2020

<<< 2019

Wot, No Cruising

SS Covid

Glumness Sets In

Here was to be yet another adventure of Podge (His Podgeness) & Tubbs (The Duchess) as they continued to cruise the Seven Sea and yes, we do know there actually more than seven seas.

We had actually planned two cruises for 2020, one in March on the Britannia around the Caribbean (booked March 2019) and one in August on the Iona visiting the Fjords (booked December 2018 [sic]). The Caribbean Cruise was set, in our minds, to become our annual holiday in the sun on the ship that we loved while the Fjords Cruise was to be in the new Iona and was also a birthday celebration for The Duchess: As it happened, it turned out that Gary Barlow was also scheduled to be on the same cruise in his role of Music Director for the 710 club on the same ship and as  P&O Ambassador.The Duchess was overjoyed when she heard that Gary was to be there for her birthday.

The [IT] happened. Through January and February the news was more and more about the Corona Virus (Covid19) that was sweeping the globe. Then Through February and March the news was awash with stories of Covid on board cruise ships and cruise ships not being allowed to dock in most sea ports. It didn’t take a genius  to work out that our March Cruise was starting to look in serious jeopardy.

Unrelated, but in a way, related, we took delivery a new bed in later February when one of the delivery men noticed our collection of P&O Teddy Bears:

IMG_4615

“Oh” he says, “I see you like Cruising, we’re going out to the Caribbean for a cruise next month”. Wow, we were also due to do exactly the same but it turned out he was going the week before to join the Azura while we were to be joining the Britannia. As far as I knew, he did fly out but I suspect the cruise didn’t go as planned as our cruise, along with nearly all cruises are cancelled due to the impact of Covid, government advice on cruise travel, especially for those identified as vulnerable which, His Podgeness had been confirmed as being so. So that was it, no Caribbean Cruise this year or, for the rest of the year. But, for all said and done, we were ok and remained so through all of 2020 and beyond 🙏.