In February we were on one of the last sailings of the Carnival Victory. A Dream Class ship, constructed in 1998. As with all ships, it is now on its way to dry dock for renovations. But this is not your typical dry dock upgrade.
Victory is undergoing a major renovation and will be renamed Radiance. Our recent cruise was meaningful on many levels. We were joined by a friend from Germany that we met on the Carnival Glory in 2017. Just another reason we love to cruise. You meet interesting people and develop new friends.
We met Birgit and her daughter Jana on a dolphin encounter. We enjoyed doing things together the rest of the week and stayed in touch with email and Facebook. The next year they joined us for a fun filled week in Las Vegas. Last summer Birgit contacted me and said, “We need to go on another cruise”. Well, you don’t need to ask us twice, so by the end of the day we had booked this cruise.
This cruise took us to Key West and Cozumel. Key West holds a special place in our hearts since that was where we went on our honeymoon 48 years ago. Not only a beautiful city but a fun one to walk or bike around. Birgit owns a major bike store in Germany so this was a natural way for us to enjoy the city. We found a rental place and she properly adjusted the seat for me. Turns out all my life I had been riding bikes with the seat positioned incorrectly. Helps to have an expert around!
We enjoyed a three hour ride ride around the city, stoping at many beautiful areas to enjoy the scenery. Later that day as we set sail for Cozumel, we discovered a stowaway. A dove took up residence on our deck. Since we had side by side cabins we were able to get the partition between our decks open, giving us a larger deck area to enjoy. Our new friend seemed content to hang out there all the way to Cozumel. After returning from an enjoyable visit to Cozumel we returned to find our friend had flown away. Perhaps he had family he wished to visit in Mexico and didn’t want to fly.
We first visited Cozumel 38 years ago. The local population has increased tenfold since then. Not the sleepy little port that we first found, but still a beautiful and enjoyable day. We always take a taxi into San Miguel and enjoy lunch at one of the many restaurants in the city center.
Our next day was a Sea Day where we relaxed on the Serenity Deck and enjoyed the warm weather for our last full day on Victory. It was very windy but the large lounge chairs provided comfort and protection of our beverages.
While the pandemic has put the entire cruise industry on hold, we continue to be optimistic about future sailings. Radiance is scheduled to begin sailing out of California in late 2021. We had a cruise scheduled for August of 2020 cancelled, we moved it to September and then to January 2021. It appears this latest one will not take place.
Many have asked if we would ever feel comfortable cruising again in light of the pandemic. Yes we would. All vacation venues are being forced to alter the way they do business. It will be different once cruise lines are allowed to start back on a limited and new format. And once a vaccine is available it may well take a couple of years to get back to normal, but this is the world we now have.
Our hope is that our family, friends and followers remain safe, healthy and find new ways to have their own Deck Chair Journeys.