What A Year - 2020 Vision: When Travel Changed Forever
2020 VISION
When Travel Changed Forever
What A Year!
It was the best of vibes. It was the worst of vibes. We waited for 2020 to have that perfect vision. Nobody could predict what they'd be seeing and doing this year - washing their hands, wearing a mask and social distancing because of the global pandemic.
Started with Christmas and New Years sailaways on Disney Cruise Lines in The Eastern and Western Caribbean. The last of the "normal" times.
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Then Covid hit, and travel changed forever... All cruise fleets came to a grinding halt. Norwegian Fjords, The Baltics, Alaska's Glacier Bay - all cancelled.
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"DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP" - or the goal of taking a vacation. We got resourceful, resilient, and drove long distances in automobiles.
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Finished the year on Britain's most remote inhabited island, population 45, taking physical distancing to the nth degree.
Epic Adventures
π️ Yellowstone National Park USA
"I rented a land yacht, a 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander (my protective bubble from the Covidiots) and drove from Palm Beach to Jackson Hole, WY. Planning a road trip now is like trying to build an airplane as you're flying one..."
Three days (daze) later I rolled up on The Grand Tetons. I've sailed the seven seas, and visited every imaginable port of call, but being double-land locked would be a first.
"Britain's most remote inhabited island. We flew in this morning. It feels like we are walking into a painting. Think Norway meets Hawaiian islands and Father Time and Mother Nature have a field day."
No man is an island, as John Donne wrote, but, north of the border, you can live on one. Scotland's Shetlands are good like that, with 15 inhabited ones to choose from. We chose Britain's most remote one for the ultimate social distancing.
Fair Isle Landscapes
Remote Island Life
Shetland Adventures
π’ Disney Cruise Lines - Caribbean
"New Year (January 1, 2020) in The US Virgin Islands. After a mile walk around the deck we witnessed the sun rising against the Caribbean blue ocean. Spectacular."
When it comes to Disney royalty, you can't get much cooler than Elsa and Anna. We started the evening with Frozen 2 and its takeaway: when under pressure, do the next best thing.
We had our own fireworks display to bring in the New Year. Setting things on fire on a ship? Yep!
Disney Frozen 2 Experience
New Year Fireworks at Sea
2020 Social Media Memories
Follow our 2020 pandemic travel adventures through social media
Complete 2020 Trip Reports
A comprehensive chronicle of our pandemic year adventures
From the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean to the rugged isolation of Fair Isle, from the geothermal wonders of Yellowstone to the historic white cliffs of Dover - 2020 taught us that adventure doesn't stop for a pandemic. It just gets more creative.
We didn't give up the ship. We adapted, we explored, and we proved that the human spirit of adventure finds a way - even in the most challenging times.
"What a year! Here's to 2020 vision - seeing clearly what really matters: resilience, adaptability, and never giving up on the journey."
