Day 9-BA5 takes the lead

Boarded the Norwegian Escape today!!!

6/30/22. Thursday

9:00-10:30-I’m awake so I shower and put on one of my new dresses - an olive-green, halter-top, calf-length dress with daisies on it. Light make-up and I finish most of my packing.

10:30-11:00-I go downstairs to the buffet and Mom and Mary are already there so I make a plate and sit next to them. Mom mentions that she slept 15 hours last night and didn’t bother with dinner; Mary says that she and Steve returned to the same restaurant we went to the night before (around 9:00 pm) and had a great dinner. She said there were more people at the restaurant than the night before, on account of some upcoming bank holiday, and the restaurant was very lively. I typically cannot sleep more than 4 hours at a clip and, other than a Lara bar, I’ve had nothing to eat for almost 24 hours, but the buffet is amazing. This restaurant also has great coffee.

11:00-12:00-I finish packing and L. is finally up and getting ready. I read With Teeth while she packs and we officially check out and head to the lobby.

12:00-1:30- The car arrives and drives us to the port of Civitavecchia, Italy, where we get in line with our luggage to board Norwegian’s “Escape” which, until very recently, had been in “dry-dock” for repairs. In fact, as a family, we weren’t sure until two weeks before the Escape set sail that we’d even be able to go on this cruise, due to the dry-dock issues. Mary, however, was on the Norwegian Escape Facebook group and has been monitoring the repair status for weeks.

1:30-3:00- I’ve taken many cruises and boarding is typically a structured, although chaotic, experience. In light of Covid, I’m curious about Norwegian protocol. Recall that in the early stages of Covid-19, surgical masks and N95s were impossible to find, but within months, high-brow corporations were somehow able to procure masks for their employees. There’s a famous clip I remember from the 3rd or 4th month of the pandemic: a reporter employed with a national TV station, in full PPE garb, to include gloves and a mask, is interviewing a RN at a hospital overflowing with Covid patients. In contrast to the reporter, the RN is wearing a garbage bag over her scrubs with holes cut out for her head and hands - this is the extent of the RN’s PPE. The RN asks the reporter where he got the PPE clothes, but he is non-committal.

Norwegian is a high-end cruise line. I’m assuming most cruises excel in Covid safety because we don’t hear about cruise outbreaks anymore - somehow, the cruise-line industry has got this figured out. L.’s Dad has been cruising for a full year now and there have been no Covid clusters on any of his ships. Clearly, the cruise lines have mastered the “bubble effect”, similar to the 3 months the NBA spent in the “bubble” at Disney World, when they started playing again - none of the players got Covid. I wonder what policies and procedures Norwegian has in place for it’s cruise lines? It turns out…none.

There must be between 3500 to 4000 people on this ship and we are all moving steadily, like cattle, to the check-in kiosks, similar to standing in line at a theme park although the line to board the Escape is faster than the line outside the Star Wars Bar at Disneyland.

My family reaches the kiosk and L. shows the employee our negative antigen tests, our vax cards, and our passports. The employee wants a credit card attached to each room but Steve and Mary cagily don’t provide theirs. Turns out, Mary doesn’t register their credit card to the room until Day 6 and that’s only because their cruse key card was perpetually declined whenever they tried to use it throughout the ship.

As a “Covid scholar” I know that having a negative PCR test is basically worthless because a PCR test won’t register a Covid infection until Day 3 or 4 of infection...sometimes Day 5. For example, we know that everyone on the ship has tested negative due to Norwegian’s rules. However, potentially infected ship-goers may only be at Day 1 or 2 of their infection when they test, which means they could have full-blown Covid by the third or fourth day of the cruise. Likewise, being vaxed and boosted, which is what Norwegian requires, is also useless because you can still contract AND transmit the disease. What is the point of being vaxed and boosted when you still have the potential to infect others or get sick yourself? Because these TWO precautions are so ineffectual, I’m expecting a strict masking policy on board the ship, BUT am absolutely shocked to find there is no mask mandate! None!! How on earth does Norwegian plan to keep this ship Covid free? Especially in light of all the port-o-calls we’ll be visiting? It’s a certainty that at least one of us, if not all of us, will get Covid at some point during the cruise because BA5 is incredibly transmissible. Oh. my. God.

