, provided their old age wished to remain on board understanding that the boat was safe and safe.”

A company representative said a traveler left the ship previously in the week in Marsala, Sicily, for health concerns and had a COVID-19 test, which was negative.

The Deliziosa, a nearly 300- meter (1,000- foot) vessel, will disembark 168 Spanish travelers on Monday at Barcelona’s port. The Deliziosa will head to its final location, Genoa, Italy, where it is expected to let off the remaining passengers, Italians and those of other nationalities, on Wednesday. The Deliziosa was originally due to return to Venice on April 26.

French authorities had rebuffed a demand by Costa for consent to disembark numerous hundred travelers from France and neighboring nations at Marseilles. “The health circumstance on board the ships, with 1,814 visitors and 898 members of the team, doesn’t present any problem for public health and no case of COVID-19,” Costa’s declaration said.

While people infected with the coronavirus frequently experience moderate or moderate signs, possible problems like pneumonia can put their lives at threat.

Traveler Jean-Pierre Escarras, from Marseilles, shot a video of their cabin that their children shared on social media networks, in which he states: “This is our place of confinement. We are fortunate to have a window.”

The couple stated after a drop in Sydney, the ship’s activities were “lowered or sometimes canceled. We haven’t been able to get out on land since March 14– that’s 34 days.”

Passengers stated ports in Oman, along the Suez Canal, along with in the Seychelles and Indian Ocean ports, refused to let the ship dock.

The business said, since the ship is Italian-flagged, it followed Italian preventive procedures in the pandemic, including social distancing between visitors, restricting the variety of individuals who could go into food areas at any one time, and transmitting entertainment to cabin Television Set.

A French female whose in-laws are aboard the Deliziosa garnered about 100 signatures on an online petition to urge the French federal government to step in to get them home.

The regional administration for Bouches-du-Rhone in southern France mentioned an across the country ban on permitting foreign cruise ships to dock, as part of France’s virus confinement procedures. Italy has likewise disallowed foreign cruise ships as it fights the infection break out.

The French administration given exemptions to six other cruise liner in current weeks to enable French travelers to get off, but declined this time, saying the previous stops overstretched local cops and health authorities already mobilized to eliminate France’s extreme virus crisis.

Last month, 2 other Costa cruise ships pulled into Italian ports, consisting of one that earlier had passengers who tested favorable for COVID-19 prior to being disembarked in France.

It is unclear if or where the travelers who was because of lastly step on land after weeks of cruising aboard the Deliziosa would be quarantined.

What is clear is that Payá and the other guests are going back to a new truth of house confinement, face masks and worry.

” The return home will suggest an extreme modification, a harsh one,” Payá said on Sunday after loading his bags prior to investing his last night on the Deliziosa.

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Angela Charlton reported from Paris. Frances D’Emilio reported from Rome. Colleen Barry contributed from Soave, Italy.

Contact us at editors@time.com