Big Boat Cruising
Big Boat Cruising is the best way to discover the World after you retire. Pick any place in the World you would like to visit.
You unpack your bags once and let someone else handle all the arrangements. Well, you still need to pay for the cruise.
Some cruise lines will even pick you up from home, fly you to your cruise boat, and bring you home again after your travel. It does not get any easier.
First Cruise
Before my first cruise, I had not traveled outside the United States. I was petrified to get on a plane and fly to Europe. Worse yet, I was afraid of being in language prison once I arrived. Now, keep in mind this was over twenty years ago.
Soul and Senses
That first cruise was an awakening of my soul and senses. Since then, I have cruised about 200 nights, primarily on one cruise line. That does not include the shore excursions before and after each cruise. For example, that first cruise started in London with 30 fellow travelers, best friends I had never known. I spent three days guided through the heart of London, seeing all the sights, before hopping on the Eurostar for Paris. After two days in Paris, I knew I was hooked on travel.
Next, I boarded a bus north out of Paris, seeing the sites in Northwestern France, Bruges, Belgium, and Amsterdam. We boarded our flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, where I boarded our ship for a 10-day Baltic Sea Cruise.
Safe Travels
Granted, you do not get more than a cursory view of each port or city, but you do get enough information and views to know if a more extended visit is warranted. Additionally, you know that you will be safe. No reputable cruise line will endanger the lives of their passengers. This was as accurate twenty years ago as it is today.
But Big Boat Cruising is not just sightseeing but also the way the cruise line seamlessly provides it. You are fed incredibly tantalizing fare and beverages, entertained, and offered limitless horizons and vistas.
Cruising also allows combining many ports of call over a great distance into one cruise, which would be impossible to accomplish alone.
Discovering the World After Retirement
Discovering the World after you retire also allows you to see these majestic sights without worrying about “vacation time.” You can take extended trips and only worry about who will watch Fido or Kitty while you are away. Post-retirement travel consequently allows you greater flexibility to travel further from home.
There are cruise destinations and budgets for everyone. Regardless of the location of your cabin, you will have access to pretty much everywhere anyone else does. The ability to relax, be entertained, and well fed is universal.
Cruise Bookends
Now, we try to book cruises starting or ending points in cities where we have not been. What happens in between is a plus. For example, our recent cruises have included one from Istanbul, Turkey, to Dubai, UAE, with many ports of call throughout the Middle East, including Jerusalem, Luxor, Cairo, Egypt, Petra, Jordan, and a few Emirates in the UAE.
Another recent cruise started in Sydney, Australia, and ended in Singapore. On this cruise, we tacked on an additional five days in Australia and five more days in Singapore. Among the ports we visited, we also stopped at the islands of Bali and Komodo. Komodo Island is another example of seeing an island that would be virtually impossible for a retired couple from South Carolina to do on their own. The logistics would be impossible, not to mention very costly.
While in Bali, we had flashbacks to the movie “South Pacific” and Mary Martin. It was not quite the same.
Our next cruise starts in Santiago, Chile, ending in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These are two alluring ports that neither of us has been. In between these two cities is an exciting trip down the west coast of South America, a cruise through the islands off the coast of Antarctica, and then a turn north to the Falkland Islands and the eastern shore of Argentina, ending in Buenos Aires.
Understanding and Appreciation
It’s not about checking boxes on a to-do list. It is about answering long-lingering questions from a curious mind many years ago. It’s about developing a better understanding and appreciation of other cultures, religions, and people that make up our World.
