One Year Ago Today.

[Oakman58]

It was one year ago today our family group boarded the Epic for an 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise.  I’m not a fan of the Epic but I would give anything to safely cruise on her again.  It was toward the end of this cruise that news broke of the Corona Virus outbreak on the Diamond Princess and suddenly cleanliness took priority on the Epic.  Even in the buffet your plate was handed to you by a crewmember and food was served by the staff in the buffet lines.  It was also on this date that Kobe Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash.

 

This is a picture of the Epic when we were docked in Aruba.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Oakman58

[CroozFanatic]

anything

[MsTabbyKats]

I was on the Bliss (31-3/8).  Covid was already an issue when we boarded; bff told me my life wasn't worth a cruise.  But, we went.  Glad I didn't listen to her; it was one of our best cruises ever.

Realistically....I'm thinking 2022.

[owlgirl31]

We were on the Dawn 12 day Southern Carrib. approx 1 year today.

[Sand and Seas]

We boarded the Encore in Miami one year ago today.  It was a wonderful week!  We disembarked in Miami and spent 3 days at Miami Beach.   I'm missing that sunshine🌞

[roger001]

We were on the Dawn's next to last cruise, I believe first week of Feb last year.  Little did we know.  

[0ssie]

We were on the Joy LA to Miami Panama Canal sailing

[AllureOfVacation]

Well...not NCL, but we boarded the Westerdam (HAL) almost one year ago in Hong Kong. Little did we know what might happen in the following days!!

[Captain_Cruising]

Just stepped off the Joy for a three day post cruise stay in New Orleans after a nine day Western Caribbean cruise.  It was a rainy day so we opted to visit the WWII Museum that day.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Obviously, we had no idea of the impending COVID storm that was on the horizon.  Turned Platinum Plus as we walked down the gangplank, still waiting for the opportunity to experience Plat+.

[MsTabbyKats]

9 minutes ago, Captain_Cruising said:

Just stepped off the Joy for a three day post cruise stay in New Orleans after a nine day Western Caribbean cruise.  It was a rainy day so we opted to visit the WWII Museum that day.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Obviously, we had no idea of the impending COVID storm that was on the horizon.  Turned Platinum Plus as we walked down the gangplank, still waiting for the opportunity to experience Plat+.

Off topic, but Joy question:

Do you remember if the pool had a retractable roof?  Since it's an "Alaska" ship, I'm hoping it does.

[Captain_Cruising]

Joy does NOT have a retractable roof.  The main pool is relatively small and offset to one side (not centered) of the lido deck.  

[Two Wheels Only]

14 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Off topic, but Joy question:

Do you remember if the pool had a retractable roof?  Since it's an "Alaska" ship, I'm hoping it does.

 

 

Haven pool does. The other pools do not. 

 

Spice H2O has this...

 

 

...which is adult-only during the day. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Two Wheels Only

[MeHeartCruising]

One year ago today, 1-26-2020, I boarded the Getaway for a Western Caribbean itinerary.  Through the week, we watched on TV occasionally about the worsening situation with the virus, mostly still in China at that point (or so they thought).  It was a great vacation.  Then the world fell apart.

[njhorseman]

We were on the Gem, which was docked at the San Pedro cruise terminal in the Port of Los Angeles. 

I'll never forget that day because it's the day the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, his daughter and others crashed, killing everyone on board. As I recall the crash site wasn't all that far from San Pedro.

[Sweetnspicy]

I was on this cruise with you! We had such a blast and we are so happy this was our last trip/slice of normal life. Here was my group on the private catamaran day trip we took with 8 others from our role call. We spent half the day at the Soggy Dollar and the other half snorkeling and sight seeing. It was our favorite day out of the 11 days! 

[brookie848]

On 1/26/20, we got a phone call at 4:56 a.m. telling us that they had a kidney for my husband. As we were getting ready to go to the hospital, my husband looked at me and said "Four more weeks..." because we were scheduled for the Epic at the end of February. Of course, we would much rather have a new kidney than a cruise.

 

That cruise that we didn't go on turned into a cruise for 2021 that we didn't go on...and we're wondering if we'll end up going on the 2022.

 

And I remember hearing about Kobe Bryant while waiting for news about my husband's donor.

[Oakman58]

I'm glad your husband was able to get a new kidney brookie848 and I hope he's doing well with it.

 

When we returned from that cruise on the Epic my sister posted a trip report here on Cruise Critic that included a lot of pictures.  Here's a link to that report if anyone is interested.  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2733121-epic-so-caribbean-trip-report-jan-26-feb-6-lots-of-photos/?tab=comments#comment-59367023

 

 

[ECCruise]

We were in Cabo on the Gem the first week of a 21 day Canal sailing.

