The Joy of Cruising Again

By Paul C. Thornton

Introduction

The Joy of Cruising was published in March 2019 shortly after a wonderful family cruise over Christmas 2018 which was briefly discussed in the culminating chapter, "Holidays." However, The Joy of Cruising was not about me and my family's cruising adventures but rather is a paean to the legion of passionate ocean cruisers worldwide. It just happened to be conceived of and written coinciding with the planning of my family's Christmas reunion cruise on the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. Nor is it a cruising guide—rather, a compendium of fun, informative cruising narratives, and profiles of cruisers who are passionate, have interesting stories and perspectives and embody the joy of cruising. Some are well-known, even celebrities—a Grammy Winner, TV Star, UK's first non-Royal, non-star performer Cruise Ship Godmother, a Poker Hall of Fame—many are "ordinary cruisers with extraordinary stories."

I long to cruise as much as these people, or to the amazing locales, or on the unique vessels as the fascinating individuals, couples, and entrepreneurs I wrote about in The Joy of Cruising. In the meantime, I got to experience cruising vicariously through them by telling their stories. I found the experience both exhilarating and humbling, and incredibly fun. Coupled with the encouragement from reader feedback, I set out to write a follow-up, More Joy of Cruising. By March 2020, interviews of another group of amazing cruisers had been done and research and writing for More Joy of Cruising was half complete when the world changed and cruising came to a virtual sudden stop. The COVID-19 pandemic was upon us, and the cruise lockdown began. Writing More Joy of Cruising was halted; joy of any kind was in short supply in early 2020 as people were stricken, and died, and COVID-19 overwhelmed healthcare systems.

After several months I restarted what had been More Joy of Cruising, renaming it Cruising Interrupted. Interspersed among the stories of fascinating cruisers were a few sagas involving cruisers who were on the ocean at the time the lockdown began; their cruise ships were directly impacted by COVID-19, and their return home was long-delayed and dramatic. "A ghost ship," said one. Cruising Interrupted was published in January 2021 at the height of the global cruising lockdown.

The Joy of Cruising Again celebrates the return of cruising from the brink. It is the end of a trilogy that marvels at the spirit of people worldwide who enjoy this wonderful pastime and persevered in the face of the pandemic that threatened to steal the collective joy of the cruise community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667890487

Book preview

BK90075708.jpg

Acknowledgments

When I set out to write The Joy of Cruising, I knew I was fascinated with the lives of passionate cruisers. I didn’t expect it to be so much fun to tell their stories. Writing a follow-up, Cruising Interrupted, was an easy decision. When I started writing The Joy of Cruising Again, the third book in the trilogy, cruising was shut down worldwide. The cruising community persevered, and I was confident cruising would come back strong. It did, with a plethora of new ships, customers with acute cabin fever, and record bookings.

Thank you for helping me to celebrate cruising’s return, and allowing me to tell the readers of The Joy of Cruising Again about you: Captain Peter Bos, Taylorsville, North Carolina; Kandes Bregman, Sea of Glamour, Scottsdale, Arizona; Ken Byrne, The Singing Maître d’, Bjelovar, Croatia; Lesley Carter, Bucket List Publications, Frisco, Texas; Steph Curnock, Cruise With Amber, Birmingham, UK; Joe Farcus, Miami, Florida; Brian Flock and Samantha Kanner, DCL Duo, Seattle, Washington; Neil Gregory, Dover, UK; Nancy and Robert Houchens, North Garden, Virginia; Nicholas Jackson, Travel With Nick, North Texas City, Texas; Mike Jason, StarVista LIVE, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania; Michael Lazaroff, Jazz Cruises, St. Louis, Missouri; Emma LeTeace, Emma Cruises, South England, UK; Sabrina Lynott-May, Sabrina at Sea, Cheltenham, UK; Iris MacBeath, Life of Iris, Middlesex, Vermont; Dave Monk, Shipmonk, East Sussex, UK; Donna K. Phillips, Pacific Grove, California; Jasmine and Richard Ramnarine, A Rich and Jazzy Life, Atlanta, Georgia; Sarah, Professor Cruise, Seattle, Washington; Benjamin Seibright, Cruising Is the Life, Nowra, Australia; Dan and Mikkel Woodruff, Sometimes Sailing, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Thank you to Toni Shoemaker, Ph.D., Fort Myers, Florida, editor of The Joy of Cruising Again; Scott Sanders, Disney Cruise Line Blog, Celebration, Florida for the gorgeous cover photo of Disney Magic against the setting of the Midnight Sun in Reykjavik, Iceland; Cheryl Thornton, my wife, and Kalen and LaKi Frazier, my grandkids: yes, I love cruising, but you all are the reason I cruise.

