The cruise that wasn’t, or travel attempts in 2020. Back in March, when the world was shutting down for 4 to 6 weeks to “flatten the curve”; Norwegian Cruise Line was offering reasonable fares and all their perks to encourage booking. Since my wife and I were looking at cruising with Norwegian for an Alaska cruise in 2022, we decided to book a 5-night cruise in December. (We have booked the Alaska cruise, along with 5 other couples) This would allow us an opportunity to see how Norwegian differed from other lines with which we have cruised and provide a vacation to look forward to, since we had nothing else planned for the year. Certainly, in 10 months’ time this whole pandemic would be over, and the world will be back to normal. I reached out to my friends and family and we booked three cabins for three couples. I spent the next 4 months following the prices, getting the best deal possible; planning excursions for our port stops and selecting in which specialty restaurants we wanted to book dinners.

About the middle of June, it became apparent that a backup plan might be needed. Since we already had airfare to Miami, we planned for several nights in Key Largo and a final night on South Beach in Miami before we came home. This would still give us a week in the warmth and sunshine; diving, fishing and sitting on the beach. Another 3 months of excursion planning and finding restaurants ensued. One of the other couples found a deal to fly to Sint Maarten from Miami; roundtrip with 2 nights hotel for $750 per couple; and suggested we add this to our plan. Quickly the plan became a full week in Sint Maarten; the beach resort there was half the price of the Holiday Inn in Key Largo which more than covered the increase in airfare. Hotels, rental cars and flights were cancelled and booked anew. We also admitted defeat and cancelled the cruise. Our deposits were promptly returned.

While researching our stay in St. Maarten and talking with friends we added two new couples but lost one of the original couples. I continued to monitor the cruise cancellations and various refund/credits being given and felt slight vindication when December cruising was actually (finally) cancelled. Having only been to St. Maarten as a one-day cruise stop, there was lots of research into activities, restaurants, night life and shopping. I found several SXM forums and websites, started watching the weather forecasts (Hurricane season!) and plans formed. All the bookings had a 24-hour full refund policy which allowed anyone who couldn’t get to SXM not to suffer added financial loss, in addition to the disappointment of not traveling. I helped one of the couples reschedule their flights when they were cancelled with no notice, changed routing for the other three couples when Silver canceled our flight off the island, so Delta had us traveling for 36 hours.

With just a couple of weeks until departure Covid hit our group hard. Every couple had either a member of their household test positive or the couple tested positive. There was a death of one parent as well as hospitalization of the other partners parent, so the couple who originally suggested SXM had to cancel. In the final week before departure another couple cancelled due to Covid. There was great concern over getting tested, getting results in a timely manner, and getting pre-approval from the government of St. Maarten. Five days prior to departure, we began to get tested, two of the four of us used CVS (different cities). We had three of the four results back within 55 hours. The St. Maarten application process was easy, though I did have to submit three times because my original test results didn’t have the laboratory address. Response time for the preapproval was three hours or less (if you don’t receive an email confirming your submission resubmit the entire application). Now there is a flurry of packing and final preparations as we count down for Saturday departure. Thanks to this group for the many insights and detailed explanations!

Good luck. Lots of hoops to jump through with any travel today.

Hi Dave. Welcome to TTOL!

I have added some paragraphs to your note to make it more easy to read.

Glad it looks like you are finally on your way! Enjoy! And please do post a report when you can.

Thanks, Carol!
I have been watching the board for several months, as we prepared for our trip. I appreciate the edit.