The Good, the Bad and the Random::Thoughts on the Cruise and Covid

June 2 - Epilogue

After booking this cruise I went back and forth between excitement and anxiety. I was thrilled that we were going to be traveling again after two and a half years, but by the time we left I was wishing we could cancel and stay home. 

Many of the precautions and protocols that initially gave me a sense of security had been dropped not long before we left. I was also reading numerous accounts of passengers testing positive on a cruise and being put into isolation. The reports painted a picture of ships being overwhelmed to the point of not being able to care for the sick. Once isolated, the passengers seemed to be forgotten, even to the point of struggling to get food delivered.

Had there not been such a big financial loss associated with cancelling our cruise at the last minute, we would not have gone. But we did. And as much as I hated wearing a mask on a cruise, we were very careful and masked up any time we were not in our own cabin. Also you might have noticed from the reports that we ate many meals in our room rather than around other people.

After two flights and a week long cruise around mostly unmasked people, our precautions paid off. We came home healthy. Being around people was good for me and helped me get over some of my covid anxiety. Up until this cruise we had not even eaten indoors at a restaurant.

When we got home we put the masks away. After all, we are vaccinated and doubly boosted and I felt it was finally time that we should relax just a bit. BUT now a little over three weeks since we returned from the cruise, I am sitting at my computer sniffling and sneezing as I write these words. I HAVE COVID. 

Bob began having cold symptoms a week ago and although he was sure that was all it was, I insisted he test a few days ago. Positive. I tested with him and was negative, but two days ago I retested and got a positive result. Everything feels like a normal cold to me. Not horrible, but not fun. Bob has no idea where he picked up the virus, but I can thank him for sharing it with me. 😆 

For now, we have no major travel plans for the future. Summers in Minnesota should be savored so I don’t feel the need to get away right now. But I also am not ready to book any winter trips either. With gas prices skyrocketing, even a road trip doesn’t sound like a good alternative. So…I will continue to dream and research and plan for a “someday” trip that hopefully becomes a reality sooner than later. I can only hope that by the time our next trip rolls around travel will be more like pre-pandemic times. But I seriously doubt that will be the case.  

I will end this chapter of my blog with a few random comments and thoughts from our cruise, in no particular order. The list probably skews to the negative, but overall we both came away with some good memories.

• The testing and uploading health information to three different apps made the last few days before the cruise WAY too stressful.
• Booking with a Private Sale rate was less than half of what we have paid for previous Alaska cruises. 
• We were able to apply a voucher from a canceled 2020 land trip to cover our trip insurance premiums. 
• The rainy weather was our biggest let down. Rain in Alaska is expected, but we experienced less than desirable weather all week. Oh how I would have loved to see Glacier Bay under blue skies and sunshine. 
• The wildlife wasn't as active or visible as we experienced on past cruises. Maybe it was too early in the season or just bad luck.
• We missed sailing with friends. I think we were better off alone this time, but we would like to share our cruises with friends in the future.
• I was not comfortable eating in the main dining room since the tables are so close together and the service was slow. I did miss getting to know our waiters.
• No lobster without an upcharge. 😒
• We only ate in the main dining room a couple of times, but from perusing the daily menus we noticed the nightly fruit crisps had disappeared. The delicious bread pudding WAS still available at the buffet, but you had to look for it. 
• The pea soup on Glacier Bay day was a fun touch...and delicious.
• One flight of stairs between me and free pizza was wonderful, but could be dangerous on a long cruise! 
• HAL needs to have some place to get a bite to eat in the evening. We are not night owls and it would be nice to get a bedtime snack without waiting until 10:30 pm when the buffet opens for an hour. Another reason we ate so much pizza…it is the only option available in the evenings. 
• I was not crazy about the dance show we saw in the main theater. I miss a live orchestra and singers. (But I will hold my final opinion until we have seen other shows with the new format.)
• Our room steward only serviced our room in the morning. We could have requested evening service, but we were OK with once per day. He did fill the ice bucket twice as day as I asked. Not a single towel animal all week. 
• I loved the location of our cabin just below the Lido buffet. So convenient since we ate most of our meals there. I worried about noise from the pool deck, but it was minimal.
• Out of the cruise lines we have sailed, Holland America has the best cabins. I love having a couch in the room without booking a suite.
• The HAL Navigator app gave free access to several websites for news and magazines. It was fun to discover that I could still do the daily Wordle puzzle through the free link to the New York Times.
• The port times on this cruise were less than ideal and then they were shortened even more. I was particularly irritated that we did not get any advance notice that our morning in Ketchikan had been changed. This caused a problem with our tour that we had booked independently. 
• Not a fault of HAL, but it was not fun to find out our tram excursion in Juneau was cancelled just minutes before we were ready to get off the ship.
• Our Port Valet reservation got lost. I was thankful that we were able to fix things at the last minute and it was great to not deal with our large bags when we left the ship. 
• Using Seattle Express for transportation to the ship and return to the airport was an excellent decision! Service was prompt, reasonably priced and the staff were so friendly!
• Getting on an earlier flight and getting upgraded seats made going home more enjoyable. It would have been perfect if only our luggage had joined us.
• A seven day cruise is TOO SHORT, but I think safer for now. Seems like most of the covid outbreaks I've read about were on longer cruises.

Thanks to all that have followed along with this journey. Bob is off to Peru later this month on a missions trip to the Amazon jungle but I will be staying home. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for me to start researching our next adventure!