I was all set back on March 14, 2020, on the Carnival Freedom. I had an 8-day eastern Caribbean itinerary and I was so excited.
Then the rumors started in March that cruises were going to be canceled. All of the news about COVID-19 seemed overblown to me after we’d had scares over the years for various diseases that were going to take over the U.S. and none had.
I was a little nervous, but my fears were diminished when I got a call from Carnival the day before with an opportunity to upgrade for not much money to a suite. Awesome, I made the upgrade.
Other people were canceling, but I was going to go on that cruise. I had everything packed and ready, Faster to the Fun (FTTF) was all set, and I had 50 or so ducks with little tags to hide around the ship.
Then at about 7:00 PM on March 13, 2020, I saw a Tweet from President Trump…
At my request, effective midnight tonight, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC have all agreed to suspend outbound cruises for thirty days. It is a great and important industry – it will be kept that way!
I hadn’t heard anything from my Personal Vacation Planner at Carnival, so I touched base right away. He responded quickly and said he hadn’t heard anything official yet.
Then I heard all cruises had been suspended for a month. I was devastated.
It seemed like things would clear up in a month or so. But as well all know they didn’t.
I eventually got a refund and wanted to sail as soon as I could.
Finally, I’ve booked my first cruise since 2019 on the Carnival Breeze for 5 nights out of Galveston. I’ve done this route a handful of times before, but I can’t wait to experience it all over again, because there were times I thought I may never cruise again.