Staying Healthy on Board

If you've been following this blog from the beginning, you know this isn't just our personal diary we're sharing with friends and family. It's intended to be part travel consultant, part food critic, part spiritual, part health coach, part comedian and lastly part wise old man. I think this post falls somewhere between travel consultant and health coach

Staying healthy on board is a real concern. Even before Covid, cruise ships have been infamous for fast spreading illnesses aka outbreaks. On many cruises which historically made the news due to illness, the illness was the Norovirus, which is a very contagious virus. You can get norovirus from an infected person, from contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes your stomach or intestines or both to get inflamed (acute gastroenteritis). Thankfully, that hasn't been an issue on this cruise. But we have had a different virus issue on this cruise. There's a pretty nasty chest cold I would venture to say about 5% of passengers have, including my lovely wife. It probably isn't quite that high, but because a symptom is coughing ...aka hacking up a lung, it draws attention....a lot of attention...especially since covid has turned anyone publicly coughing into a pariah.

About 5% of the ship is wearing masks consistently. Since Sydney, the percentage of Asian passengers has increased and they disproportionately seem to wear masks more than others.

Surprisingly, I haven't contracted what my wife has despite our cabin being smaller than our master bedroom closet at home. As you can imagine, there are a lot of unavoidable contamination points. She has several over the counter products we've purchased at various ports which have helped but not eradicated it. But even those passengers who got antibiotics from the infirmary are no better off than she is. It comes and goes...good days and bad.

So staying healthy on board is important and here are some things I do to decrease my risk of getting sick:

1. Drink lots of water - thankfully, bottled water and Perrier are included in our package...8/day. We go through them like......water 😉. Room service delivers them everyday. I'll miss that when the cruise is over.

2. Exercise - when your body is healthy, it's better able to fight infections. I'm exercising 1.5-2hrs per sea day. I believe raising one's body temp also helps ward off infections. It's like an intentional fever.

3. Use the sauna - also keying off the benefits of a raised body temp, the sauna helps you sweat out impurities that can hamper your bodies ability to fight an infection.

4. Handwashing and hand sanitizer - I do it several times a day, including before and after all meals and if I've gripped any handrails. Elevator buttons are pressed with my knuckles. I'm vigilant. I also opt to fist bump over hand shake.

5. I only use our stateroom bathroom. From a previous post, you'll know we upgraded our interior windowless cabin to a central location so we're never more than 500 feet away. I like that for a variety of reasons but the convenience is one of them. There's also less sway in the middle of the ship.

6. Vitamins - I take several vitamins to ensure my body has the beneficial nutrients it needs to stay healthy, regardless of my dietary choices.

7. Speaking of dietary choices, I've been eating a ton of salmon. The combo of omega-3's, selenium, and vitamins A and D are key for improving immunity, both in the short and long term. I was eating a lot of salad at the beginning from the buffet but decided to focus on cooked foods and fruits I peel. If I do get helpings of prepared fruits or salad, it's at the beginning of the meal time (6am for breakfast, 11:30 for lunch) before it has been picked over by other passengers. Or we eat in the diningroom, where passenger hygiene is less of an issue.

These aren't hard to do, especially since covid protocols have made them everyday habits and have reduced any associated stigma.

I hope you found this helpful, regardless of the length of your next cruise.

As for the day, a little work, a little workout, a little sauna time, a little hot tub time, no lunch, no cards, no gambling. Somehow the day flew by. Then at 3pm, we received great news. We won a 7-day cruise in a balcony room. Our package includes a program called Princess Prizes. It's basically gambling you have absolutely no control over and I'd never pay for it separately, but it was part of a package. Each time you access your stateroom, you get an opportunity to win something. Most times, the display screen outside our door says "Better luck next time". But we've also won lots of entries into the end of cruise drawing and $684 mostly in $25 increments....though my wife won $250 about a week ago. Today, she went to the room about 3pm and the display screen said she won a cruise for 2. Tomorrow will get more details from the concierge, but they already had us fill out a W9. So it's real. Now I'm not so disappointed about missing the darwin port.

Dinner and the show were good but nothing to take your valuable time discussing. Till tomorrow...