Dedication

For my wife Cheryl, daughters Kina and Shornay, my grandchildren Kalen and LaKi, and their dad, Kina’s husband, Lance for indulging my passion for cruising and my preoccupation with writing The Joy of Cruising Trilogy these past five years.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

—Saint Augustine

The Joy of Cruising Again

©2023 Paul C. Thornton

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

print ISBN: 978-1-66789-047-0

ebook ISBN: 978-1-66789-048-7

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Introduction

Section One: The Joy of Cruising Again

The Joy of Cruising Again

Surge

Cruising Is Back

Section Two: Ship Life

Cruise Ship Diaries

The Singing Maître D’

Life of Iris

Captain Bos

Section Three: The Fun Ships

Design On the High Seas: Joseph Farcus

Hot, Hot, Hot: Donna K. Phillips Remembers

Her Fun Ship Father

Section Four: The Cruise Communicators

Shipmonk

DCL Duo

A Rich and Jazzy Life

Section Five: Cruisers Like You and Me…Sort Of

Living On Cruise Ships

Bucket List Publications

Section Six: Cruise Bloggers, Vloggers, and Content Creators

Emma Cruises

Professor Cruise

Sometimes Sailing

Cruise With Amber

Section Seven: Cruising’s Young and Restless

Themeparkification of Cruise Ships

Cruising Is the Life

Travel With Nick

Sabrina at Sea

Section Eight: Theme Cruising: Two Passions in One

StarVista LIVE and Cruising’s Return

Jazz Cruises: The Jazz Cruise, The Smooth Jazz Cruise,

Blue Note at Sea, and Chris Botti at Sea

Bucket List Theme Cruise

About the Author

Introduction

The Joy of Cruising was published in March 2019 shortly after a wonderful family cruise over Christmas 2018 which was briefly discussed in the culminating chapter, Holidays. However, The Joy of Cruising was not about me and my family’s cruising adventures but rather is a paean to the legion of passionate ocean cruisers worldwide. It just happened to be conceived of and written coinciding with the planning of my family’s Christmas reunion cruise on the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. Nor is it a cruising guide—rather, a compendium of fun, informative cruising narratives, and profiles of cruisers who are passionate, have interesting stories and perspectives and embody the joy of cruising. Some are well-known, even celebrities—a Grammy Winner, TV Star, UK’s first non-Royal, non-star performer Cruise Ship Godmother, a Poker Hall of Famer—many are ordinary cruisers with extraordinary stories. 

I long to cruise as much as these people, or to the amazing locales, or on the unique vessels as the fascinating individuals, couples, and entrepreneurs I wrote about in The Joy of Cruising. In the meantime, I got to experience cruising vicariously through them by telling their stories. I found the experience both exhilarating and humbling, and incredibly fun. Coupled with the encouragement from reader feedback, I set out to write a follow-up, More Joy of Cruising. By March 2020, interviews of another group of amazing cruisers had been done and research and writing for More Joy of Cruising was half complete when the world changed, and cruising came to a virtual sudden stop. The COVID-19 pandemic was upon us, and the cruise lockdown began. Writing More Joy of Cruising was halted; joy of any kind was in short supply in early 2020 as people were stricken, and died, and COVID-19 overwhelmed healthcare systems.

