CRUISE WITHDRAWAL

 My wife and I took our first cruise on board Carnival Cruise Lines flagship TSS Festivale in May of 1980. We then took a break to raise our three kids, vacation at numerous parks like Disneyland and Disney World, Busch Gardens Old Country, etc. Even after the kids were grown up and on their own, we did not return to cruising, opting instead for vacations in the Florida Panhandle where we eventually purchased a vacation home. That vacation home became our permanent home in 1998 and we just enjoyed the beaches of the Panhandle until 2003.

We then started traveling to the UK for a few years from 2003 to 2006 before we returned in 2007 to ocean cruising on Carnival. This past year (2020) we finally reached Carnival's Diamond level in their loyalty program just before the "pandemic" hit the world thanks to the CCP and WHO.

This image is from that last cruise on Carnival Legend in February 2020. The captain, Alessandro Galotto, is seen here talking with one of his bar crew while visiting with a guest couple that he knew quite well.

What I like about this image is the several layers of interaction between the captain and the bartender and the husband and wife seated across from him.

In the time since the cruise industry has been shutdown in the States, my wife and I have had six bookings cancelled by Carnival and looks like we may lose three more that are scheduled over a two-week period beginning May 1. Hopefully the cruise industry will get back into operation before they all go bankrupt.