In the 80's I cruised on the SS Norway a few of times and made friends with Fred Sample the piano player and vocalist of the Fred Sample Quartet in the International room. I was really taken by the guy and his group. He could sing and play like Nat King Cole, Ray Charles and other favorites of mine. Each time I was on the ship Fred was playing and asked me to sit in on drums. It was a great feeling to be asked and a lot of fun to play with his group. Long after my last SS Norway was retired, I got a call from Fred saying he got a contract to play on a Disney ship and wanted to know if I would be interested in being in his quartet. I couldn't do it as I owned and was running a company that demanded my daily participation. Nothing else could have held me back...so I had to pass.

For the last 5 years Carol and I have taken Caribbean cruises over each Christmas week. All were very enjoyable until this past Christmas when both of us came down with, what I am sure was, a major head and chest cold. We coughed, sneezed and wheezed our way through the week quarantining ourselves in our stateroom. It was just an unfortunate happenstance, not the ships fault.

This Saturday we are to depart on a Panama Canal cruise to kind of make up for the unfortunate Christmas cruise. Today, I got a call from the Travel Agent and an email from the cruise line saying the ship's departure Saturday would be delayed due to the need to disinfect the ship and the terminal because of a norovirus outbreak on the ship this week. According to the cruise line's email only 19 of 1900 passengers were diagnosed with the illness and SMALL NUMBER OF CREW. (An occupational hazard?)

I can't find any incidents of a second outbreak on a recently disinfected ship...soooo....off we go.

Eddie