After several months I restarted what had been More Joy of Cruising, renaming it Cruising Interrupted. Interspersed among the stories of fascinating cruisers were a few sagas involving cruisers who were on the ocean at the time the lockdown began; their cruise ships were directly impacted by COVID-19, and their return home was long-delayed and dramatic. A ghost ship, said one. Cruising Interrupted was published in January 2021 at the height of the global cruising lockdown.

The Joy of Cruising Again celebrates the return of cruising from the brink. It is the end of a trilogy that marvels at the spirit of people worldwide who enjoy this wonderful pastime and persevered in the face of the pandemic that threatened to steal the collective joy of the cruise community.

Section One:

The Joy of Cruising Again

Cruising is back! I was so tired of the hashtag we will cruise again accompanying my social media promos of The Joy of Cruising and Cruising Interrupted, which never stopped during the cruising lockdown—as futile perhaps as they were. It was wonderful when I was finally able to use #cruisingisback. Speaking of social media, it has grown and evolved substantially since my last book. Facebook is now Meta, I think. Four months before I completed this book, Twitter was acquired by the richest man in the world, and he installed himself as the Chief Executive Officer. By the time I completed The Joy of Cruising Again, he was no longer the richest man in the world, and he fired himself as Chief Executive Officer. I think.

Many of the passionate cruisers profiled now have TikTok accounts—I don’t remember that being mentioned much during the interviews for the last book. The highly visual aspect of Instagram (IG) is a perfect platform for picturesque cruising, with its ocean and tropical vistas, sunrise and sunset scenes, and of course, the photos of the magnificent floating hotels. For the first time, a couple of the cruisers I write about are exclusive to IG and it was through that platform that I met them. YouTube takes that a couple of steps further adding the dimensions of audio and video, and virtually every cruise brand has a YouTube channel.

When I started writing The Joy of Cruising Again, cruising was on hold worldwide. In the ensuing months, cruising began to wake up from its long slumber. Almost all the passionate cruisers profiled in the various sections of The Joy of Cruising, Cruising Interrupted, and The Joy of Cruising Again were on the first few cruises to depart in their country, and a number of them traveled outside their country to board cruises in countries that restarted cruising earlier than theirs. I told you they were passionate! I longed to join them. After a couple of false starts, I eventually did. The Joy of Cruising Again!

The Joy of Cruising Again

There’s never been a better time to cruise. The destinations are more welcoming than they’ve ever been, and they need tourism so badly. Also, with the lack of tourism over the past few years, a lot of places that were overrun with tourists in the past have had a chance to rejuvenate themselves for what they were known for. I’m trying to cruise as often as possible right now.

— Scott Eddy, Host, Lifetime TV, Video Globetrotter

Today January 15, 2021, I quit my job. It was unlike 25 years ago when I left the corporate sector. Then I was in my professional prime and was transitioning to becoming an entrepreneur. Now at the twilight of my career, a different albeit similarly uncertain future lies in front of me. Years ago, I marked my last day in the corporate suite by adorning my pinstripe suit and silk tie with a gold hoop earring I only wore outside of work—a tiny act of liberation and rebellion. In January 2021, I couldn’t express a symbolic I’m out of here gesture on my last day in the office because like much of the country, I’ve been working remotely for the past year. So, I celebrated privately: smile on my face, glass in one hand (okay empty glass and a bottle), and Mac in the other, I sat on my porch and started The Joy of Cruising Again. I was confident cruising was coming back—though no one knew when the pandemic was going to end. I could not move on as a writer until I penned a fitting end to The Joy of Cruising trilogy reflecting cruising’s triumphant return…whenever that might be.

The notion of writing another cruise book was straightforward. After the publication of The Joy of Cruising in 2019, I followed that up with Cruising Interrupted at the beginning of 2021, which came out in a world where cruising had been in seemingly a state of suspended animation—no cruising was happening, but you knew it was coming back eventually. Although, that was far from a sure thing during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic when the world was gripped with a raging virus for which there was no cure nor vaccine, and the cruise industry lacked a means of making revenue and was dealing with an avalanche of negative publicity.

