By Nancy Dorrans
If you read my article last month, you know that I spent the holidays a bit differently this season. Along with my father, sister, and her family from Ohio, we stepped out of our comfort zone and went on a four-night cruise leaving from Miami the day after Christmas. This adventure was my father’s idea, one of his travel dreams. It was quite a journey…
Ready for a Holiday Change-Up
Everything was different. Instead of a feast of seven fishes, he and I went for our Covid tests on Christmas Eve. He didn’t have a valid passport, but I was assured by the cruise line that his original birth certificate with the raised seal and his government issued photo ID would be sufficient.
Our PCR tests were negative, but when I asked for an electronic copy of the results the woman at the clinic in Tennessee said, “I’m sorry honey, we’re swampt. Ya’ll have to come pick them up!” We were already in Miami. Oye. Luckily, I had a paper copy of our negative rapid test which was accepted along with my father’s birth certificate. Needless to say, I was relieved and gave my brother-in-law a high five when we finally rolled my dad onto the ship.
Clean Cruisin’ on the Celebrity Summit
My dad is 88. He’s been quite healthy, but back pain has slowed him down. He swallowed some pride and agreed to ride in a wheelchair through the airports and onto and around our ship. The Celebrity Summit is almost one thousand feet long with twelve decks! The staff was courteous, and the ship was very clean with rules posted everywhere on how to follow the strict Covid protocols!
We found our adjacent cabins, chatted to each other from our balconies, hung out on the sun deck, and tried our luck at the lunch buffet and the casino! The weather was perfect! We wined and dined in a variety of restaurants and lounges. My sister and nieces and I signed up for a watercolor workshop. I went to the fitness center for yoga. There’s something special about a yoga class on the bow of a ship, with a view the sea and the faint outline of the mountains of Cuba in the distance! So far so good!
Our one port of call was on the third day in Costa Maya, Mexico. Once a quaint fishing village, Costa Maya is now an extension of the cruise ships. The long pier brings you to the stepping off point for a variety of shore excursions. While my sister and her family went to discover the mystery of a Mayan ruin, my father and I rolled around the “village,” window shopping and looking for the tequila museum.
On a Folding Chair Outside the ER
The next day my dad wasn’t feeling well and slept till lunch time. When I checked in on him, he was weak and disoriented. We called the cruise ship medical team, and they made a code call for the first responders to come to his cabin. Turns out he was quite dehydrated and had dangerously low sodium levels. Luckily, it was not Covid related! Later I overheard another passenger say that their waiter left in the middle of taking their lunch order when the code call came over the intercom.
My dad spent that last night in the ship’s clinic. Although it was quite frightening at the time, I was very impressed by the doctors and the level of professional medical services on board. We docked in Miami before dawn and he and I were the first two off the ship. We rode in an ambulance to the University of Miami Hospital.
It was 6 a.m. on another beautiful day and I was sitting in a folding chair outside the emergency entrance with our luggage. When I think about this experience it seems surreal. No visitors were allowed in the hospital. My sister and her family wanted to stay but they also had to get home. We were all so far out of our comfort zone!
Home and on the Mend
As stressful as this journey was, the good news is my dad is home and slowly recovering. He spent five nights in the hospital in Miami. My older sister drove down from Tennessee to bring us back. We spent New Year’s Eve and more wandering the streets of Miami! I stayed an extra two weeks in Tennessee before flying back to the jetport on one of the coldest days of the new year.
I’m grateful for this new year. I’m grateful to have helped my father fulfill one of his travel dreams, and that he was and remains in good hands and on the mend. Also, I’m grateful for my love of travel and adventurous spirit. And I’m hopeful that this new year will bring more travel dreams to life.
Travel revitalizes the soul and opens our eyes to fresh new perspectives. Getting away from it all is our first step. Nothing takes our minds off the everyday like dreaming of the next adventure.
My father and I agree, our next adventure will not be a cruise!
Nancy Dorrans is a professional travel expert and founded Adventure Marketplace in 2014.
