Day 21: Victoria

Today our increasingly “sick ship” caught up with me. I had had head cold symptoms a couple of days ago, but they passed quickly and I thought that perhaps all the measures I’ve taken to boost my immunity since getting sick on the Regal have paid off. It’s been a concerted effort- planning and documenting all my food and working with a nutritionist to supplement where necessary- just trying to prepare myself to take this cruise. 

However, starting late last night I could feel something coming on. When I woke up today I knew from the way my teeth, face and ear hurt that it was a massive sinus infection. I got dressed and got breakfast in Botticelli, and thank God I did. It was all I ate today. This is where not having the Plus package really hurt. I would have loved having soup throughout the day, but wasn’t willing to activate Ocean Now to get it. 

G offered to bring me anything, but I instead snagged a couple of fries off of the burger he brought back to the cabin for himself (the first food that’s been eaten in our cabin all cruise…we don’t usually like doing that, and hate leaving dishes for it steward to clean up). 

Last night G went to dinner and the show alone, and I finally started on a prescription for doxycycline that my doctor has me cruise with for just such an eventuality. 🤞🏼 it works fast. 

I also flipped my mattress around head to foot while G was out of the cabin. I haven’t said much about it, but both our mattresses are horrible. Mine is sunken down the middle so much that I’ve been sleeping either smashed against the cabin wall or, when that hip gets too sore at night, I flip over and cling to the very edge of the bed. Last night (fairly sleepless) I ended up flipping around head to foot in the bed and thought that was a little better. 

Today I tried flipping the mattress entirely but the bottom is completely shot, so I did the head to foot turn. I think it’s an improvement; tonight will tell. I should have said something to our steward early on, but I really thought I could cope. However, I am walking more like Tim Conway’s little old man every day, and going to breakfast this morning could barely lift my feet. I have to somehow get well enough and flexible enough to fly home on Saturday. 

We love our cabin steward, but there have been a few misses in the cabin side of things that will get mentioned in our post-cruise survey. This ship experience has been worlds better than the one I had in April 2022 but is still falling short of what we enjoyed during our 100+ days on the Ruby in Australia in 2019-20 (perfection).   But this itinerary has more than made up for it, and I’m so glad we did this cruise.