aidanht

We did not wear masks while traveling or on the ship. We discussed it at length and decided we would mask up if there was coughing, etc, around us but there was surprisingly little. Virtually no one was masked in the airport, on the plane, or on the ship. We did leave the ship on day 5 and day 6, both on ship excursions. Both involved short bus rides and were otherwise outdoors. I have learned today that my coworkers tested positive over the weekend, so I likely would’ve gotten it had I stayed home. At least I was in isolation with a nice view, I suppose.

We are just off the Equinox this morning. We tested positive on day 8 of an 11 night cruise. We reported to medical and were put on isolation for the rest of the cruise (otherwise it would have been 5 days and a negative test in isolation). We were required to stay in our cabin and were assigned a quarantine concierge, who was very helpful. We could order meals from room service, Luminae (we were in a suite) or the MDR and could also order drinks using our beverage package once we felt up to it. We had a daily call from medical to check on our symptoms and see if we needed any additional meds. This morning we were escorted off the ship away from other people, which I appreciated. We have holed up in a hotel for one additional night so that we do not fly home outside of CDC guidelines. As I know some are curious—we are fully vaccinated and boosted. We got the bivalent vax 30 days before our cruise, hoping for maximum efficacy during our cruise. I had COVID once before, in July 2022. DH had not had it before. Our symptoms were at the level of a moderate cold and lasted about 36 hours. We have no idea where/when on the ship we got it, but since it’s everywhere, we were not particularly surprised. We will be receiving a refund for the days we were in isolation. We are covering the cost of our extra hotel night and changing our flight home. I will submit a claim to our travel insurance and see what happens. We came close to canceling this cruise before final payment because of COVID fears and knew there was a risk this would happen. It was not as bad being in isolation as I had envisioned, and we did get 7 full days before we got sick, so it definitely could have been worse,

And are you in a suite or in Aqua class or neither, as that will change the answer as well.

I will be very curious to see how many apple watches I see on my upcoming cruise. I would guess at least 30%, probably more, would have them based on my experience in real life, but I know the demographics are different on an X ship than, say, my office. That said, virtually all of the people over 50 at my workplace wear one. Like I said, I will be looking onboard now.

We have been on the Edge once and S-class ships 12+ times. We are usually in a veranda cabin (aqua if it’s not too pricey) but our last two have been in Sky Suites on the Edge and the Reflection, so we can compare those cabins directly. There are many things we loved about the Edge. The ship is gorgeous. Eden is wonderful. The Sky Suite design that lets you see the ocean from the bathroom is genius. We loved the Retreat. That said, we both agreed we strongly prefer S-class overall. For us, it is mostly about our evening routine. We love going to a smaller, quieter bar for pre dinner drinks and then sitting in the Ensemble Lounge listening to live, mellow music. We really missed that on the Edge. We did not enjoy the large, loud Martini Bar area at all, although we know others love it. Our Edge cruise was still wonderful and if we didn’t already have an idea of what our cruise evenings should be like, I don’t think we’d have hesitated to go back. So go on both, have a wonderful time, and see which one suits you better.