Pandemic Cruising
Boy, it felt great to be back at sea! Cruising is back, with a lot of special protocols, that will hopefully help it to continue. We passengers have surely missed it, and many of the crew have not had jobs for 16 or more months. Needless to say, many were as thrilled to be back to work as we were to be cruising! We cruised on MSC Divina, 7 nights, and Carnival Horizon 8 nights. Both companies had health and safety protocols, but they varied in their approaches. For both companies, all crew are vaccinated and go through a quarantine period before going into service. In fact, we discovered portions of Divina decks blocked off for crew getting ready to onboard, as well as rooms set aside for passengers or crew who might get sick (hopefully not!). One crew member we talked to described his quarantine period, where he was housed in a passenger balcony cabin, with his meals brought to him. He enjoyed being in the balcony but got a little bored. Crew also have to be masked a...