To celebrate my feeling of liberation from the 9-to-5 world, I sat down to write. Well, I thought a lot about writing. That initial foray into my new book produced only a trickle of thoughts and words. It wasn’t like I was a fount of fun anecdotes and stories. I had not spoken to any fascinating cruisers whose story I would tell in the new book, and I had no personal reflections about my own cruises; I hadn’t cruised in almost a year-and-a-half. So, through the haze of my celebration—I only managed some scattered thoughts. I think I was more in celebration mode about starting my new life of being blissfully unemployed. After editing, well, deleting random poorly worded thoughts, not many words survived that morning on the porch. Even the book’s title—The Joy of Cruising Again, was an exercise in wishful thinking. It was what I wanted the book to be about. There was no way to know for sure when cruising would be making its return. Vaccines were just rolling out. Nevertheless, I was hopeful and longingly anticipated cruising’s return.

Through early 2021 I wanted to write about cruising’s rebirth, but it was difficult to get started in earnest. Cruising was still largely wishful thinking at that point, although the cruise lines were collaborating with a variety of advisory boards, scientists and medical experts, and governmental agencies to formulate health and safety protocols and prepare for cruising’s inevitable return. For consumers though, the continuing cruise lockdown remained a downer, and the inability to reliably plan cruises as restart dates in most countries tended to be a moving target was a constant reminder of the protracted travel slowdown. Nevertheless, cruising was showing signs of life and the cruiser community was expressing optimism. Besides, I was somewhat preoccupied. The reason I left my job in Florida was to move closer to my family in the New York area whom I had been unable to see because of the pandemic. The process of finding a new home and moving to North Carolina had been all-consuming.

Cruising was never far from the top of my mind though. We settled into our new home in June 2021, cruising was pending restarting, and we booked the cruise that was at the top of our bucket list: the Mediterranean on the yet-to-be-delivered Celebrity Beyond, for our 30th anniversary in October 2022. As wonderful as that cruise promised to be, October 2022 seemed so far away, and thinking about it did little to fill the void of cruising being at a virtual halt. Plus, I had a couple of cruises canceled in 2020 because of the no-sail order, so I couldn’t take too much comfort in having a future cruise lined up.

I constantly reflected on the state of the cruise industry and fantasized about possible cruise ships and itineraries we could book after the lockdown was lifted. I relished trying out the new cruise ships such as the oft-delayed Carnival game-changer Mardi Gras which I envisioned cruising with my granddaughter and riding Bolt, the first roller coaster at sea, or, checking out the entirely new cruise line Virgin Voyages.

Though there was not much to write about yet, I was putting together my cruise wishlist. With the population increasingly getting vaccinated, it seemed we could see beyond the days of COVID-19. I found myself smiling wistfully at the developments regarding the return of cruising. I even thought about a big family reunion Christmas 2021 cruise; a post-lockdown redux of the holiday 2018 cruise that was the climactic event in The Joy of Cruising.

Virtually all the cruise content creators I follow regularly were on the first ships to venture out in 2021 and it was fun reading their trip reports and viewing their vlogs on YouTube. At first, this feedback came mostly from the United Kingdom (UK), as the government there allowed limited cruises—UK residents on cruises stopping at domestic ports—May 2021, before the US. The first UK cruise was on May 20, on MSC Cruises new Virtuosa.

Paul Morgan and Carole Morgan-Slater, Paul and Carole Love to Travel

Getting back to cruising was the perfect tonic for us after what had been for us and everyone else on the planet a difficult two years culminating in Carole losing her much loved father, Bo.

Our first cruise back was a four-day ‘seacation’ from Southampton, England on the MSC Virtuosa in May 2021. The ship itself was spectacular and the atmosphere was quite special. Even though there were protocols in place including social distancing, mask-wearing, and a reduced capacity of around 1000 passengers, it felt like we could finally start to live our lives again. Walking onto the ship for the first time it was evident to us that this was going to be a cruise like no other, and when you looked at other passengers’ faces, it was clear that they felt the same too. We don’t mind admitting that when we sat under the stunning LED dome with our first drink in hand, a few tears were shed. This cruise will always live long in our memories, as it was the cruise that finally got the cruise ball rolling again.

