“We can’t wait to get back to sea,” David Abel told subscribers to his YouTube page in an early February video.
Carrying 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew, the Diamond Princess was supposed to be meandering around Asia, but things quickly changed when a passenger tested positive after leaving the boat. Operators will be required to have a lab on board for virus testing, and trips must last no more than seven days, with masks mandatory on board.
Its worldwide bookings for summer are at 60 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with winter 2021-22 at 80 percent — “not brilliant, but not catastrophic,” Pourbaix said. “For her, the photos bring back memories of a very unhappy experience… I see pictures of a unique experience, an adventure of sorts, that I have no bad feelings about,” he said.