Smooth Sailing on a Post-COVID-19 Eastern Canada Cruise, by Travel Writers

By Sharon Whitley Larsen

As several longtime friends with continuing COVID-19 concerns have been canceling recent cruises, my husband Carl and I (who have not yet had COVID-19 — knock on wood! — and are fully boosted) just completed our fourth cruise within a year.

Our friends had second thoughts after hearing horror stories from others. One, following a back-to-back Mediterranean cruise, came down with COVID-19 in May and had to quarantine at a London hotel for 12 days. Still testing positive — and with COVID-19 tests at that time necessary to enter the United States via air travel — her husband canceled their return flight to San Diego and rebooked via Mexico City and Tijuana — where they walked across the U.S. border and caught a ride home. Another friend was quarantined in a tiny porthole cabin for 10 days in May on a cruise from Miami to Montreal after testing positive.

But that didn’t discourage us. In October 2021 we took our first cruise since 2019, from our San Diego hometown to San Francisco, Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico, on the Celebrity Millennium for eight nights with only 950 passengers (capacity 2,400). This past April we booked a 12-night Hurtigruten Expedition inaugural British Isles cruise from Dover, England, with only 222 passengers (capacity 500), including only 17 Americans. Passengers had to wear masks except for outdoors or in the dining room, where our temperature was taken each evening prior to seating. In August we did a…