Seven weeks ago Sydney actor Drew Fairley boarded the Pacific Explorer to work on a six-week theatre-cabaret show while the ship cruised up and down Australia's eastern coast.

On Tuesday, he watched as the ship docked in Manila, in the Philippines, readying to allow some of the more than 800 staff and crew to be repatriated to countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. After 49 days on-board, Fairley still has no idea where he is going and when he might be able to return home.

"Things are just a little absurd," he says. "Nothing has been normal for a long time."

Without passengers since March 16, and at sea since being ordered by NSW authorities to leave Sydney's White Bay on April 2, the Pacific Explorer has become a strange and creative new home for Fairley. Between roaming the empty decks, dining rooms and lounge areas, and staring out the two portholes in his cabin, he began a daily one-man, cabin-based chat show called Actual Cabin Actual Fever, via his Instagram account, @droozah.