You’ll recall that in the first blog post on my cruise, two weeks ago, I mentioned that I had never before been on a cruise.
And here I am, 33 days into my 138 day cruise around the world. I did this one because it was not so much about the cruising as it was about getting off the cruise ship and exploring places I’ve never been, or wanted to see again. As adventurous as my travel has been, to all 7 continents, there are countries I’ve never been to and we are getting to a bunch of them on this trip.
But the early part of the cruise is basically about cruising the sea. Of the 33 days so far, we’ve been in 9 ports and 24 days at sea…..one day each at Cozumel, Cartagena, Panama City, Cabo San Luca, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Kauai and Oahu Hawaii, and then the French Polynesian Islands Bora Bora, Moorea, and Tahiti. And now I’m on 6 days at sea to get to New Zealand.
The next 105 days are largely port-to-port, but I have to say I’m loving the ship time!
Here’s why:
There are 3-4 lectures every day, by professors who are experts in any subject related to our cruise: the history of the cruise ship…..animal life at our destinations or in the ocean…..the culture of the countries to be visited…..the history of world exploration…..how places like islands in the middle of the Pacific, the most vast body of water on the planet, were discovered thousands of years ago by explorers in canoes…..wars between places and how western explorers changed life when they “discovered” the islands 400 years ago
The food in all seven of the restaurants on board is fantastic!
There is a gym on board as good as my gym in New York and I’ve been there every day, just as I do when I’m home.
There are courses to be taken on cooking, writing, photography, and lots of other subjects.
There is pretty good entertainment, from solo piano players to Broadway type entertainment, and last night, leaving Tahiti, a fantastic Polynesian dance performance!
So I love the variety, and when I get tired, I can go for a swim or a walk around the outside top deck, or read my book for my book club in New York or for the book club that has been formed here on board.
This is probably the only post I’ll write about life on board, especially since we will be landing in New Zealand in a few more days, and then begin to change to regular port excursions most every day….so stay tuned!
