TURN TURN TURN

February 7, 2012

Which line (from music or movie) best describes the rest of this cruise?

1.    I’m coming home.  I’ve done my time (from Tie a Yellow Ribbon).

2.    There’s just a few more hours, that’s all the time we’ve got (from My Fair Lady).

3.    Well, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into Stanley (said by Oliver Hardy)

4.    All of the above.

The Captain came on the ship wide intercom system at 7:55 this morning, and said, “Please stand by.  I will be back in 5 minutes with an important announcement.”  Bonnie and I looked at each other and said, “He’s turning around and heading back to Fort Lauderdale because of continued outbreaks of the norovirus.”  And we were right.

The last two stops, Curacao and Aruba, are cancelled and we will dock in Fort Lauderdale Thursday morning at 7 a.m.  Even after a thorough disinfection on Saturday, and approval to sail by the Centers for Disease Control, people continue to get sick (we are well).  And it’s not only passengers, the crew is getting sick as well.  So the Crown Princess is on her way back, two days early.  She’s supposed to sail again on Saturday, so they will have two full days to super clean the vessel.

Princess is taking a huge hit on this, but it shows that they care about the safety of their customers.  The full fare for the cruise will be refunded to the paying passengers (that does not include us).  All shore excursions will be refunded.  And for those who flew into Fort Lauderdale, the cruise line is changing their plane tickets and paying the change fares, and if necessary, putting people up in hotels, until they can fly.

We haven’t decided yet whether we are going to drive home in one day, or two.  But – and somebody from Macedonia, please tell Bird we’ll be there for breakfast, and I’ll make gravy.

TTFN