Somewhere at Sea

Thursday April 5th 2018

Yesterday we were blessed with a beautiful sunrise, yet today a hazy horizon was all we got.

Lately I have been wanting to write about the people we are cruising with as passengers. In all of our years of cruising, we have never been blessed to cruise with so many different ethnic origins.

Checking with the front office folks I was amazed to learn that just about every national language in the world is “spoken here”. Although the majority is held by the North

Americans and “Australians, we seem to be the most subdued when we are out and about throughout the ship. Since the cruise from Hong Kong to Vancouver is made up of 14 day segments, the passenger manifest changes every two weeks. This affords people from Asian countries to travel as family and friends groups, thus allowing conversations to be less subdued, whereas folks from North America and Australia/New Zealand mainly travel as singles or couples and conversations are “light”. This is just one man’s opinion.

Okay, okay, the word has been spread on cruise critic concerning the ship being in “Red Alert” status because apparently someone/s boarded the ship in Shanghai sporting the “Noro-vrius” ! We are fine.

The crew is having to work twice as hard, as sanitation is the key to mitigating this illness, which entails continual wipe downs of all horizontal and “touchy” surfaces.

Since this is an “all hands” evolution, every department has been charged with some sort of involvement. Most surprising are the folks from the Spa and Security departments manning the manual hand sanitizers at every entrance to the Lido Dining-room, as well as folks from entertainment manning the coffee mess.

As I write this, the Vessel Master broadcast a ship wide announcement to the effect that the incidents of this very contagious virus are on the decline. It is his hope that we can get back to normal before the end of the cruise.

I feel that part of the reason for the initial spread is the frustrating habit that some people still have of coughing and sneezing into their hands, and avoiding the sanitizing dispensers.

Travel can be contagious in more ways than one.

Jack W Cummings – Far East Adventure 2018