Sabins on the Sea - Day 25 - Sea Day #13
by Nina Sabin - Travel Blog
Today is just about half way through our vacation. The time has seemed long and short at the same time. Vancouver, where our vacation began, feels like a lifetime ago.
This is our first sea day from Somoa to Fiji. Thirteen sea days so far.
We have enjoyed the many perks on the cruise.
Room service most mornings is awesome. We can write in what we like, even things that are not on the menu.
We mentioned in our early blogs that we get laundry done every day. Most days we even get it back in the same day. What amazes us even more is that when they return the clothes cleaned and folded, there is also a hand written note included, thanking us for sending them our laundry.
Part of the laundry service is tagging each item with a label that has our room number on them. Too often we forget to take them off until we notice the plastic tags while wearing the clothing.
Yesterday at Samoa, we noticed that the yellow flag was not raised coming into port. A couple of days ago I shared that the yellow flag is to let the port know we are disease free.
Today, we had an announcement that there have been an increase in Covid cases. People apparently have been walking around not realizing they have Covid.
They are strongly encouraging us to wear N95 masks. It still says ‘recommended’ but we expect to go back to ‘required’ like they did from Vancouver to Honolulu for 13 days.
We are complying to wearing the mask to hopefully avoid getting sick, but really so that we do not test positive and, as a consequence, not be allowed to get off on all these really cool islands. We had the booster just before getting on the ship as those of you following us know. So we should be ok.
Our biggest concern is the upcoming ports won’t let the ship dock there for us to visit. We were the only the second ship in three years coming into Samoa yesterday. So these very small islands are concerned and rightfully so.
It is starting to feel a little like when Covid began and every tickle in your throat or sniffle, you were worried it is Covid.
We were hoping that Covid was not going to be a concern, but I guess that is not the case. What is disappointing is that everyone was tested before getting on the ship and then tested again. However, as you know, it can take up to five days after showing symptoms to test positive.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the show and graduation for the hula dancers and ukulele players. We mostly likely will be performing the hula dances for the passengers in masks.
We are arriving to Suva, Viti Levi, Fiji tomorrow evening. It is a little earlier than planned because one of the passengers needs better medical care than can be offered on the ship, but we don’t know what for.
There is another cruise ship at the port so it will still be Sunday when we can explore Suva.
Praying we stay healthy.