Shifting Gears: Inside the cruise ships stranded in the coronavirus pandemic

Happy Friday and welcome to Shifting Gears, Business Insider's weekly round up of all things transportation (or at least what's left of it).

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Most of the world's cruise lines are in a temporary shut down and in a holding pattern on federal aid that may or may not come but not all of the boats are parked.

As my colleague ine Caine reports, some ships are still circling the globe looking for ports to disembark their passengers, some of whom are sick with the highly contagious COVID-19 coronavirus.

Some 1,250 passengers finally disembarked from two Holland America ships Florida on Thursday, ending a three-week saga that has sickened 250 guests and crew members. Four passengers have died. Everyone is expected to be off the ship by Friday night.

In one instance, New York City marketer Brian Foran begged his parents not to board the Zaandam ship on March 7. They went anyway, and he told his story to Jimmy Im.

Since March 22 the day after the cruises were set to end all of the passengers have been self-isolating in their staterooms. (Yikes). And the healthy of those passengers, 311 of whom are American, will be taken to Port Everglades airport for charter flights under a plan developed by the state of Florida. They'll fly to Toronto, Atlanta, San Francisco, Paris, Frankfurt, and London.

It's possible the two boats could be the last cruises to set sail for a bit, as boats remained docked for the time being.

I was anti-cruise before this whole debacle, and have to wonder: who is going to cruise again, and how soon? That's something on the companies' minds too, I'm sure. Let me know when you'll be stepping on a cruise ship.

In other reading, there's no shortage of repurposed vessels and devastating car crashes to fill the void this weekend. Here are some more reads from the team: