10-foot waves don't look as dire when you are on a ship.
Just a quick note as we are halfway across the Atlantic and internet service is expensive. Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. But I suspect I will be posting less and less as time goes on. First of all, I have pretty much covered the waterfront with 6,000 postings. Over time, some of my thoughts have changed, others have not.
A cruise ship is a good place for people watching. It is also a place that caters to obsessive-compulsive personalities. Our Cuban traveling companion has an in-law who turned out to be a hoarder. She inherited about $160,000 and blew it all on a succession of cruises. The siblings managed to get together and clean out her house, fix it up and sell it, and get her into an assisted living place. Usually it doesn't work out so well for hoarders and OCD people. It was interesting to me how she perpetually put herself in peril and then expected others (Mom, Dad, Siblings, in-laws) to bail her out. A lot of people live that way, I guess.
But a cruise ship is a dangerous place for someone with no self control. There is the casino, an art auction place, several "shops" selling jewelry of questionable quality, and of course bars and extra-fee restaurants. There are also shore excursions and whatnot and of course, a desk devoted to getting you to sign up for your "next cruise" right away. I noted before that one way to calculate the actual cost of a cruise is to take the come-on price (usually $499 to $799) and add a zero to it. A $499 cruise can cost $4999 easily. For starters, $499 is the price for one person, and when you add in taxes and fees and "mandatory gratuities" and a few extras - plus airfare to the port, overnight stay in a hotel and/or parking fees, and so on, well, it adds up. You want a de-luxe suite? It can easily end up in the thousands and thousands. And if you gamble.... that's how our friend ended up spending $160K on a series of cruises.
[UPDATE: I forgot to mention the seminar we went to, which talked about the "onboard shopping experience!" The presenter was like a televangelist and exhorted us to buy Tanzenite, a "precious gem" from Tanzania that is only sold on cruise ships and at cruise ship ports. We walked out when the lady told us to look at the person next to us and say, "I deserve this!" Sounds like something a sub would say in a BDSM scenario. Shopping is indeed a form of self abuse.]
I paid for one day (24 hours) of Internet, so I don't expect to be posting much for another week. We pre-ordered several bottles of liquor for our room. Expensive, but far less than buying drinks at the bar or paying $70 a day for a "drink package" as well. We are going on some shore excursions but choosing simple, inexpensive ones. One excursion listed for "Spanish Morocco" noted that it was a strenuous 7 hour journey to areas where there might be animal carcasses in the streets and sketchy restroom facilities - plus a journey into regular Morocco where they confiscate your passport.
We took a pass on that one.
When we get to Spain, I might have more internet. But until then, bon voyage!
