A Word About Cruising

A Word About Cruising - "Contemplation". 
By Jay

Cruising gives us a lot of time for contemplation; about future ports of call, accomplishments we have gained, cultures we have experienced, how our lives have been, or will be, changed by the adventure.

Contemplating why we would spend upwards of 500 dollars a day to live in a box traveling through open seas,  intersecting with this diverse (at times odd) collection of humans who are only contemplating their own lives while we share food, drink, and entertainment on a schedule, not of our making. 

Common perspectives are confirmed or denied as we progress along our itinerary, our anticipations become reality, or not, based on variables such as weather, sea conditions, decisions made by the staff and crew and various port authorities, occasionally by the behavior of our fellow passengers. 

Our anticipations have been based on brochures, port descriptions, former passenger reviews, research we have done in planning and selecting this particular route, ship and company. 

Our realities depend on the accuracy of, and our interpretation of, these same factors so we can usually conclude that we, ourselves, are to blame most of the time when things don't go right. Occasionally, "Mother Nature" throws us a curve ball and sometimes our chosen mode of transportation breaks down but these little (sometimes not so little) detours lead us to further contemplation about how we might have done it differently or how we might do it differently in the future. Thus, we are always learning.