It all started with an email that Gwen had reluctantly forwarded to me on October 20th, 2021 announcing “The Ultimate World Cruise”. First off, let me say that any 3 of the 4 words would get my ears to stand up, let alone so many in one statement. So, yes, I clicked. As soon as I saw it was from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, my interest was piqued. “Wow”, I thought, Royal Caribbean is going to do a world cruise, but, OH MY GOSH!, it is 9 MONTHS. We wouldn’t be that crazy. Wait, would we?
Was Gwen serious about this, or was she just wanting to see what type of reaction she would get from me? Regardless or her intent, we were soon discussing the merits and liabilities of being on a cruise ship for 9 months and what the impact would be on commitments to family and friends.
I guess the first thing to know about us, is our desire to wander the world. We not only love to see the sights, but also to engage with people whose lifestyles and circumstances are much different than ours. Between the two of us, we have made many international trips and were well aware of, not only flight costs, but the wear and tear on our physical health. On our way home from Africa, we had 24 hours of traveling. The length of the trip was bad enough, but that also included some time sitting on a bench outside in the African heat waiting to get into an airport. I don’t sleep much as it is, but no matter the length of the trip, it is impossible for me to fall asleep sitting on an airplane.
So now we come back to a discussion we have had many times. Being on a cruise ship has so many advantages over flying in and out of International airports. One of the main reasons we like cruise, is that the “hotel room” moves from place to place, instead of us having to move from hotel to hotel. Now combine that with a cruise that “slowly” crosses time lines and removes a lot of the wear and tear of travel time, and we found ourselves starting to evaluate this offer more seriously. Once we started calculating the cost of airfare to and from all the countries we wanted to visit, it started pushing us over the hump. I was the first to say, “Let’s do this!”. Gwen wasn’t quite so gung-ho, but I knew I could get her to commit if I convinced our best friends to make the trip. We called up Doug and Margaret Rogers and tossed out the idea. That’s always when the salesman in me comes out and I started explaining why we had to take this trip. “Yes, we won’t get to do a deep dive anywhere, but we can get a taste of a lot of places to figure out where we want to return”. Turns out that, yes we are all, that crazy. Now we just had to put up the money and wait for 2 years to go.
There have been a lot of discussions since then with people who are convinced we are crazy to leave for that long. “We could never do that!” Oh, but yes you could, you just have to be a little crazy. But even in the denials, there is a glimmer of thought that comes upon their face and I can tell they wish they were as crazy as The Smiths!
I am so happy for you. I’m not sure I could stay a at from family for 9 months but I do know I couldn’t take them with me for 9 months either! Haha. Praying for a safe trip! Have fun!!