What I Have Learned About Cruising

What I have learned:

Touring is for those who prefer a predictable travel schedule and minor thrills.  The meals, the music, the lectures, the activities are pleasant and not challenging.  Most of our fellow travelers were very well traveled and well “cruised.”  Some had taken many world voyages as well as traveling on other cruises on other lines.  Always a safe topic of conversation.

The people who most likely will enjoy a cruise are those who like to dress up, to dance, to play social bridge, to take courses, to meet others like themselves in taste.  This is a culturally and politically conservative crowd no matter where they are from.

The nations of the tour are first--the British, second--the Australians, third--the Americans.

If I were to do it again, I would take one of the ongoing courses—bridge, water color painting, fencing, craftwork—these are the better places to get to know people.  We had the best lunch conversation of the trip in Sintra.  We will never see those people again.

There was more illness (mine) than I expected.  This is the end of the trip, and I have had a swollen gland the last two nights.  I feel fine in the daytime, but I will be glad to be home.

I miss my washing machine and the larger shower.

I was really glad for the camp soap which rinses out of clothing very easily.  Doing hand laundry allowed me to postpone trips to the dreaded laundromat.

I was more worried about rough seas than I should have been.  I packed only very sturdy, stable shoes.  I could have been a little wilder in the shoe department.

Sea days are lovely—not boring at all.

American culture, especially its music and films, and especially the great American songbook of the forties is  ubiquitous at least on English ships.