I love to people-watch on a cruise ship. Everyone’s away from home in a new environment; so how will they behave?
I’ve already met several folks like me: a Planner as opposed to a Show-Up (who just shows up). I booked this cruise almost two years ago, in fact, and have thoroughly researched our seven island destinations: Antigua, Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire. We have a huge map of the Caribbean Islands covering the wall of our cabin, a mini-Christmas tree set up on the desk (Planners think of everything), and I know the best place on board to meet like-minded over-planners (the Cruise Critic Roll Call get-together. Duh).
And then there are the other ones, the Show-ups. I’m married to one of those, in fact. A few days before we left home when Padre had to notify the bank of our itinerary, I observed dryly, “you don’t even know where we’re going, do you?” and he shook his head, as I knew he would.
And that’s ok; I do plenty of planning for both of us, and Padre definitely pulls his weight, literally (heavy bags, check) and fiscally (takes care of the money…very useful). We’re not to the point where I just tell him to ‘get in the car’ – which a lovely couple explained is their method for handling the Planners vs. Show-Ups divide. We may reach that point, since I absolutely love to plan trips, but I do hope Padre enjoys what I dream up. So I give him choices, I really do (although it’s probably hard for him to say no, once I have things planned out so well….).
This trip starts off Year 4 of our 10-year travel plan, and I have trips booked out through 2020 (and I’m almost finished with 2021). We’re not so young any more, so every year counts now – they all count, of course, but after retirement the shortened sense of opportunity looms larger for us.
And we still need room in life for our ‘hobbies’ (helping out, through part-time work and volunteer activities, Padre’s glass-blowing and gardening, my fiendish reading habit). So I control it all by planning the heck out of everything. Padre goes with the flow, and that’s working just fine for us right now.
Padre’s bucket list is shorter than mine, consisting of only one item: Don’t kick the bucket any time soon. Oh, and one other ‘bucket list’ item we agree on: Find warm climes, for up to four months of the year. This year looks like a warm one, with this trip, Key West, and Down Under/Tahiti in the spring.
Things make it onto my bucket list for a number of reasons besides warmth, although I must say that being warm is absolutely delightful after leaving behind Seattle’s below-freezing temperatures. Right now I’m sitting in a promenade deck chair, ocean waves rolling past, in bare feet and it’s quiet. Padre’s wandered off somewhere, and I’m sure he’s fine – and warm. Probably looking for chocolate.
Tahiti made it on the bucket list because my Sea Captain dad, who spent WWII in the South Pacific, used to defiantly exclaim that he was “Sailing to Tahiti!” whenever life got hectic. He never did get back to Tahiti (his escape clause became ‘I’m sailing to Juneau!” when he reached his 80’s), but I always liked the idea of having a place to dream about, a tropical escape where life’s problems disappear. He would have felt right at home here in the Caribbean.
So we’ll go to Tahiti for him next spring, to sink our toes in the island’s warm sand and say a prayer for Padre’s DOFL* (*initials Dad invented after Padre and I were married. Stands for Your Dear Old Father-In-Law, who was also Padre’s best sailing buddy, back in the day).
We’ve been to the Caribbean before (check out the young’uns at a Crazy Toga party….), but not to any of these islands, and I’ve always thought the ABCs (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) sounded faraway and exotic. So here we are, many years later (not Crazy Toga parties this time, I’m pretty sure….maybe a yoga class…).
Next we have the Larks vs. the Nightowls. You can probably tell from this photo which one I am – sunrises on cruise ship decks can be spectacular, although I’m not sure Padre’s ever seen one. Our body clocks are exact opposites – I’m asleep at 8, up at 5, and Padre’s asleep at 11, up at 8. And you know what? It works for us. I see lots of Larks roaming around the ship’s upper decks before dawn, and I’m sure Padre’s seen lots of passengers dancing, show-going, partying, well into the night. I wouldn’t know, but Padre seen them, I’m sure. He’s not a partier, but he likes to people-watch too, so he observes all the nightlife happenings and fills me in the next day.
The Eaters vs. Exercisers category is tricky, because plenty of folks pound the deck track so they can inhale desserts with abandon, or order fruity drinks like this one all day. There really is WAAAY too much food on a cruise ship. I boarded the Celebrity Reflection with a clear memory of our last trip, when we started skipping meals because the thought of more food made us queasy. So it helps to keep in mind that while food is in abundance, the decks are waiting to be walked, the fitness center has two scales, and my personal favorite, the gorgeous indoor solarium pool, is mostly empty in the morning, just waiting for this lark to dive in to swim her laps.
In addition to being warm, this trip for me has been about swimming and snorkeling. A few years ago I had to have a total knee replacement, and there have been times when I have wondered if I’d ever snorkel or swim like a mermaid again – seemingly permanent changes to my knee flexibility make me more awkward, and I have to be careful.
But I’m not ready to give up on snorkeling yet. For this trip, I decided “If not now, when?” So I’ve booked small-group tours in every port, where we board a sailboat or a beach shuttle in order to swim with turtles, stingrays, and other amazing wildlife on the Caribbean’s beautiful reefs. Padre’s not a swimmer, but he’s the former captain of our sailboat, the Padre (what else would we name it?). So he’s happy to ride along, observing navigation tactics and chatting with his fellow captains who man the tour boats.
And my last category: The Glass-Half Empty people vs. the Pollyanna positive ones like me. I think I saw a bunch of the emptier ones stacked up in lines behind the Guest Relations counter, yesterday.
Really, people – what is there NOT to like, here on the Celebrity Reflection? Someone makes your bed, feeds you amazing food, picks up your towel after you. Our cabin steward and dinner waiters are the nicest people – with a sense of humor, too. Jesse, for instance, told us he’s from ‘South Phillie” before adding he meant the south part of the Phillipines, and to call him Jesse James, like the western guy.
While I don’t appreciate blaring techno-music on the top deck at 6 in the morning (do they realize how old most of us are?), how hard is it for me to find a quiet spot down on the Deck 5 promenade, which is where I am this morning? Not hard at all.
One of the things I love most about travelling by cruise ship is that no one needs to be bored, bothered, or otherwise troubled here – there are so many choices. Ok, this is a glass-half full person talking, but on a ship like this, anyone can be a glass-half full person too. If you want to be happy, just change your mind, I say, and it’s never too late to have a happy childhood, either. I mean if you didn’t, why not start today? I mean, why not?
So the captain just announced we will be docking in Antigua at 6:15 am tomorrow. I’d better finish reading my book on island history, pick a place to eat, and, and……
Even if I didn’t do those things, I know that if I just show up at the gangplank tomorrow, we’ll have a fine time. And Padre has a way of catching up once we’re underway; he already knows where we need to go to catch our tour boat in the morning.
And until then, no hurry. (Did someone say Island Time?).
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