The author, pictured in front of the Carnival Vista.
For 16 months, not a single Carnival Cruise ship departed from the US.
That changed on July 3 when the Carnival Vista ship departed from Galveston, Texas, and made stops in Mahogany Bay, Honduras; Belize; and Cozumel, Mexico.
About 2,700 passengers were aboard the 15-deck ship. According to the company, 95% of its passengers and 98% of the crew were vaccinated.
I was one of those vaccinated passengers, and spent the next seven nights discovering the ways cruising has and hasn't changed for travelers in the name of journalism.
Admittedly, much of the experience felt the same, but there were still some changes. Here are the biggest differences passengers saw aboard the ship.