I just arrived in Aruba for the start of my vacation on Friday (April 29th). It was such a great gift (and time saver) not to have to get Covid tested before the flight to Aruba. Now while I welcomed that change with open arms, I found myself contemplating about “to wear a mask or to not wear a mask”, since this was going to be my first time, since the onset of the pandemic, where the mask was optional on an airplane. While I’m comfortable not wearing a mask under most circumstances, I found that I was getting anxious about sitting so close to people on a plane for 4.5 hours (that I didn’t know and that were not tested prior to flight). I didn’t wear a mask in the airport but as I got ready to board the plane, I decided to put a mask on to protect all of those around me, and I was prepared to be the only one on the airplane with one on. And to my pleasant surprise, I found that ~25% of the people were also putting on masks before boarding the airplane. In fact, on both my flights, all the people in my same row were wearing masks. So while I felt I would stick out like a sore thumb by opting to wear a mask, I wound up blending right in. I fully embrace the transition back to normal post pandemic life … but I think we all approach that transition at different speeds. So I just thought I’d share that story if anyone has pre-flight, no mask jitters like me. No matter what you choose - you'll fit in perfectly.
The flights down went very smoothly. My flight arrived in Aruba at 12:45pm and the weather was absolutely perfect. I breezed through the immigration line in ~ 15 min and the luggage was just arriving on the baggage claim belts as I arrived. As I exited the airport, I could see that all of the rain from early in the week was gone and I was greeted by fabulous sunshine and a wonderful breeze. Aruba is my happy place and I’m so happy to be back on this wonderful island.