Of course, we all know the story that followed. A nearly immediate “pause” in cruise operations, that soon became a situation that nearly destroyed the entire industry as we knew it. It would be 16 long months before the cruise lines finally emerged from hibernation, and it looked like things were finally becoming right with the World. Little by little, ships began to sail again, and everything was going great for a while. The new cruise protocols, which included vaccinations, testing, and masks brought the nearly defunct industry back from the brink of extinction. The rise of the omicron variant, which was considerably more transmissible than prior variants, threatened to bring cruising to a standstill once again. In the second week of January this year, I finally had my turn dealing with the dreaded Omicron… Fortunately, my bout with the virus was mild by comparison, and I ended up staying home from work for a week watching TV and eating. I didn’t have a single adult beverage for eight straight days, which is my current record for the past several years. My symptoms began with a fever and night sweats, and a terrible headache that lasted several days. I lost my sense of taste and smell, and the things that I could smell had the scent of ammonia. I still suffer from a sort of “brain fog”, which others have described, but at least I never got really sick or ended up in the hospital.