In May we boarded the Queen Elizabeth for a cruise from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco. Only after we embarked did we discover that there were active cases of Covid on board. Mask wearing was poor, social distancing weak and, worst of all there was no control of passenger and crew freely exploring each port of call. In sharp contrast to a cruise, on the same ship, which we took in October 2021 where, not only were there effective Covid controls on board, but leaving the ship was only allowed on tightly supervised, curated tours.

In an attempt to control the spread, periodic mass antigen testing was undertaken but with continual reinfection at every port the inevitable happened until there were literally hundreds confined to their cabins in enforced isolation.

My wife tested positive at one of these occasions and was marched to an isolation cabin. No further testing would be done until the fifth day and if that was positive then isolation continued up to the next test at eleven days. Read more