Going across the pond.....

The cabin is beautiful with recliners and a coffee table on the sheltered balcony.  We decide to familiarize ourselves with the ship and have lunch while we wait for our luggage to be sent up and for the rest of the passengers to board.  The ship will be leaving in a couple of hours but the bars and the buffet are open during embarkation.  After a sandwich and a couple of drinks we return to find half our luggage in our cabin.  Now it’s time to grab our life vests and attend the mandatory lifeboat drill. 

The ship is ready to leave when we returned to our cabin and received a message from security requesting our presence on a lower deck.  As it turns out, the scissors we brought to trim our hair are a little too large and they are going to hold them for the duration of the cruise.  Ditto for the utility knife our friend Guy had given us as a present which we had buried in our checked bags and promptly forgot about; oops!  This is fine with us and now that we have the remainder of our luggage in our cabin we remove ourselves to an upper deck bar to watch the ship leave the harbor.

Since we had already spent quite a bit of time in the Caribbean during our years together, we admittedly had very little interest in the ship’s itinerary through St. Thomas

and St. Maarten. 

We did get off the ship in both places, had a couple of drinks and lunch in the convenient but touristy bars.  We did hunt half-heartedly for an Irish pub in both places but were, unsurprisingly, unsuccessful.  The weather was beautiful as is normal for the Caribbean before hurricane season and we enjoyed the pool, the workout facilities, buffet and of course, the bars as the ship pointed east to the open sea.

Six days at sea diary:  Day one.  Sleep in.  Order room service or stroll to the restaurant for a casual breakfast?  Afterwards, do we relax by the pool, read on our cabin’s balcony while enjoying the cool ocean breezes or workout?  Should we have lunch at the buffet or the dining room?  Certainly a nap is in order now?  Its late afternoon now and before dinner cocktails are certainly in order.

  Shall we dress for dinner since the dining room is scheduled to be formal tonight or revisit the buffet for a casual meal or should we stay in and watch a movie and order room service?  This is as complicated as it gets (most of the time the dining room isn’t formal).  After dinner a cigar with a cognac is certainly a nice way to end an evening.  Day two through six ….. the same.

The RCCL ship Adventure of the Seas features many types of activities from rock climbing or ice skating to shopping and fine dining.  There are several bars around the ship of course and a large mall area in the center with shops, pubs and a cafeteria.  The ship has a discotheque that is open all night for the young and young at heart.  While the room service menu is limited, it is available 24 hours and is included in the cost of the cruise.  RCCL, like Holland America provides wonderful room stewards who really take care of your every need.  One of the most outstanding features of our ship, surprising to us, was the buffet which had a wide variety of high quality, reasonably tasty offerings.

We have to admit that we took quite a few naps, read quite a bit and enjoyed more than one cocktail with some of our fellow passengers and new found friends while sailing across the seemingly endless Atlantic.  It didn’t hurt that the bartenders were internationally diverse, interesting, friendly and sometimes downright entertaining.

  Like on most cruise ships, the internet was expensive and slow so we were forced to reduce our ongoing communications with the few connections to our previous life we had been maintaining.

The main dining room aboard the ship proved to be comfortable and although the food was of good quality and the service nearly impeccable we found ourselves splitting time between it and the buffet for our meals.  The dining room was pleasant and our table mates a diverse and enjoyable group, but heavy and long meals just don’t work for us on an everyday basis.  It was very nice to have options!  We had purchased a wine package in advance, for a discount and we were pleased with the quality of the wines the ship provided.  The wine could be served in the dining room, the buffet or in our cabin with room service, they made it very easy.

Every fourth or fifth evening was designated a formal evening and we quickly found that we looked forward to dressing up for dinner.

  Formal can be anything from a sport jacket to a tuxedo for men and dresses to ball gowns for the women.

  At a table near us in the dining area were two Spanish gentlemen who had been on the ship for six months and who, it became obvious, had brought quite a wardrobe.  They always made a late entrance down the grand staircase (unusual) and would come dressed as anything from red and silver sequined Spanish cowboys (with hats) to Indian rajahs complete with turbans.  Many fellow diners requested photo opportunities with these two, very different, but delightful gentlemen.

Toward the end of our crossing we made a reservation at the small premium restaurant where Marilyn had an excellent filet while I enjoyed an amazing crab risotto with sauteed prawns both with a wonderful bottle of wine.  It was certainly worth the small upgrade price.

It seemed sudden, but it was almost day nine of our cruise and in the morning we would be stopping and Tenerife in the Canary Islands with most of the Atlantic already at our backs.

Why Fly?

Looking at retirement causes many changes in perspective.  One of the better changes is a relative lack of deadlines.  You have time!

Over the past ten years we have grown increasingly disgusted with the cost, the hassles and the state of airline travel.  Cancelled or delayed flights, baggage limitations, damage to and outright theft from baggage, seats built for dwarves, etcetera.  We have put up with this due to the necessity of business travel and the time limitations on our rare vacations.

Guess what!  No more business travel.  No more time limitations.  Our time is now our own.  If we can avoid an airplane ride, it just makes the whole travel experience that much better.

We have been destination cruisers for about 15 years.  For a while it was comforting to think that we only had to unpack once during our vacation and the ship was basically a hotel that followed us around.  Over time however, the ship became more of a tether pulling us away from places we wanted to be.  So, for a time, we stopped cruising, preferring to spend time in the places we wanted to go.

When planning our trip to Spain we were astounded at the cost of airline travel and dreading the idea of 20 hours of flying and airport connections.  On a whim we looked at repositioning cruises, since it was to be the springtime ships would be going from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean…seemed like a good fit for us.  We found several cruises from the east coast of the US or the Caribbean to ports all over the Med and were delighted by the low prices.  The perfect cruise for us left from San Juan, Puerto Rico and arrived in Malaga, Spain a 1.5 hour bus ride from Granada!  The cost for two people, in a balcony cabin for two weeks with several interesting stops when added to the cost of air travel to San Juan was less than the price of the economy class airfare to Spain!

Hmmmm, let’s evaluate. 

Two weeks of reasonably good food in several restaurants, a double bed to stretch out on, a private bathroom, maid service, 24-hour room service and entertainment all included.  Beverages of all kinds are available for purchase when you want them not when the flight attendant decides to visit you.  No jet lag?  Sold!  An added benefit; two weeks of living expenses are covered as well!  We were to stop in St. Thomas; St. Maarten; Lanzarote; Tenerife; Madeira and then made final port in Malaga, Spain.  We would arrive in Spain happy, tanned, well rested and ready to go.  Having energy from the first hour of the first day would be a first for us in Europe.

Another thing to consider, we were going to be in a state of near exhaustion from the last few weeks of getting rid of everything in our lives and saying good-byes to everyone.  Perhaps some "down time" on a ship on our way across the Atlantic would give us a chance to rest and catch our breath before beginning an entirely new life, in a new place, with a new language.

We booked it! It was an RCCL cruise on the Adventure of the Seas and we used vacationstogo.com to get the best deal.  Cost of air tickets to San Juan $189 each accommodations in Old San Juan for 4 nights $324, cruise in a balcony cabin for 2 weeks $799 each.  $2300 total for everything including meals….two one way coach class tickets to Madrid $2160, no contest.  Keep in mind that we knew we were going to spend money for food and drink in San Juan and for drinks and extras on the ship but these expenses were already in the regular monthly budget for living expenses, no matter where we are we will have to eat and drink.

If you have time and have the flexibility to travel whenever you choose, a cruise just might be the way to knock the longer flight segments from your travel and save your back from those awful airline seats.

Besides, isn’t retirement about not being in a hurry?