Almost everything you'd want you can find floating on the seas.
To all those who think themselves too cool for a packaged seafaring vacation, I bring ye fair warning: Don't board a cruise ship unless you're prepared to face the shattering truth that you might enjoy it. |
 | | Gaia Stella |
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Cruises are supposedly polarizing: You either love cruises and know your way around every dockside Señor Frog's from Nassau to Cancún or you wish there were enough orcas in the world to drive every cruise ship ashore for dismantling. I ask you to consider a third possibility, which is that a cruise might not be your favorite genre of vacation, but could merit consideration every few years or so. If you've already guessed that I fall into this last group, you are a truly shrewd and intuitive reader and probably don't wear socks in a swimming pool, as did one of my fellow passengers on a recent cruise to the Bahamas. |
Hey, you meet all kinds of people on a cruise, but the notion that you're cooped up on a boat with them isn't necessarily accurate. For one thing, cruises stop at ports, and until you're due back you're free to find your own adventure. (On my most recent trip, we rented a boat and pulled up on an uninhabited island for a few hours, which is the kind of thing that people who hate cruises would love to do.) And a cruise ship always has a quiet nook somewhere. On our ship, I was excited to spy a lightly occupied library-themed bar, complete with books and chess boards, only to discover that it was an actual library. If it were a bar, though, I would call it How Novel. |
Perhaps you've made up your mind and will never take a cruise. I understand, and don't blame you — iceberg dead ahead and all that. But if you're cruise-curious, read on. Maybe you could do it ironically, striding aboard wearing an "I'm With Stupid" T-shirt tucked into your jorts. And nobody will be the wiser when, somewhere in international waters, you realize that you're actually having a good time. |
| READ EZRA'S FULL ESSAY HERE | | |
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