For three years now I managed to avoid the virus like, well, like the plague, but finally I succumbed in January when I finally lost my “NOVID” status, so prized amongst my friends and family.
I, like others, had cancelled cruises and trips over the past couple of years through fear of catching a microbe that seems to have held the world to ransom, and now feel almost a sense of relief and freedom, that fear for me, finally in the past - for now - until the next time at least.
So what does one do, that first day of testing negative? Why … book a cruise of course.
So ten days after holding that all important negative test, I boarded Cunard's Queen Victoria in San Francisco.
Ahhhh the Queen Victoria, my home away from home, my happy place; I have missed you so.
This is her first world cruise since that fateful trip in 2020 - the one that we joke about now - but at the time, with the virus chasing us all around South America and across the Atlantic, wasn’t so funny.
100 years ago the first commercial “world cruise” took place. Cunard’s Laconia embarked on a cruise for the sake of a cruise with no other purpose than tourism - as opposed to a voyage of emigration, or as a means to transport yourself from point A to B with purpose.
This voyage would take her passengers from New York to New York and points in between, just for the sake of pleasure. To end the trip from a different direction than it began, a journey of some 50,000 miles.
In 1923 she departed to visit 20 ports and sail for 130 days with a complement of 450 passengers. The cruise had been advertised as a “Voyage of science and discovery for the more adventurous passenger”. It would go to far and exotic ports: the Panama Canal; Honolulu; the Philippines; Bombay; the Suez Canal; and back home via the Mediterranean.
This year the Queen Victoria is following her original route with a few additional ports thrown in for good measure, including Auckland and Sydney, and I am joining her for this celebratory recreation.
Anyone who has been through an airport recently will know that travelling has changed since 2020, and cruising is no exception. Some cruise lines now insist on proof of a negative test the day before boarding, and most demand passengers be fully vaccinated and boostered.
Cunard is no exception and we are warned that during the journey, masks and protocols may be re-introduced at any moment should the virus begin to take hold on board and appropriate insurance must be held to cover any Covid-19 medical expenses.
I was to discover in San Francisco that tourism is booming and there are few masks to be seen on the streets. Those I did see seemed to be worn by the city’s homeless, who are over-represented in the city’s parks.
Bars and restaurants are crowded and apart from the few signs on shops and doorways proclaiming “100% vaccinated” or “Masks not mandatory”, life for America seems to be carrying on just as before.
The cruise industry is desperate for people to perceive it as having returned to “normal” as in the tourist cities of the world. It was hit hard by the pandemic and a number of lines have gone to the wall in the interim; Carnival, who owns Cunard, spent billions propping themselves up in order to avoid suffering the fate of those on less solid ground and are desperate to get cruising back online and to full capacity as quickly and as soon as possible.
But it is so good to be back on the old girl. The last time I saw the Queen Victoria was through weepy eyes for the fate of the crew and officers of my favourite ship and what an unknown future might bring. But now most of her original crew are re-employed and we, the usual suspects, are back on again for another world cruise.
So it was amongst the familiar faces of my “Cunard family” that we departed the City of Love on a beautiful, clear night. Under the Golden Gate Bridge, the sea lions barked us farewell from the rocks and the sound of the tolling sea bell that marks the entrance to the harbour receded into the distance as we proceeded on our Pacific route towards home.
“Put her to sea,” I imagine the Captain saying to the First Officer, “let’s stretch her legs.” (ROSS THORBY)
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