There was little content from US-based cruise bloggers and YouTube vloggers during spring 2021 concerning reporting on actual cruises given the continued lockdown here. However, river cruising restarted on a limited basis in March, and some US cruise writers took advantage of cruising’s limited availability from non-US ports.

John Roberts, In The Loop Travel

The cruising comeback started in March 2021. Vaccines were just starting to be distributed more widely. Mask culture, though divisive, slowly was becoming embraced by more and more people, especially if it meant we could get back to travel and cruising. I took my first cruise after the shutdown on American Queen Voyages’ new American Countess riverboat, sailing north on the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Memphis. This was the start of new protocols designed to make cruising a safe option, allowing people to emerge from their lockdowns and loneliness. It was the first glimpse of how we would be able to find a way back to normal. Then, in March, I sailed in Alaska with UnCruise Adventures, the first cruise line to have mandates for vaccines for all crew and passengers. More cruise lines began coming back. I went on Celebrity Millennium in June, out of St. Maarten on a Caribbean cruise. Then, Greece became the hot spot, as the US remained closed to cruising. I sailed three times from Athens over the summer, with Silversea on the new Silver Moon, on the new Celebrity Apex, and with Celestyal Cruises. All three trips around the Greek islands provided much-needed fun in the sun. Passengers were getting used to ships filled to half capacity (which is kind of nice), wearing masks indoors when walking around and the testing requirements and paperwork need to travel. It all added up to a new normal that meant some hassles we had to deal with to get back to cruising and travel. 

Sheri Griffiths, CruiseTipsTV

We were lucky enough to be on the second cruise out of the Bahamas on Royal Caribbean‘s Adventure of the Seas in June 2021. It was an incredible experience. The ship was at very low capacity, and everyone was so excited to be there. Following that cruise, the vaccination requirements tightened up, and as we were traveling with an unvaccinated child, we had very limited choices. Thankfully Carnival was able to accommodate our family and we went on three Carnival cruises in 2021 and 2022. As the protocols are relaxing, we are preparing to go on a Princess cruise very soon. We’re very excited to get back to the cruise line we cruise with the most.

In late Spring 2021, the cruising industry was showing lots of signs of life, and the cruising social media community collectively breathed a sigh of relief. All the cruise lines had instituted COVID-19 cruising protocols and modifications to their policies and procedures, some mandated by the CDC or various country governing bodies, and others of their own volition. Every cruise line required adult passengers to be vaccinated. Would-be cruisers flocked to vaccination sites. The shift in the mood of the cruise forums was palpable. The cruise lines implemented a variety of protocols related to masks, vaccines, distancing and testing, and offered, first, various limited-capacity test cruises, mostly cruises to nowhere initially outside of the US—and bookings opened for 2021 cruises. In May 2021, international cruising was officially approved to return to the United States as the CDC allowed the first cruise from a US port. Celebrity Edge departed Port Everglades, FL on June 26, 2021, making it the first cruise ship sailing with passengers from a US port since the COVID-19 lockdown. Carnival, the largest US cruise line returned to cruising from the US the following week, July 3, 2021, with the Carnival Vista sailing out of Port of Galveston, TX.

Jason Leppert, Popular Cruising

On my first cruises back in 2021, we were still often wearing face coverings and physical distancing, and capacities were capped to the point of some ships feeling like veritable ghost towns. It was amazing to return to the sea (and rivers) in any form – on small ships like UnCruise Adventures or big ones like MSC Cruises – but the energy was different. The vibe was reemerging slowly, but it was subdued. Thankfully, that is all now really starting to change. The masks are off, and the guests are back in (nearly) full force. It’s high time for cruise travel to shine again and take back its rightful spot as the best way to see the world.

