And Speaking of Cruises....
These are the things that just blew me away:
Meeting people that boasted about having this be their 10th (or some other ungodly amount) cruise ---some of them doing the same itinerary. I mean who wants to do the same trip year after year. While I would go on a cruise again, I would not do the same trip. I don't even think I would do the Caribbean again, until exploring another part of the world by sea first.
The sheer amount of food. I mean it's no wonder people gain inordinate amounts of weight when on ship. Is a midnight buffet really necessary after you ate a breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, pre-dinner snack and then dinner?
The prim and properness of it all. I did attend a napkin folding course after all. They should have just had an etiquette class to train all of the heathens I saw using butter knives for their steaks.
Having an announcement over the PA system at 3am asking someone to report to customer relations after being thrown around the cabin all night in what I assumes was a rough patch in the sea. I found out the next day that some kid's (and by kid I mean a 17-year-old) mother had reported him missing. She said she had brought him on a cruise because he had been mentally unstable over the last few months and she was hoping to cheer him up. She had thought he might have jumped off the ship. So the boat movements were actually the crew going around in circles looking for a body floating in the water. When no sign of him appeared he was called for over the PA. Turns out he had been shacking up with some girl that night. Depression problem relieved I suppose.
That not having a window to the outside world while you sleep isn't really a necessity and I didn't feel as claustrophobic as I imagined I'd be.
With that said, taking a shower in a 2 x 2 stall isn't so easy after 7 days. Actually it isn't easy after 1 day.
Getting room service for free rules. Although with all the other food I ate, I couldn't actually eat it. The luxury was just nice.
Meeting couples that were honeymooning via cruise. Do people really want to spend their first nights together on a ship with 1000 other people? I find that completely unappealing. Wouldn't a remote destination be more romantic? I guess to each their own, but I don't understand the lure.
To Cruise Or Not To Cruise
Over the years I have had many discussions about the various aspects of cruising. Some consider it the best vacation ever, while others liken it to old people and those that just don't know any better. I have taken one cruise in my life, owing to the fact that my mother refuses to go on one on account of her seas-sickness, while my father has been aching to take a cruise for as long as I can remember. The fact that my mother bases her fear of cruising on the sole testimony of my aunt who took one 20 years ago and was sick the entire time id questionable in itself. Let's put aside the fact that my aunt was undoubtedly drunk for most of it (excessive drinking and an extended stay on a boat probably isn't the best combination), I must believe that the stabilization of cruise boats since the 1980's has improved greatly.
So, with a friend in tow one spring break I decided to take a cruise and see if it was all it was cracked up to be. I went out of Puerto Rico and made stops in St.Thomas (I swear it's mandatory that all cruise ships stop here), Barbados, St. Kitts, Aruba and Venezuela. Quite the itinerary I thought.
My thoughts on cruising as vacation were formed by this trip and I'll say that while I wouldn't necessarily jump out of my seat to take a cruise again, I would consider it as an option depending on the circumstances.
First the positives: unpacking only once and still being able to visit a new place each day is incomparable; all that day to day crap of figuring out where you're going to eat, where you're going to go, etc. is figured out; the easiness of mingling with fellow travelers; pretty decent food and as much as you want of it; not having a care in the world except to lie on the deck with a book, or gamble away in the casino, or go to the theater, etc.
And now the negatives: losing your travel independence because you have to abide by the ship's timetable for everything; feeling ushered everywhere; only seeing one city of an entire island and being limited to just a few measly hours; having the locals know you are a tourist because they saw you scurrying down the ramp and notice you checking your watch; sharing your vacation with 1000 other people; and wanting to be on land.
So ultimately a cruise is a great thing for people who want an easy vacation, were they don't have to think too hard about any aspect of it except how well to tip to bellhop and maids. Maybe this is why there are so many elderly people on cruises. No offense to the elderly among us, but when I'm 70 I might want everything handed to me to. It really is an all-in-one package. You pay and your given a bed, food and entertainment, so what more could one want. Well if you're the type of traveler that wants to take in the "real" sights of a place, and be leisurely about your wandering around then you'd just hate it.
