Our 7-day Norwegian Pride of American cruise through the Hawaiian Islands ended yesterday. We had not traveled for 27 months, so the escape was adventurous, considering the state of this pandemic, and a bit stressful, because of COVID-19. However, it was supremely enjoyable, especially when we tested negative on our return home to 15 Craigside. For those considering a cruise in the near future, perhaps these thoughts can be useful, especially if you decide on the Pride of America.- When all the tips and taxes are added, we paid nearly $600/person/day. I thought this was rather high for the type of ship, services and accomplishments, especially as we took no tours.
- If we can later cut this price down to $400/person/day, including drinks, internet and tours, that would be something to consider. When I went as a single on a previous cruise a few years ago I paid only $350/day. This was with a wine package, internet and a tour on each island.
- I gained four pounds, and another I know must have grown at least that much, for she ate and drank twice as much as I did. This is not quite an exaggeration.
The timing was terrible to take a chance on something like a cruise, where we could have been stuck on a ship with a thousand other passengers, plus staff. The thought of another Diamond Princess incident weighed heavily.
Nothing was officially said, but we were told by staff that there was a prevailing red alert, meaning that there a relatively high number of COVID-19 cases. - However, checking the CDC cruise ship page, I see an orange color for the Pride of America, which means that positive cases have been tested, and the CDC will be investigating. Of course, almost all cruise ships these days carry that color.
- Not that this is really all that important, but Hawaii is effectively on red alert, and 15 Craigside, as of today, has 7 residents and 8 staff on active-COVID status. A startling 34 employees have recovered from being infected, and the latest indication is that we can't anymore prevent this virus, so we are in a mitigation mode, meaning that some staffers who are currently testing positive are working if they are asymptomatic. As scary as that sounds, what else can they do if there is a severe staffing shortage, and, since we're all double-boosted, the odds are high that no one will die. I know of no resident or staff who has passed away. The long haul potential, though, is a serious concern.
- I should mention that the day we left for the cruise, a close neighbor was quarantined in his room, and so were 15 other rooms in the building. I saw no quarantined rooms on the ship.
How badly is Hawaii faring? To quote from my May 26 posting:
- Hawaii, though, is getting worse and worse, as we are up to more than a 1000 new cases/day, and on the past seven-day average had 911 new cases/million/day. Frighteningly enough, there is speculation that the new cases/day will continue to rise and peak at 4000 new cases some time in June. If this turns out to be true, Hawaii would then be at 3644/million population, right up there with where North Korea and Taiwan are today,
The Pride of America has a capacity of 2600 passengers. Only a little over 1000 were on board, plus staff. The reason why it was so low was because Norwegian cannot find enough qualified/certified workers.- Their French restaurant, Jefferson's Bistro, was excellent. We even went back a second time to have their escargots and endive salad.
More than half of the restaurants never even opened.- Because the drinks were unlimited, we overdid this. Mind you, these were not exactly free, for we had to pay a 20% tip plus state tax. In other words, for a $15 scotch, we were docked around $4. Any beverage over $15 meant that you also paid the difference over $15, plus additional tax and tip. The wines were good, and we particularly liked the Conundrum by Caymus. Each glass cost $10, while the bottle was priced at $39. You can find this in Honolulu for around $20.
While I particularly enjoyed the departures and arrivals, I spent almost the entire trip in my room, so as to avoid others. Never went to the exercise facility for the same reason. No Netflix. No major league baseball. No UH Rainbow sports games. The channels were limited pretty much to MSNBC, films (for which there is no printed schedule) and ESPN, which mostly showed boring stuff. We did go out for meals a few times, but mostly ate in our room. I slept a lot.
As my camera could not link to my computer, I only used my iPhone shots for my daily blog. However, I kept taking photos on my Sony, and ended up with 120 of them. Here they are chronologically, beginning in Honolulu and ending at 15 Craigside.
You say, too much beef and alcohol? Yup. Got back safely to 15 Craigside, though, where, after testing negative, we shopped and had chicken katsu plus ahi poke for lunch, while watching sumo.
Why did we take a chance on a cruise? We are running out of time and...
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