Cruising after the COVID pandemic

 BACK TO CRUISING - OCTOBER 2021

          I am very happy to report that after a 2 year hiatus, we were able to get back out on a cruise ship. The COVID pandemic hit almost 2 years ago and shut down the cruising industry and along with it, my one true means of stress relief.

          It had been two years since our last vacation, so my wife and I decided to take back to back cruises this year. We started with a 6 day Carnival cruise that took us to Half Moon Cay, San Juan (originally scheduled to be Grand Turk) and Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. We followed that by sailing on the newest cruise line, Virgin Voyages, for 5 days with stops in Cozumel and Bimini (private Bahama Island).

          With COVID issues still hanging around a lot of people are scared to get back on a ship and, I was a little nervous about returning myself. The industry as a whole has done a lot to help prevent the spread of COVID with reduced capacity, vaccinations and pre testing requirements, new air filtration systems, hourly cleaning and sanitizing of all public areas, limited buffets, social distancing and mask wearing are all part of the steps taken to help cruisers feel safe to travel again.

          While I won’t say everything was back to normal, it was still a very nice vacation and opportunity to get away from regular life for a while. Yes there was some mask wearing, indoors and around the food service areas, but you did not have to wear them outside on the balconies, anytime while eating or drinking, at the pools or hot tubs, nor on the open decks, which is where we spent most of our time. A few of the normal activities were canceled or changed to provide social distancing but most went on just as they did prior to the outbreak. The cruise lines are following CDC guidelines and have 95 – 100% of the passengers required to be vaccinated, which also means that there are fewer children on the ships right now (good or bad). Also, both of the ships we sailed on were just a little under 50% full which helped a lot with being able to get into venues without standing in lines or fighting for seats or lounge chairs by the pools.

          I am happy to report that neither ship had a COVID outbreak and, both my wife and I have returned happy and healthy. It’s been a long time coming, but I think we have turned the corner and as Carnival likes to say, “Welcome back to Cruising!”