Cruise The World With Us 2026

Friday, January 16, 2026 – cruise day 12

Today’s featured photo is me with the new ship’s doctor – Dr. Bjorn from South Africa. Why is he included? Because today our family split time between the ship and our scheduled excursion.

We booked an excursion on Barbados in December from home. We were going to spend time on a beach because we have been to Barbados in the past and didn’t have any sights we wanted to see. The plan was to leave the ship at 12:15, spend a couple hours on the sand with a lounge chair and an umbrella then return to the ship. When I woke Friday morning and put my feet on the floor getting out of bed, I noticed that my right foot did not feel “right” – and was very painful when I lifted it from the floor. Jan and I made our way to the restaurant on deck 5 very slowly (because I wasn’t able to walk without extreme pain). I thought I could “work it out” by making the walk from our cabin near the bow to the restaurant near the stern. The pain didn’t get any less and my right foot didn’t feel like it was “working it out”.

We had a nice breakfast with 3 couples we knew from previous meals – 1 from Germany, 1 from Canada and 1 from Florida. I got to talking to Peter (from Germany) about church services on board and found that he is a Lutheran minister. He noted that there was nothing indicated about a service on Easter and indicated he would like to see if a service could be organized. We will be at sea on April 5th so it would seem to be conducive to hold a service on Easter while the ship is moving to Singapore from Vietnam.

We began to leave the breakfast table to go our separate ways and I could hardly stand. My foot was worse having sat for the time we were at the table. With Jan’s help I hobbled back to the room past many passengers who were staging to leave the ship (as soon as the Barbados officials gave approval to do so). At our cabin we discussed whether I could go on our planned excursion. I didn’t think I could and didn’t understand why my foot was giving me so much pain. Hadn’t twisted it and didn’t have any obvious “dings” in the skin. Jan suggested having the doctor check it. Initially I rejected that idea thinking it would get better by elevating it.

After about an hour in the cabin it wasn’t feeling any better and the Medical Center was going to close at 11:00 so Jan and I went down to deck 5 to have the doctor take a look. Fortunately, there were only a couple other people there so we thought we would meet the doctor quickly. We didn’t know he was in his office with a couple of the high-ranking officers of the ship. It wasn’t until after 11:00 that we met the doctor. Jan was able to stay for a short time because she needed to get ready to leave for our excursion at 12:15. The doctor indicated he thought I might have an infection on the interior of my foot because he could feel heat on it compared with my left foot and he noticed swelling as well. He suggested doing blood work to assist with the diagnosis.

A tech arrived to draw blood and told me that they would provide a medical excuse that could be presented to the excursion desk for a refund of my excursion. I asked Jan and Kelsey to drop off my excursion card before they left the ship, so they brought that to the medical center and walked to deck 6 to prepare to leave for the beach. I had to wait for the blood test results before leaving so spent the time talking with the personnel (including the doctor) about how they came to be on a cruise ship traveling around the world.

When the test results were available the doctor said they showed a slightly elevated white cell count that might explain the swelling, heat and pain in my foot. He prescribed doxycycline for 5 days along with Aleve 3 times a day. He also suggested I use a crutch until the foot felt better. I got one of the crutches that you grab with your hand after sliding your arm through a guide – not the kind you fit under your arm. A man from housekeeping gave me a wheelchair ride back to the cabin and I prepared to sit on the balcony with my leg elevated until Jan and Kelsey returned from their excursion.

It was very pleasant on the balcony. Our side of the ship was shaded from the sun and there was a slight breeze. I saw that docked near us were 3 other cruise ships – Grand Princess (Princess Cruise Lines – 3,122 passengers), Avria (P & O Cruises – 6,294 passengers) and Evrima (Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection – 298 passengers). MSC Magnifica is rated for 3,007 passengers. After an hour and a half, I came inside because my leg was not elevated above my heart as the doctor indicated I should do. Laid on the bed with pillows beneath my leg and watched some news on BBC and SkyNews. Good thing I came in because the automated window cleaner for deck 13 made 3 round-trip passes above us and sprayed water on the balcony twice each pass – I would have been soaked if I had stayed outside.

Jan and Kelsey enjoyed being outside but said it was too hot on the beach. They wished they had gone earlier in the day. Plus, they had to walk a long way from the ship to get to the bus that transported them to the beach. However, they had a good time and got to talk with some of the staff from the ship while there. On the way back they stopped to shop at the duty-free stores at the end of the pier. When they were finished there was a shuttle to bring them to our ship – so no long walk this time. I think they returned around 4:30.

I went to dinner with Jan and Kelsey using the crutch – it helped considerably. Resting and the antibiotics helped to lessen the pain so I could almost keep up with them. Don’t know where everyone was but we were the only ones at the table for 8 this evening. There was no evening show, so we came back to our cabin and watched an episode of “Murder In Paradise” on the laptop.

Tomorrow, we arrive in Grenada and are scheduled for a visit to a rum distillery and beach time. Hope my foot is in shape so I can make this excursion.

You can view photos from today here.