Circling the South Pacific

My wording rings very true today because we a truly circling the South Pacific Ocean. Six of our upcoming ports before arriving in Australia (and some of those were already replacement ports) are now closed to cruise ships due to the local officials wanting to protect their countries from Coronavirus. We are headed to Fiji for health and travel screening - our ship is still clean - are we are hopeful for 3 days there. We don’t get there until the 9th, which, unfortunately, gives them time to change their minds and close altogether.
When our captain made these announcements yesterday, he said “pardon my expression, but this is a mess”. I’m sure it’s incredibly frustrating for them and I’ll bet there are some sleepless nights as they try to work out plans A, B, C, D, E etc.
Things seem to change almost hourly. Also, a number of our future ports such as Sri Lanka are already closed indefinitely. It will be interesting to see where we will be going.

Having said that, we are having a great time!
After all, someone else is cooking, cleaning and doing our laundry. How can that be bad?
The weather is gorgeous, there is a slight swell to rock us to sleep at night and the food is fabulous.
Since today is my birthday, Jeff has arranged a special dinner of Phillipine food featuring lumpia, shrimp pancit and chicken adobo. Our room was decorated and many people have wished me a happy birthday. There are many truly interesting lectures, time to exercise, plenty of movies and time to focus on reading, and for me, making a quilt I’m working on for a new little great niece that will arrive in June.

It’s all about being flexible and recognizing that the cruise officials are doing everything they can to make it a good (and unforgettable) trip.

Anyway, more later as we continue looking for an island that we can actually visit. 😊 Until then,
you can find us happily floating in the South Pacific Ocean.Read more