Perhaps the most symbolic manifestation of the restart of cruising was the launch of new cruise ships post-lockdown, and the ultimate manifestation is the emergence of an entirely new, and nontraditional cruise line, Virgin Voyages. Small vessels, expedition ships, luxury craft, traditional cruise ships, and mega-ships made their debut between summer 2021 and early 2022. Most of the launches of new ships beginning in the summer of 2021 were postponements from 2020 because of the pandemic, although some were on schedule, which meant a myriad of new ship launches in a relatively condensed period. Consequently, in the months following the restart, for cruisers, there was an abundance of riches in terms of maiden voyages. Some cruise lines sailed the first cruise of two new ships within months of each other. Notable new ships entering service in the months following the cruising shutdown were Carnival Mardi Gras; Celebrity Cruises Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Beyond; Disney Cruise Line Wish; Holland America Line (HAL) Rotterdam; MSC Cruises MSC Virtuosa and MSC Seashore; P&O Cruises Iona; Princess Cruises Enchanted Princess and Discovery Princess; Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Seas and Wonder of the Seas; Saga Cruises Spirit of Adventure; and last but most intriguing is Virgin Voyages, which marked its entrée to the cruise community with the launch of Scarlet Lady in August 2021, followed by Valiant Lady March 2022.

I’m intrigued by Virgin Voyages for several reasons, but at the top of the list is because the upstart cruise line jettisoned two modern cruising institutions—buffets and, wait for it…kids! I got into travel in the 80s at land-based all-inclusive resorts where buffets were staples; buffets at those all-inclusives were the entry drug that led me to try cruising. So, when I first heard about that aspect of Virgin Voyages, I was put off by the prospect of no buffets. That was a couple of years ago. After COVID-19, buffets are no longer as significant a part of the cruise experience for me. Virgin’s no-kids policy also gave me pause when I first heard of it. Before the pandemic, I almost always cruised with my granddaughter. And as a young adult I grew up in cruising by taking my young daughters with me. So, it’s definitely a new passenger experience for me. I am now planning to sail Virgin Voyages. I have been trying to tempt a friend to try cruising again; his one cruising experience was memorable for the wrong reasons—he did not have a good cruising experience due to kids on the ship (including from his own extended family). I sent him info on this revolutionary new cruise line, and it looks like we’ll be trying Virgin Voyages in 2023.

Heidi Sarna, Quirky Cruise

A wonderfully quirky small-ship cruise aboard a Maine Windjammer in late Sept 2021 was my first cruise back after the pandemic put a halt to cruising. I sailed aboard the 24-passenger J. & E. Riggin, a schooner built nearly a century ago as an oyster dredger. Converted to a passenger ship in the 1970s, Riggin was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1991. Cruising Maine’s beautiful Penobscot Bay was truly a getaway. I met a lot of interesting and fun people on the cruise, and I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the food was—fresh lobster steamed for us on a remote beach, wow! On my first cruise back, I appreciated something smaller and felt safer as there was so much time spent outdoors up on deck in the fresh open air.

As Fall 2021 approached, life was feeling a lot better than it had been for much of the prior year and a half. I still missed cruising and going to concerts, shows, sporting events, and movies, but things were much better than they had been in the early months of the pandemic when the healthcare environment was glum and stretched to its limits. Gone were those days of hoarding toilet paper, restaurants only offering take-out, and viewing crowd-free sports; the only source of excitement was weekend drives to Costco!

Kandes Bregman, Sea of Glamour

I returned to cruising in October 2021, for an 18-day Panama Canal cruise on Holland America Line Nieuw Amsterdam. I loved cruising at 50% occupancy; plenty of room to move around and no lines anywhere. The vibe on the ship was upbeat and joyful. The crew was so happy to be back at work, and they could not do enough to please you. Guests were also happy, smiling, and making friends. The pandemic made cruising better and I feel health and safety are better on a ship than on any other vacation. The HAL Navigator App makes everything touchless, and the lifeboat drill is now at your convenience on your cabin TV. I was so excited to be back, and we sailed eight more cruises over the next seven months!

