The couple had booked a 'trip of a lifetime' with their family, but it turned out to be 'an absolute nightmare', after they tested positive for COVID.

Hilary Furniaux and her husband, John, who live in Stebbens Way, Heybridge, had hoped to visit family in San Francisco for eight days, but only managed four. Hilary's 78-year-old aunt believed this would be her last chance to visit her sister, who is also elderly and can no longer travel.

The couple paid a total of £5,000 for the voyage aboard Cunard's Queen Elizabeth ship, while Hilary's aunt had to pay £5,000 as she was a single traveller.

They were due to sail across the Atlantic to South America, then through the Panama Canal and up to San Francisco, where the family was supposed to disembark.

Signs that the cruise hadn't been well organised became apparent before the couple even set foot on the ship at Southampton, on May 2.

Hilary told Nub News: "We all had to take a COVID test before boarding, so we queued up for two or three hours.

"There were no toilet facilities, nor any chairs available. Bear in mind most passengers were in their mid-seventies to mid-eighties.

"There were no refreshments, not even water stations for people.

"We spoke to people who got on the ship in Fort Lauderdale who hadn't been tested."

Three weeks into the cruise, on May 22, Hilary and John tested positive for COVID. However, they weren't told until after they had been in close contact with family and other passengers, in the restaurants and pools.

Hilary said: "We were tested every week, generally on the Sunday, and it was kind of common knowledge if your name was called out on the Tannoy, you knew you had COVID.

"We went back to our cabin at 7pm to get ready for dinner.

"My phone rang, and it was the medical centre. They said, 'You've tested positive'. It was such a shock and we were upset."

Unsure why their names hadn't been called out on the PA system earlier, Hilary discovered it was because so many passengers had been infected that management didn't want the other passengers to panic.

Hilary and John were moved to a cabin in a cordoned-off part of the ship, to isolate.

Hilary continued: "That week really was the week from hell.

"We were trapped in that room for eight days."

To make matters worse, Hilary says she and her husband struggled to access necessities such as drinking water.

She said: "I was forced to beg every single day. It was an absolute nightmare. We just kept phoning reception or room service and it was often engaged.

"I can't tell you how bad the situation was. I was asking for water, and they'd say, 'well, if we give you a bottle of water, we've got to charge you for it'.

"One day, I phoned six times before I heard someone walking down the corridor. So, I opened the door to this poor young waiter. I asked 'can we have some water? We are desperate.'

"We had gone hours without water."

Shortly afterwards, Hilary's elderly aunt tested positive, and was forced to isolate in a room on her own. Hilary says staff did not make any attempt to check her aunt's welfare, leaving it to family and friends she had made during their voyage.

Hilary said: "She was terrified, so worried. And she was vulnerable."

At one stage, 300 of the Queen Elizabeth's one thousand passengers were infected with COVID, although none of them are believed to have been seriously ill.

On May 30, Hilary and her family were told they would have to disembark at Long Beach, Los Angeles, two days before the end of their cruise and nearly 400 miles from their destination.

After another 'week from hell' spent in a nearby hotel, the family made their own arrangements to fly to San Francisco from Los Angeles. They spent just four days with their relatives, instead of the week they had hoped for.

Cunard paid for a taxi to take the couple home to Heybridge from Heathrow Airport, which Hilary believes could have cost nearly £300.

She said: "I put in a ten-page complaint. We want a full refund and compensation for the way we were treated, it was so diabolical."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Cunard told the Daily Telegraph: "As we continue to see Covid-19 cases around the world, a number of guests who tested positive, and their close contacts, left Queen Elizabeth last month when the ship called in at Los Angeles to continue their required isolation periods ashore."

Those guests were fully supported. Cunard arranged and covered costs of the time ashore and travel home, and provided them with Future Cruise Credit, said the spokesperson.

"To all guests who left Queen Elizabeth early, we're sorry that their cruise did not end in the way that they, or we, would have wanted."

Following her ordeal, Hilary said: "Our diabolical cruise made today's Daily Telegraph and rightly so.

"We have heard absolutely nothing regarding our complaints, from Cunard. I think they hope we will all go away, but this appears to be gathering momentum - there were over 300 of us in quarantine 'treated like lepers'."