Malta, close but no

 Almost Malta

This was a tough one.  We had to prepare electronic documents for Malta.  Turned out to be a difficult process so they ran a tutorial for the whole ship in the lounge.  We spent at least three hours figuring it out.  We succeeded, but nobody was happy.  Now we were sailing along the coast of Malta and the intercom came on and informed us that the port authorities had told the ship not to attempt a landing because of the heavy seas and wind.  Arghhh.  We wondered how our most recent passengers who joined us in Miami felt.  They have yet to land at a port they signed up for on this segment.  Malta had been an appealing addition to the itinerary.  We were hoping the time and frustration spent to fill out the forms would prove to be worth it.  Now we watched as the island slid by.  Very disappointing.  Well, on to Israel.

Later in the day we got a frustrated announcement on the intercom that there was now an electronic form for Israel, and that we were going to have to take a PCR test on the ship two days before our arrival in addition to one already planned that Israel was going to administer upon our arrival.  Did we really sign up for all this?  Well, back to the computer and the next electronic form.

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