“you are so unbelievably intimate with the hygiene habits of 2000-5000 people; from various different cultures...”
Ehh, I went on the Carnival Paradise out of Tampa last year and thought the same lines. What I found out was the crew does wipedowns and there’s plenty of hand sanitizer around. They have various protocols for sickness and disinfection. Think about it. There are many other places which see more people per day yet I doubt if any follow the health protocols the cruise ships use.
There wouldn't be.....the hand sanitizer dispensers if they weren't deemed necessary.
There wouldn't be...the crew with the bleach & alcohol buckets scrubbing the handrails. The handrails are a big, big deal. Yes, you may encounter more people in a stadium event or a train station, but not all those people grasp the rails with their full hands like their balance depends on it. And not all those people are older people who are MUCH more graspy on the rails AND not that used to the smallish bathroom facilities aboard the ship. There are people who get astronomically sick on these boats and they obliterate their cabin bathrooms with bodily contents everywhere. Any more detail to my description takes the discussion to a point where I don't believe it needs to go.
You can do it however you wish. You get that bug in your gut and you'll wish you were dead.