Introduction to Cruising

 Cruising: The action of sailing about in an area without a precise destination, especially for pleasure. Internet definition – August, 2019

Pleasure cruising has changed drastically since our first cruise way back in the last century. So has the definition of cruising. The destinations matter so much today the cruising industry has invested multi-millions of dollars to create magical, artificial ones all around the Bahamas and the Caribbean basin, just for cruisers alone. Cruise marketing for a certain segment of the market is based on “itinerary” that always includes huge amusement style visits, but the final destination is usually the same port you sailed from.

We’ve only been on ten different cruise ships in the last forty, short years, far less than some energetic media sources that now flood the Internet, but we are people who just love to cruise, we are not cruise critics. I had no intention of writing anything useful for first time cruisers when I originally put this piece together. Not intentionally, anyway. It was meant to be an enjoyable memoir, not a log book. However, if you are anxiously planning your first cruise, you may stumble across a tidbit here or there that may be of particular interest. On the other hand, say if you are into climbing faux rock walls, it may not be of any value what-so-ever for your cruise, but hopefully it will be fun to read.

Parts of this blog may look vaguely familiar if you have read my book, Just Floating Around, which I have been fiddling with since the middle 1980’s when I first started collecting and arranging napkins and other odd pieces of crumpled paper with notes scribbled on them and putting them in order. I have updated this blog to our most recent cruise and will add to it with future cruises we take. I also added several older blogs that were overlooked so the continuity would be more linear. There are a few non-cruising posts scattered throughout, but they are still about being on the water.

I know you will meet new passengers who will feel exactly as you, regardless how you feel. You will meet those who love it and those who hate it. You will meet giddy, first-time cruisers as well as those who have so many cruises behind them they have more days at sea than some of the officers on the crew. We met a British lady who spent seven hundred, twenty seven days – that's over two years – at sea! And that was just onboard Princess ships alone. For those experienced cruisers, perhaps I can evoke fond memories of cruises past. Admittedly, our scrapbook is meager compared to some passengers we have met who have hundreds of cruises under their belts, or bathing suits as the case may be.

Your enthusiasm for your upcoming adventure, generated mainly by cruise line advertising, will overpower your apprehensions about the unknown. Seasickness is easily overcome by a visit to your local doctor, or even a simple visit to your local drugstore. Getting to and from the cruise ship ports is an integral part of cruise planning and cost. The anticipation of constant recreation and entertainment has been skillfully instilled by advertising and the inconveniences have been resolved. You have preconceived ideas about cruising and the open sea. The ideas differ of course, depending mainly on how old you are, but the fantasy is what the multi-billion dollar cruising industry sells. And it sells big. The forecast for 2020, just before COVID basically shut down the industry, was over thirty million passengers! The industry has recovered better than ever and the total number of cruisers world-wide in 2025 hit an astonishing 37.2 million passengers, a new milestone.

I do have a few pointers for non-sailors before you board for the first time. The pointy end of a ship is called the bow. Almost all boats are more pointy on one end than the other, which is called the stern. The stern may be round, or even flat, and almost always has a pool. If it doesn't have a pool, then it has a sea-to-sky wall of usually expensive suites. 

Left and right side of the ship have different names as well, but if you’re cruising on a behemoth with five thousand other passengers, odds are no one else will know the difference either. If, however, you end up on a boat where you actually have to know the difference, left is called “port” and right is called “starboard.” I remember the definitions because “port” and “left” both have four letters. You can blame old, right-handed sailors from the times of the vikings and the sea-faring merchants of the Mediterranean for the weird names for the different sides of the ship. The original rudders were not in the center of the ship, but were steering boards hung off the right side at the stern of the early boats so the usually right-handed sailors could easily manipulate them. When they docked, it was easier to tie up on the other side of the boat, which then became “port” side. The steering board side morphed into “starboard” and here we are. You learn the oddest things during trivia night in the lounge.

Believe me, no one who paid to get on board a cruise ship cares about port or starboard, only how to get to the pizza buffet. Or the yogurt machine, or the hot tubs, or maybe the sky deck with the rock climbing wall. 

Pleasure cruising has changed drastically in the forty-odd years we’ve been walking up gangways and having photos taken with ship’s captains. Buying our favorite bottle of alcoholic beverage in the ship’s drugstore and taking the bottle to our room is also but a distant memory. Many of the old traditions and procedures are gone, and in our case, sorely missed. Concierge has been renamed to Customer Service. Why? Because corporate cruising has identified the highest percentage of today’s potential customers don’t know what a concierge is.

Our past experiences may help expand your horizons. Perhaps we can help unfog those rose colored glasses.

How it started