The 2018 cruise that inspired the idea of writing The Joy of Cruising was the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas. That Anthem Christmas cruise with my wife, daughters, son-in-law, and grandchildren was wonderful—my favorite cruise to that point, doing what I love with the people I love most. So, I began planning for a post-lockdown return to cruising on Royal Caribbean’s newest ship, Odyssey of the Seas, the second Quantum Ultra-class ship, joining the Spectrum of the Seas. Odyssey, launched in June 2021, was an amplified version of Anthem of the Seas so it had many of the features we had wonderful memories of from the Christmas 2018 cruise: Holding my grown daughter’s hand in the North Star observation capsule because she was afraid of heights; RipCord by iFly skydiving simulator which this boomer did because my eight-year-old granddaughter did; and the SeaPlex sports complex with bumper cars, but of course! Plus, Odyssey had some innovations like the Sky Pad, a virtual reality headset, and a bungee trampoline activity I longed to experience with my grandkids just as we had experienced skydiving together on Anthem. Alas, due to our inability to synchronize our family members’ vaccination statuses in time, we decided the family Christmas Cruise Redux was going to have to be deferred. However, my wife and I decided we would make our post-lockdown return to cruising sailing Odyssey of the Seas on February 6, 2022. Or so we hoped…

I had been in touch with my friend Joe Church about Odyssey of the Seas. Joe is renowned for running a marathon distance, 26.2 miles on each Royal Caribbean cruise ship. I wrote about his inspirational story in The Joy of Cruising, Marathoner of the Seas, and updated it in Cruising Interrupted. (Joe’s story is continuous as 70-something Joe has said he will continue to run on each new ship Royal launches!) Joe was scheduled to be on Odyssey the week before me.

Joe Church

In mid-January 2022 Marie and I and some friends took a cruise on the Odyssey of the Seas. It was my opportunity to run my marathon distance on my 30th Royal Caribbean ship, which I did.

With COVID-19 restrictions in place, it felt a bit strange because it was almost as if we had the ship to ourselves. But we had a wonderful cruise, and we are already looking forward to our next trip, on the Wonder of the Seas in February 2023.

As the calendar beckoned a new month and a new year, January 2022, the countdown to my return to cruising reached just weeks away. For me, all countdowns to a cruise seem to move painfully slowly, but coming off a two-year hiatus from cruising and a severe case of cabin fever, I expected those weeks in January to be excruciating! I also expected them to be mad fun, planning and daydreaming about our upcoming cruise.

Surge

In November 2021, a new variant of COVID-19 which had emerged in South Africa was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO dubbed it Omicron. Within a week Omicron had spread to the United States. Initially, Omicron’s impact on cruising was relatively minor; several cruise lines suspended South African sailings, obviously a disappointment to a group of cruisers which likely included many making their post-lockdown return to cruising. Within weeks, the highly transmissible variant began to influence holiday cruises as cases on ships surged relative to before Omicron, ranging from minor annoyances and inconveniences due to staff shortages because of infections such as curtailed onboard services, limited excursions, canceled shows, and revised itineraries, to some major personal disasters such as having to quarantine on the ship—in your cabin if exposed to a positive case, and in a lesser cabin than what you booked and away from friends and family if you were positive for Covid infection.

Sadly, many on the cruise forums were divided into two camps with very strong opinions: those critical of cruise line efforts to address matters taking place on the ships and empathetic to those on holiday cruises who were complaining about their circumstances; and those staunchly defensive of the cruise line and dismissive of the cruiser’s plights. It was tough to read the give-and-take because, under normal circumstances, all the participants on cruise forums are passionate about cruising and are there to gain or share information and generally to celebrate cruising. For cruisers in general, especially those with impending bookings, it was stressful.

Then, on December 30, 2021, the cruise community felt a collective shudder. In response to the rising incidence of positive Covid cases on cruise ships, the CDC increased its advisory for cruise ship travel to Level 4—its highest. The CDC stated, It is especially important that travelers who are at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide, regardless of vaccination status.

For a few weeks, there was some fear that drastic steps would be taken in response to the Omicron surge. Thankfully, cruising did not grind to a halt as it did in spring 2020 but there were