MENTOR, Ohio (WJW) – A Christmas cruise turned into a nightmare for a local family stuck in a COVID hotel in Puerto Rico.

“The purpose of the trip was to meet up with my daughter, who is going to Ross Veterinary School in St. Kitts,” said Don Moyer, of Mentor.

It was supposed to be a magical Christmas cruise.

“We found this cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico with Royal Caribbean and the itinerary would have us at St. Kitts on Christmas Day,” said Moyer.

But that cruise turned into chaos for Moyer and his family.

“We got on the cruise, went to the first two ports, and then my daughter said at dinner she didn’t feel good,” said Moyer.

Moyer said his daughter ended up testing positive, along with Moyer and his wife.

The cruise line immediately quarantined all six people in his party on a quarantine deck until the boat returned to shore in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“So, from the 22nd on, I haven’t seen my wife or my other daughter. We were quarantined through Christmas. We were served through room service,” said Moyer.

Moyer said his family was let off the ship on December 27 and put into isolation in different rooms at a nearby hotel by the cruise line.

“They were supposed to give us paperwork on our date of quarantine and date of positive testing, but we never got any of that,” said Moyer.

So when the five days were up on the 29th, Moyer expected to be able to go home. Instead, there was confusion.

“The Puerto Rican health department has been the holdup. Their quarantine guidelines are still 10 days. It was slowed down because they didn’t get the information from Royal Caribbean on what day our quarantine started,” said Moyer.

Moyer’s situation comes as the CDC issued new guidance for cruise ships Thursday, saying avoid them, regardless of vaccination status.

“All of us had our shots, three of us had boosters. I guess you run the risk but all of us are very careful,” said Moyer.

Moyer said the CDC cleared them to travel.

After much back and forth between the cruise line, air line and Puerto Rican government, he is scheduled to come back to Northeast Ohio on January 1.

Moyer said the cruise ship is paying the family’s way back home.

FOX 8 reached out to Royal Caribbean cruise line for comment. However, our emails were not returned.