In February 2020, a month before the UK was plunged into lockdown, the BBC posed the question: Are cruise ships really "floating petri dishes"? If there was ever a headline destined to create a misjudged perception of cruise, it was this.
With the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic still on the horizon, the cruise industry was already facing a crisis of its own after being labelled a breeding ground for germs before it even had a chance to defend itself. There was a time that – for many – cruise was the epicentre of the Covid crisis as the infection ran rampant onboard Diamond Princess in Japan.
