2020: The ultimate eye test—Did we see clearly, or were we blinded by the chaos?
2020 Vision
What a year. We waited for 2020 to bring perfect vision. Nobody predicted masks, handwashing, social distance, grounded cruise fleets, cancelled itineraries, and the strange new art of finding movement inside a world that had stopped.
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 would be seeing and doing this year: washing their hands, wearing a mask, and social distancing because of the global pandemic.
How We Adapted
The itinerary collapsed. The instinct to keep moving did not.
Started with Christmas and New Year sailaways on Disney Cruise Line in the Eastern and Western Caribbean. The last of the normal times.
Then COVID hit, and travel changed forever. Cruise fleets came to a grinding halt. Norwegian Fjords, the Baltics, Alaska’s Glacier Bay: cancelled.
Do not give up the ship, or the goal of taking a vacation. We got resourceful, resilient, and drove long distances in automobiles.
Finished the year on Britain’s most remote inhabited island, population 45, taking physical distancing to the nth degree.
The Year Became a Field Report
Three acts: sea, road, island. Same rule throughout: do the next best thing.
That’s WY
Planning a road trip now was like trying to build an airplane while flying one. Three days later I rolled up on the Grand Tetons. I had sailed the seven seas and visited every imaginable port of call, but being double-land locked was a first.
The Far Edge
Think Norway meets Hawaiian islands, and Father Time and Mother Nature have a field day. No man is an island, but north of the border you can live on one. We chose the ultimate social distance.
The Last Normal Sailaway
When it comes to Disney royalty, you cannot get much cooler than Elsa and Anna. Frozen 2 had the year’s takeaway before the year knew it needed one: when under pressure, do the next best thing.
Sea, Road, Island
A compact reel from the year the map got rewritten.
Six Windows from the Year
The moving record: Yellowstone, Fair Isle, remote island life, Shetland, Frozen 2, and fireworks at sea.
The Posts Became Breadcrumbs
Follow the 2020 pandemic travel adventures through the trip reports below. Instagram embeds can be dropped into this section if you want the original social record inside the page.
A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Pandemic Year
The archive of movement: month by month, from the last normal cruise to the far edge of Fair Isle.
The Adventure Did Not Stop. It Got More Creative.
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 does not stop for a pandemic. It changes form.
We did not give up the ship. We adapted, explored, and proved that the human spirit of adventure finds a way, even in the most challenging times.