Rant #2,821: Beyond the Sea

Today, I am going to try to not talk about the coronavirus directly, but somehow, it is going to worm its way into what I am going to talk about on this winter Thursday.
 
And yes, I say the word “winter” purposely, because my mind is truly on the summer.
 
This summer, my family and I are supposed to go on a cruise with some other family members, but with the pandemic still around, who knows if we are actually going to go.
 
The cruise industry has been one of the hardest hit of all the industries when it comes to the past two pandemic years, as these floating cities have been found to also be Petri dishes for just about every illness to fester, and that includes COVID.
 
These cruise lines were shut down for months while protocols were developed so that they could operate, but even with the most stringent rules in place for any business, they still operate in something of their own black hole.
 
Inoculations and testing is the only way you can get on these ships, and once you are on them, further protocols have been put into place so that all guests and ship employees are protected … but that does not mean that they are 100 percent virus free—they aren’t by a long shot.
 
I read the other day that one cruise line was proclaiming that their ships were 94 percent virus free, but the problem is that that means six out of 100 people are coming on the boat without the virus—you can’t even get on the ship if you have the virus, of course—and somehow, they are picking up the virus while sailing.
 
Cruise lines have cut down on the number of people that are on their ships, so we are talking about at the very least several dozen people on board each of these ships who has contacted the virus while on these boats.
 
And let’s say that you are OK, as 94 percent of the people supposedly are. It appears that you have to go through some type of testing while on the ship, and if you want to get off the ship and do some excursions, there is more testing to be done.

And the excursions themselves are being called "bubble excursus," and that could mean just about anything related to that word "bubble."
 
And back to the testing ... I am confused right now as to who pays for all of this testing, which makes the situation even worse.
 
We have all heard of ships being turned away from different ports because the ports simply don’t want people to leave these ships and infect their own people. The Bahamas has turned away numerous cruise ships because of this, and they have not been the only ports turning away these boats.
 
And then we have the ship itself.
 
With all the protocols put in to thwart the virus, will one still be able to move around the ship like one did in the past?
 
Will you be able to go to the pool, have a drink, shop in the retail area, play basketball, and pretty much do what you want to do, when you want to do it, on these ships with all the safety protocols up and running?
 
So what is supposed to be “the ultimate vacation” is beginning to turn into potentially “the ultimate nightmare,” so whatever plans we had—and mind you, this cruise has already been postponed a few times—are completely and totally up in the air.
 
A lot of our final decision will have to do with continued safety protocols that will shape the voyage.
 
Once the CDC decides that “full vaccination” means three shots—including the “booster”—and not two shots, that adds another layer of protection against the virus, but it also might put some people into a dither, as they begrudgingly got the first two shots and do not want to get a third shot.
 
But again, as I said yesterday, whether we like it or not, no one cares that you don’t want to get a third shot, and if you have to get one to get on board, then that is the way it is.
 
Personally, my son and I will get our third shots probably in February or early March, when he becomes eligible to get the booster, and my wife can’t get her booster until the summer, or right before we had planned on going on our cruise.
 
The three of us will most probably get the booster cruise or no cruise, but you just know that the CDC is going to go the three-shot route in due time … and yes, a fourth shot is probably around the corner, too.
 
So my family and those we are supposed to be going with are all in a pickle now. We have to make a final payment soon, and we simply do not know what to do.
 
Personally, I think my family and I can handle all the protocols put before us by the cruise line we are using, but that being said, if we do cruise this summer, it will certainly be a cruise unlike any other cruise we have ever taken.
 
Is it worth it?
 
I simply do not know at this point in time.
 
August seems a long way off, things could change, but it really isn’t that far off.
 
Bon Voyage?
 
“Gone Voyage” is more like it.