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Monday 19 October 2020

I should be somewhere in the English Channel ...

... but the cruise Sue and I were supposed to have started yesterday was cancelled just days after we had paid for it. (We are still waiting for a refund, but that is a different story.)

P&O's MV Arcadia.

The cruise aboard the MV Arcadia was going to the Eastern Mediterranean, and should have visited:

  • Malaga, Spain (Thursday 22nd September)
  • Messina, Sicily, Italy (Sunday 25th September)
  • Rhodes, Greece (Tuesday 27th September)
  • Heraklion, Crete, Greece (Wednesday 28th September)
  • Athens, Greece (Thursday 29th September)
  • Gythion (the port for Sparta), Greece (Friday 30th September)
  • Gibraltar (Tuesday 3rd October)

There were four destinations on this list that we had not visited before, and we are very disappointed that we have been able to go on this cruise, especially as this was the fifth cruise that has been cancelled since the beginning of the pandemic.

We have some cruises booked for 2021 ... but whether or not they will take place is down to how soon the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic begin to diminish.

6 comments:

  1. Hi BOB,
    Certainly you have missed out on a great ocean cruise to the Mediteranian- we'll keep our fingers crossed for next year. My Chris was going on a cruise to New Zealand last month though it was cancelled long ago due to Covid-19. We've cruised to New Caladonia, New Zealand and Tasmania - would like to go again- nothing better than an Ocean Cruise. Stay well there. Regards. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kev Robertson (Kev),

      Cruising is the BEST way to travel! A moving hotel room, everything that you might want to eat available for twenty-four hours a day, free shows and talks, and you get to visit loads of places and meet lots of interesting people ... and plenty of time to relax if you want to.

      We would love to travel to Australia and New Zealand ... but I somehow think that if we do, it will be quite some time before we manage it.

      Stay safe and stay well,

      Bob

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  2. I wonder if we will feel safe to cruise again? This episode shows exactly how difficult it is to maintain good sanitation practices aboard a crowded ship. While not cruises, we have cancelled two overseas trips scheduled during the pandemic as well as several domestic trips. We have yet to book anything for 2021. Hopefully one day, the world can return to a near normal situation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jonathan Freitag,

      Because we have taken to booking suites for our cruises, we know that it is easier to distance ourselves from the other passengers if necessary ... but although P&O have plans to ensure that their ships are COVID-secure, I’m glad that we haven’t gone. It only takes one person to become infected, and the whole cruise could end up being ruined for everyone else. (We’ve experienced something like this on a cruise where we had an outbreak of Norovirus.)

      I’m not expecting things to get significantly better much before the middle of 2021 ... and that COVID will become something we will have to learn to live with for the foreseeable future.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  3. Bad luck Bob. We also like cruising and we're disappointed to miss our planned Black Sea cruise. It is so popular that we had to book it two years in advance, but we've moved it to late 2021 so fingers crossed.

    Hopefully the oceans will be safe to sail again at some point next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Martin Rapier,

      We have wanted to go to the Black Sea for some years, but P&O have not been going there since fighting started in the Ukraine. Hopefully they will return there before we get too old to enjoy cruising!

      All the best,

      Bob

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