We boarded in San Francisco on the 24th and were amazed that there were still non-stop flights to and from Wuhan from SFO on that date.  

 

COVID stayed in the background until Santa Marta, Colombia a week or so later when the local officials vehemently refused us entry.  It was only after the Staff Captain, the Doctor and the HD pleaded with them to let us off that we were able to leave after around 2 hours.

All was calm from that point until NYC.  For us, it all went south a few weeks later on the Azamara Quest in the Indian Ocean where we were barred from docking at 6 different ports, refused entry at our disembarkation port (Dubai) and eventually were able to disembark in Muscat.

 

[DCGuy64]

 A year ago, I found out that a Chinese New Year celebration I was going to be participating in, was cancelled (two days beforehand) due to concerns about COVID, since some of the audience members were flying to DC from China. I sing professionally and had been working on a routine (in Chinese) for months. It was pretty upsetting, little did I know what was to come. The celebration was "rescheduled" to May and ultimately cancelled altogether. Just like almost all of 2020, LOL.

[BirdTravels]

On 1/26/2021 at 9:08 AM, MsTabbyKats said:

Off topic, but Joy question:

Do you remember if the pool had a retractable roof?  Since it's an "Alaska" ship, I'm hoping it does.

NCL ships do not have retractable roofs over their main pools. The Joy has an adult pool, family pool, and water feature in Spice H20 which are all heated. It also has hot tubs.

 

They also serve hot chowder on the pool deck. 

 

The following are from our Alaska cruise in 2019. 

[Trimone]

One year ago today.🏨 I was driving down to London Heathrow to book in our hotel, for the early flight to Miami in the morning.

12th, Landed in Miami, cab to hotel, after having shower a world leader was on TV saying it’s just the Flu.

14th, cab to NCL Joy, walked straight on being Haven, greeted by fantastic staff, fantastic room, and fantastic other passengers.

In all my years cruising the 16 day Panama cruise is without doubt the best cruise I’ve ever been on.

March 1st travelled from LA to London with no checks whatsoever.

If only we knew what the world was bringing us??

[roger001]

We boarded the Dawn in Tampa on Feb 16 last year for a 7 day.  Little did we know it would be her next to last cruise.  Darn!

[Envelope21]

On 1/26/2021 at 1:47 PM, 0ssie said:

We were on the Joy LA to Miami Panama Canal sailing

Us too. I remember hearing about the virus on the news. Toward the end of the cruise the ship began taking the usual precautions that happen when there was a Noro outbreak. We unluckily did get sick but it only lasted about 36 hours.

[life is to be happy]

On 1/26/2021 at 5:01 PM, Oakman58 said:

It was one year ago today our family group boarded the Epic for an 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise.  I’m not a fan of the Epic but I would give anything to safely cruise on her again.  It was toward the end of this cruise that news broke of the Corona Virus outbreak on the Diamond Princess and suddenly cleanliness took priority on the Epic.  Even in the buffet your plate was handed to you by a crewmember and food was served by the staff in the buffet lines.  It was also on this date that Kobe Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash.

 

This is a picture of the Epic when we were docked in Aruba.

my family and I have only been on the Epic with NCL... all out other cruises have been with Royal Caribbean... we loved the Epic... yeah the toilet/shower thing didn't really do  it for us but tbh it didn't bother us that much. However on a positive note the ship was awesome. The entertainment on that cruise was the best and most varied in all our cruises we have taken. so much to chose from which we enjoyed it all. We don't have any other NCL ships to compare it too. The only thing that puts me off booking on Epic again is that it is the same shows still  that were on it when we cruised on 2018 and although they were great, we personally like to have different shows to watch. If this changed we would book EPIC again. The customer service was also brilliant

[dcipjr]

On 2/11/2021 at 6:09 AM, Trimone said:

One year ago today.🏨 I was driving down to London Heathrow to book in our hotel, for the early flight to Miami in the morning.

12th, Landed in Miami, cab to hotel, after having shower a world leader was on TV saying it’s just the Flu.

14th, cab to NCL Joy, walked straight on being Haven, greeted by fantastic staff, fantastic room, and fantastic other passengers.

In all my years cruising the 16 day Panama cruise is without doubt the best cruise I’ve ever been on.

March 1st travelled from LA to London with no checks whatsoever.

If only we knew what the world was bringing us??

 

We were on this cruise with you—it was one of the best cruises we ever took. The itinerary was spectacular, and the weather was perfect. The Joy was a beautiful ship, too.

 

We really got it in under the wire. My wife's family is near LA, so we visited them at the conclusion of the cruise, and arrived home just days before the lockdowns went into effect. 

 

In retrospect—wow, did we got lucky. The virus was already circulating by then. It was a nearer miss than we knew at the time.