On a Boat

As soon as I booked my cruise to Alaska I was informed by a co-worker that women disappear on cruise ships...regularly. Naturally, this news concerned me, so I did the only thing I could think to do...seek reassurance from my dad. He said not to worry because they’re all women who married disconcerted homicidal husbands, and also that Greta Van Susteren was “on top of the investigations.” (Thanks, Dad.)

Here’s my biggest concern about cruises: They kind of take the element of adventure out of a trip; everything's taken care of for you...which is exactly what some people (people who don’t know how to travel) are looking for. It’s also a good thing if you want to relax and kind of mentally check-out, which is what Hayley and I needed. Our trips have traditionally followed a more vigorous schedule...“get up at 6:30, walk ten miles a day sight-seeing and going to museums, go to bed at 1, repeat for 9 days..."

Here’s what we loved about our cruise:

Whispering the name of our ship at awkward times of the day, or in an otherwise-normal conversation. Try it...“Rhapsody...”

We also enjoyed singing excerpts from “I’m On A Boat,” talking about our captain, Rick Sullivan, like we knew him; and, while at the bow of the ship, quoting Titanic. (You just read that and thought you’re above that sort of behavior...but you’re not.)

The formal nights. Yep, that’s right...we’re girls who love dressing up. And we make no apologies for it! Cruise ships are crawling with professional photographers and Hayley and I made sure we hit every cheesy backdrop that was set up. And we took a few snaps ourselves, feeling very much like jet-setters in the process.

Eating. Every calorie consumed on cruises is included in the price of the trip; food is pretty much why people go on cruises. We had a lovely three-course meal every night, with a lot of dessert! Our waiter, Daniel (below), made us laugh every day. (It’s that Romanian charm.) I’m not an adventurous eater, but I had fun trying new things like venison and escargot (above) and eating a couple desserts every night. I mean, yeah, I probably gained a few pounds by the end of the trip and felt akin to the whales I saw earlier in the day as I got into bed each night. But...two words: worth it.
Doing nothing! What a novelty it was to sleep in until 11am. One morning we even had breakfast delivered to our room and watched Gossip Girl for two and a half hours. We’d take two-hour naps, sit in the sun on the top deck sipping cherry Cokes, read for hours at a time. What a luxury to be able to do completely nothing!

More posts to come on what we did in Alaska and Seattle...