3:00-4:00- We board the ship and go straight to our cabins where our luggage has already arrived. L. and my cabin is incredible!! Spacious, the shower is roomy, and we have a balcony. I actually like it better than our hotel room. We spend time unpacking and I’m tired, having not slept well last night at all. The cruise director announces that we have to report to our assembly stations - noted on the back of our key cards, in accordance with International Maritime Law and US Coastguard Regulations. L. and I are supposed to report to the Atrium for our assembly station.

Our phone is ringing but we don’t answer because we’re unpacking. A few minutes later, Mom arrives. S. and M. are not in their room and Mom can’t reach them. This will be a recurring theme throughout the entire trip. In fact, S. and M. refuse to spend the money to buy the extra WiFi package and for the entirety of the trip will do their damndest to stretch their allotted 250 minutes for the next 10 days. As a result, we won’t be able to contact S. and M. throughout most of the trip and they won’t be able to contact us, other than the cryptic handwritten notes M. leaves for my Mom in the box outside Mom’s cabin.

L. and I and Mom head for the Atrium because that’s where our assembly station is located. As we walk through the throngs of people, none of them are masked EXCEPT, strangely, the staff, who NEVER ONCE take their masks off or even allow their masks to slip below their noses for the next 8 days -it’s remarkable. When we arrive at the requisite station, the employee scans our cards and we’re done.

-We run into S. and M. and we all decide to go to the buffet to grab something to eat. Incredibly, in such a short period of time, S. and M. have managed to find O’Sheehans Bar and Grill and order pretzel balls and beers.

-We take the elevator to the Garden Buffet and M. puts her mask on, which I fully support. I also wear my mask in elevators. My brother mockingly says that M. is terrified of catching Covid and my Mom says that she’s not going to worry about it. I say to my brother If M. feels more comfortable wearing a mask then let her wear a mask.

4:00-5:00-After the buffet, M. suggests we get a tour of the spa and I’m game. It appears that M. has done her homework and seems to know everything this ship has to offer, including what shows are running and which restaurants are complimentary with regard to our dining packages. M. spent many hours/days/weeks researching the food and entertainment options prior to our vacation, including studying the Facebook posts from people who went on the last cruise. M. also seems intimately familiar with the spa and in a stroke of genius and the best thing M. did for us this entire trip, M. requests individual spa passes for each of us. L. and I will visit this spa separately and together for the entire trip and entry is granted largely due to M.’s wonderful idea that we get spa passes.

-After the spa tour, S. and M. disappear. Except for dinner, two shows, and our excursions, we don’t see them for the next 10 days.

-All of us agree to have dinner at 7:00 at Savor, one of the complimentary restaurants in our dining package. It won’t don on me until Day 5 that, in an effort to spend none of their own money on this trip, S. and M. will continue to dine only at ”Savor” and/or “Taste”, two of the three complimentary restaurants in our dining package, for the next 8 days. Let me repeat that: the same two restaurants for 8 days. Note that there are eight other restaurants on board…but they’re not free, so we don’t go.

-During dinner, my brother launches into an imitation of some British?? news anchor, complete with expletives, and it. is. hysterical. I can’t stop laughing while people at the surrounding tables are staring at him.

-9:00-11:00- We return to our cabins and I’m exhausted - my internal time clock is ‘off.’ The TV in our cabin only shows pre-selected movies, none of which are good, so I get ready for bed and read With Teeth. We’re at sea tomorrow so no excursions and we can sleep in. There’s no point in calling First American tonight about my air conditioner because my work order request was elevated to the Claims Dept. and there’s a 24-hour processing period.

11:00-12:00 - Nighttime routine. Bed.