IN DEFENSE OF CRUISING

Recently I met someone with whom I have friends in common.  I had heard that he was a world traveler and I was quite interested in discussing this mutual passion.  He had traveled extensively with his wife as well as solo.  He described places he had stayed in India and the natural beauties of Vietnam.  Unfortunately, he was no longer able to travel due to mobility limitations.  I told him I was interested in seeing Vietnam but then mentioned that I had been on a Caribbean cruise a few months earlier.  His response took me aback: “That represents everything I despise.  It’s bourgeois.”  That started me thinking about why I enjoyed cruises and what I’ve observed about attitudes toward various modes of travel.

When I was six years old, I crossed the Atlantic on a ship headed to Germany where we would be joining my father.  As a Charleston, SC native I had always loved being near the ocean and this adventure was a thrill.  For years after, I dreamed of being on an oceangoing  ship again, sailing the high seas, having unexpected encounters with glamorous people and going to elegant dinners wearing long gowns and diamonds, of course .  Think Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.  Eventually I went on a cruise through the Greek isles with my husband for our twentieth anniversary.  Cary Grant did not sit at our table.  There was a young man traveling with his mother, a retired teacher.  He was an airplane painter, wore a Guns ‘n Roses tee shirt, and at the end of the cruise had the distinction of having the biggest bar bill.  He was a lovely young man.  The other gentleman at our table, traveling with his limo driver girlfriend, sold convenience store novelties.  He couldn’t understand why these little gems weren’t available in Greece.  “They could make a fortune!”  (Perhaps Greece’s monetary woes wouldn’t be so dire if they’d heeded his advice.)  In the academic circles in which we moved how would we have ever met these individuals? Their lives were interesting because so completely different from our own.  There was no private yacht for this bourgeois couple to enjoy with people just like us.

When my friend Ginny and I were embarking last October on our ship headed to the Caribbean, I was astonished at the number of people in wheelchairs and with walkers.  I realized that this cruise was a travel opportunity for those who weren’t able to travel other ways.  The gentleman who had referred to this cruise as despicably bourgeois just didn’t get it. Here were people who wanted to enjoy a bit of the world but couldn’t do it any other way.  Now, the majority of the folks on this ship were able-bodied, but they had other reasons for being there.  Some wanted a vacation: no work, no cooking, no cleaning, great food.  Some weren’t interested in getting inside another culture, that’s true, but I was working on my own tendency to be judgmental, so I gave them a pass and instead analyzed what it was about that lack of curiosity that bothered me.  I also found that after a quick stop in the Dominican Republic there were many comments about the poverty.  I prefer that we confront poverty and learn why it exists where it does.  A lot of Americans don’t want to ever face it.  But I’ve seen that as much from individuals traveling independently as I have on cruises.

A couple of years ago some friends and I decided to take a short cruise out of Charleston that was going to the Bahamas and back.  No big deal but we figured we’d have a good time.  When we started the boarding process we looked around at the other travelers and said “Oh my God!”  Here I was as guilty as “bourgeois man.”  I saw small town, working class South Carolina was boarding.  When I was able to shut down this ugly, judgmental part of my psyche, I thought it was great that so many of my fellow cruisers were able to enjoy this getaway.  Most of them couldn’t have afforded to fly to Europe, stay in hotels and pay all the attendant costs, the kind of trip I’ve enjoyed so many times.  Was I being condescending to think this way?  Maybe a little.  But I’ve known working class people who have done these cruises, for whom this was a big adventure.  I’m happy for them.

Another consideration for me is age.  I could have gone to Aruba and Bonaire alone, learned more about the islands and most likely had a great time.  But I’ve learned that traveling alone at age seventy is very different from doing it at twenty-five.  No one comes to my table in a Paris cafe to chat me up.  Who hits on someone who looks like his grandmother?  I have sat alone through many dinners in restaurants and enjoyed them, but I didn’t make friends.  On cruises there are advantages to this solitude.  One is that with open seating you can join other people and have enjoyable (usually) conversations over a meal.  The unpleasant individuals are few and provide another story line when you return home.  If you don’t feel like being social, you can be alone.  Order room service in your cabin and revel in having dinner dressed only in your bathrobe.

Possibly the crux of the “bourgeois” accusation is the perceived hedonism of cruises.  Guilty on that count.  I must say I enjoy the good food and being served.  Not having grown up with many luxuries I often say how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy myself this way.  I never take it for granted.  Most of my friends, no matter what type of travel they prefer, feel the same way.  (For that reason, we are generous tippers.)  The kinds of cruises my friends and I have chosen do not cost massive amounts of money nor do they appeal to millionaire hedge fund managers.  That right there moves us away from the bourgeois accusation; we are not really capitalists.  We are middle class professionals, retired or active, who love learning about other cultures through travel.  It’s true that cruises only let you skim the cultural surface, but sometimes that’s enough.  A cruise is a vacation that doesn’t require non-stop sightseeing or making all our own arrangements.  It’s just fun.

If I were young and capable of hiking across Iceland, I might do it.  But for now I want to enjoy various kinds of cultural exploration, including cruising. The prospect of solo land travel still appeals to me, but in the meantime, I’ll enjoy vicariously the adventures of young women hiking through Iceland and backpacking through Myanmar.

*See “Traveling the World Solo” by wwellend and “Went Looking” by Leah, both on wordpress.