Jan 24, 2018 3 min read

The post on social media had us all worried. When several friends embarked on a weeklong Caribbean cruise last winter, it sounded like a dream come true and we were all envious.

Then my friend posted a message saying their cruise ship was losing power. The second half of their itinerary was being canceled and they would be stuck at sea as the ship limped back to port over the next two days. To compound the misery, my friend’s husband had fallen ill during the first half of the cruise, was confined to his cabin and missed the first two ports of call.

The good news was that the cruise line was giving every passenger a free bar tab during the rest of the voyage, would refund half their fare and give them all half off a future cruise. They recently used that credit to take another cruise and, fortunately, their ship maintained power the whole time.

I was thinking of how my friend laughingly referred to that experience as their “calamity cruise” when I suggested a cruise to my boyfriend. He had never cruised and I had only been on one more than a decade ago. We had seen the reports of ships losing power, being struck with outbreaks of stomach flu or enduring some other form of calamity. We shrugged off those concerns and cheerfully booked a short jaunt for four nights – three days in different ports with no days at sea. It was December and we timed things just right to escape the first arctic air invasion of the season.

Other than a cool start, the weather was fantastic. Everything went off without a hitch, the experience was wonderful and we didn’t have any illness or catastrophe. When we got back, a friend asked if we were on those ships where everyone got sick. We later learned that two ships from our same cruise line experienced outbreaks of norovirus that same week leaving hundreds of passengers with stomach flu.

I kept thinking about our tiny yet cozy cabin and its little bathroom. What would have happened if both of us had been stricken with stomach flu at the same time? There was only one bathroom and it was definitely not big enough to hold two people.

Later, one of my boyfriend’s colleagues told us about their calamity cruise taken the same week. Her husband wound up quarantined to his cabin after eating something during a stop in Mexico. Then they rocked and rolled through an extra day at sea fighting 45 mph winds and high seas trying to make it home.

I sure loved our cruise experience but I guess we’re lucky we avoided a calamity cruise. Another cruise may be in the future sometime, but I’m pretty sure we’ll stick to land for now.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.