Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of ‘pandemic theater’ going on in the cruise industry right now. I’m hoping that all the bullshit will diminish as the vaccines prove themselves further against the ever revolving stable of variants and the anti-covid meds become widely available. Once covid becomes similar to a cold in health consequences–and it’s basically already there for vaxxed and booster people–then there’s no reason for all the testing and masking. Just require the crew and all the passengers to be fully-vaxxed and boosted and be done with it.

Two three-weekers in that part of the world sounds bloody lovely. Goes without saying that everything’s crossed for your travel plans – for everyone’s travel plans! – and you’re certainly overdue these ones. It would be good to hear how those turn out when you finally make it; miss your Facebook posts there. And Crystal as well! Very fancy! Another line well outside our cruising budget. Love Asia, but never headed west from the main cruise ports there; we’ve hit Singapore and Thailand before but not the others in your itinerary, and India and Sri Lanka are definitely on our list (of course). We tried to use some cruise credit for a line that was transitioning from Asia to Europe in 2023 but none of the legs of it were short enough and we’d have ended up eating up far more annual leave in one chunk than we wanted. The bit we wanted to do included India. That credit ended up going towards a bit of Italy’s east coast and Croatia instead, but we’re on the lookout for good itineraries at sensible prices around India from 2023 onwards.

Yeah, don’t get me started on nonsensical science on cruise ships. I mentioned in the last post I put up on P&O’s Iona that the rule about wearing a mask in the huge, spacious, mostly empty theatre defied logic when you could spend hours, unmasked, nearly shoulder-to-shoulder on tables in the bar, drinking, talking, even singing at points. I get they’ve got to be careful and to be seen to be doing things, but sometimes you have to question whether they’re coming up with answers after consulting entrails.

We also have a $12k Crystal cruise credit to burn, so we’ve tentatively booked a South Asia cruise for ’24; it starts in Singapore and ends in Mumbai, hitting Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other ports in India along the way. We had to be careful to avoid ones going to Myanmar, as those tend to get canceled. We also have an Icelandair ticket credit to use up, and we are looking at hiking trips to Greenland, or maybe a self-guided trip around the Ring Road. The good thing is, we’ll be burning credits in ’23 and ’24, instead of having to splash out for trips.

My aunt is on a cruise to Norway on Hurtigruten right now. She had to jump through a million covid-hoops to go, and she and her hubby have to mask up in all public spaces on board, despite the requirements that all be fully-vaxxed and testing negative for covid before boarding. Doesn’t make any sense to me, but whatever. Don’t know how they’re managing dining, as those are all shared spaces where people will be unmasked for an hour or more. Unless all the dining is outside, or all the windows in the restaurant are open, that negates all the “protection” the mask requirement in the rest of the ship provides.

Here in the States, I think everybody is on a pill of some sort for stress, many for the first time. What with covid, the final days of the fuckcheeto regime, the Jan 6th insurrection, and the continuing political chaos, we all need something just to keep going. I guarantee you that those few Yanks who aren’t on Rx happy pills are on some other substance, legal or illegal, to cope. We’re a hot mess. I hope you and your wife feel better and that 2022 brings better things than 2021 did.