Traveling on a Cruise Ship – The Daily, May 10, 2020

Not a cruise ship, just a little boat off the coast of Barbados on a cloudy day

I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. – Albert Einstein

Travel has obviously been affected by the pandemic. Even if you wanted to go somewhere, there are very few places to go. But in an attempt to save some money and get back to a sense of normalcy, people are flocking to book cruises with Carnival starting in August of this year.

Carnival saw an increase of 600% in bookings in the three days after announcing this week that they would be sailing in August. It makes sense, because there were probably no bookings before the announcement, but it’s also an increase of 300% in bookings compared to the same time last year. Again, not a surprise because most people wouldn’t have any summer travel plans booked at this time so are looking to find a deal.

So, if you are looking ahead and thinking that a trip would be nice this summer, just make sure that travel insurance is available or that refunds are guaranteed by the company selling the trip. Also, Mercury goes retrograde from July 7th to August 1st so that might not be the best time to be on the move.

Sweden’s Gamble – It will be interesting to see in about two years from now when we can look back and analyze things, how the decision by Sweden not to close down the economy while keeping schools open and allowing people to go to restaurants and bars ended up working. Right now the decision doesn’t look that good, with Sweden having over 3000 deaths attributed to the virus compared to its neighbours of Norway (just over 200) and Finland (less than 300). Denmark has over 500 deaths, but all of these countries are considerably less than Sweden, and all of them locked down.

But after restrictions begin to lift, will Sweden enjoy an advantage in the long term? We won’t know until we know. The Swedish people are being good about social distancing, but they haven’t had to endure the widespread unemployment and economic fallout that other countries have. They are gambling with people’s lives, but in the end they may have made the right bet.

Time will tell.

Thought for the Day – Even if you are imprisoned, it is still possible to be free in your mind. That attitude is what propelled people like Nelson Mandela and Elie Wiesel to get to the other side. Learn to use your mind like the wonderful tool that it is and know that what you think is what your reality becomes. Think only of what you want.