March 16, 2020

BARBEDOS

Today’s stop at Bridge Town Barbedos is a go. By 8:30 we were all cleared to go on land. There are currently no cases of the virus on the island. There were 3 cruise ships already anchored in port and 1 anchored off shore. Apparently the German government was sending 3 charter planes to pick up stranded cruise passengers from that country. Some German and other nationalities were also leaving from our ship earlier than planned to fly home. We and our Minnesota friends decided to the rent a taxi for 3 hours and explore the island. We went all over, churches, old neighborhoods and also showed us the house where Rihanna grew up in. He then took us to the neighborhood he lived in, we sat outside a small store and had some rum with the locals. After some more cross country driving we ended up back at the ship. All and all a great day. It helped a lot that the locals spoke English. Not so sure about driving on the left side of the road.

This morning at breakfast I talked to some ladies from Vancouver and they told me about a direct flight from Lauderdale to Vancouver with Air Transat. I managed to book 2 seats. This will get us back to Canada quicker. I didn’t cancel my Phoenix flights yet, just in case. After we got back on the ship this afternoon,  the captain came on the intercom and informed us that he made the decision to cancel tomorrow’s stop in the granadines and we were also denied entry into the Dominican Republic. Apparently there were cases of the virus on both islands . Now we were heading straight for Fort Lauderdale, 2 days earlier than planned. This means changing flight reservations again.  I was lucky because Transat was also scheduled to fly on  Friday, the day we arrive in Lauderdale. Still didn’t cancel my Phoenix flights in case. Apparently our European passengers were not to land back in the USA after the 18th, this caused a problem for them as we planned to land on the 20th. The cruise line managed to get special permission for them till the 20th. Basically they managed to get that permission because they had been away from Europe for over 14 days. Let’s hope we can stick to this schedule.

Cheers

“South America ” “Cruising ” “Virus “