Tamilu’s travels in the age of Covid

Many moons ago, when my husband and I got married, we went on a cruise for our honeymoon, and we fell in love with the sea. I immediately came home, signed up for Travel Agent school, and chose that to be my career. I love to travel, and I love to help other people dream up and plan their own adventures. 

On February 29, 2020, my husband, BFF, and I boarded the beautiful Carnival Magic and embarked on what we thought would be a grand adventure. We had stops in the ports of St. Maarten, San Juan, Tortola, and Grand Turk. We vaguely heard about a new virus coming along, but as of the time we got on the ship, there were less than a dozen cases in the U.S., according to the nightly news. 

The first few days on the ship were precisely what we had dreamt of – sparkling turquoise Caribbean seas, enormous rum-filled drinks served with paper umbrellas, steel drum music, and raucous laughter. Eating multi-course meals and experiencing exciting adventures in port, like accidentally ending up at a nudist colony in St. Maarten by picking the wrong cab driver. (That’s a blog for another day.)

Tortola was one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever seen, and when we hit San Juan, we toured the glorious church San Juan Batista and then stumbled upon a charming little Puerto Rican bar where we drank too much and laughed too loud. It was a thoroughly delightful day.

Then we set sail for Grand Turk, and we were very excited about it because it was our one actual beach day! It was the day of our cruise where we planned to lay on the beach at Margaritaville, soak in all of the Caribbean goodness, and relax from the challenging 2019 we had all had. All of us leaving California, moving across the country, trying to find new jobs, and watching our lives shift in ways we hadn’t imagined. This trip was our reward to ourselves for surviving heartbreak and loss.

The day we left San Juan, there were rumblings on the ship. People had watched the news and saw that other cruise ships had been infected with Covid and could not debark. 

We arrived in Grand Turk and were already dressed for the beach. Bathing studs on, a bag of snorkels and sunscreen and were ready to roll. The cruise director came over the P.A. system, and we were giddy because we thought he was going to say, “Welcome to Grand Turk! Have a lovely-jubbly day at the beach!” (Because he kept saying Lovely-Jubbly…) But instead, he said, “We are having some issues with customs. Hang tight, and I will update you when we know more. We sat in our cabin, afraid to leave in case the announcement came through. We went out on our private balcony and stared at the beach we would be on at ***any minute***! 

But- alas, we sat in the port all day, and no one would let us off the ship because a few people on our cruise had reported flu-like symptoms, and Grand Turk was unwilling to rick Covid on their island. At the time, I didn’t get it. I was indignant! How dare they reject us! But now, obviously, they made the right call. Here’s an article with more info should you be interested.

We turned around, set back out to sea, and noticed a significant change. We no longer could serve ourselves at the buffet- there were servers to help you. When we went into the casino, as soon as you stopped up from a slot machine, someone came and wiped down the seat and the slot machine handle with disinfectant. All of a sudden, the ship tightened up, and people with mops and disinfectants were marching like an army behind you wherever you went. 

We started to panic. Would we be allowed off the ship when we arrived back in Miami? Would we be like those other port seafarers stuck on their ship for days, unable to leave? To be honest, at first, that didn’t seem like such a terrible thing. We had a lovely cabin with a private balcony, and I was traveling with two people I adore, my husband and my bestie, so I probably could have lasted like a day or two locked in a room with them before the fighting broke out. Ha.

We arrived back in port, there was a brief delay with debarkation because apparently one of our fellow cruise passengers decided to try and smuggle some weed back from the islands, and the DEA escorted her off the ship with her illegal ganja. But after that, smooth sailing- other than the fact that my BFF and I packed too many bags, we were unable to walk them through the terminal, and they had to go outside and get a porter tome in and help us because the other passengers were yelling at us for holding up the line. Geez., I had to bring both beach attire and evening gowns, guys; chill!

We drove home, and the next day my BFF was told she was not allowed to go back to work because she had traveled outside of the U.S. I was starting a new job. I worked exactly two days in the office before the office was closed down, and we were sent to work from home. Everything went on lockdown. When we were whooping it up in Old San Juan, we had NO idea it would be the last place we would have fun for a year and a half. All other travel plans were canceled and discarded. All other road trip daydreams squashed. As the virus burned its way worldwide, the travel industry was brought to a complete stop. – To be continued!