Everyone has a fear they need to face at some point in their life, at least I assume they do. I have faced many fears over the last couple of years. About two weeks ago I faced my fear of the water and going on a cruise ship. For years I’ve told my husband how much I want to go on a cruise ship just so I can see what it looks like inside. However, you can’t just go on a ship to look around. That isn’t allowed. So I finally faced this huge fear of mine and we took our first cruise to Key West and The Bahamas.
How did it go? Well, let me tell you. I was seriously stressed. I was also amazed at how the ship looked inside. When it was time for the ship to sail we went to the front of the ship as high as we could go to watch it head out to sea. I figured if I’m going to face this fear I might as well go all in. It was fun and scary at the same time. I seriously couldn’t believe I was on a cruise ship FINALLY. My husband and I wandered all around that ship. We checked out the 3 pools. The stores. The restaurants. The Library. The quiet area. We went on the elevator numerous times. We looked outside on the back of the ship for a bit and quickly realized I get dizzy on the back of a ship. I do much better at the front of the ship. Have no idea why. There were music groups to listen to. Games to watch. There were shows to see and a comedian. I do feel like the best part was standing on one side of the ship each night and watching the sunset. Each night it was beautiful to see. And, yes, there were definitely times when I could feel the ship moving from side to side or should I say back and forth. And, No I didn’t like that feeling at all. I didn’t get sick, but I didn’t like it either.
Key West and The Bahamas were nice. My husband and I have been to Key West once before so we actually knew where we wanted to go that day. Key Lime Pie, buying a mug and a magnet was our agenda for that day and we got that accomplished. The Bahamas were ok. We walked up the Queen’s staircase. We went to a chocolate store that had a really good chocolate drink that we shared. We got 2 coconuts to share, One was a straight coconut, and the other was a non-alcoholic pina colada coconut. And of course, we bought a magnet and mug. We did find after 2 hours in both places we were done with what we wanted and went back to the ship.
In between those two days was a day at sea. We had that day all planned. Breakfast then the indoor pool for a while then lunch, back to the pool for a bit. After that were showers, reading, and crocheting and then we realized we were getting bored. We walked around that ship for as long as we could that day at sea. We sat under the sun for as long as we could. What we both found out was a relaxing day at sea isn’t so relaxing for us. We would much prefer to be looking for castle ruins in Ireland or England or somewhere. We would rather be walking to different places and exploring. We both love history and we both love exploring new places, so a day at sea for us turned out to be on the boring side. And we did our best to come up with things to do. But we don’t drink and we don’t gamble which a lot of people were doing.
Would I go on another cruise? Well, we talked about it. My husband and I agreed that a cruise to some of the Greek islands and visiting places like Ephesus would be more what we would like, where we can get off the ship each day, explore, and then go back to the ship. We would also like to do a family-based cruise someday with our family. The kind of cruise where they have gocarts and such. On the bright side, I did face a huge fear on this cruise and we found out that I do much better when I can watch the water rather than walking around inside the ship or sitting in our stateroom.
I did take a video while we watched as the ship sailed away. I made it into a short on my YouTube channel so it’s easier to watch. You will hear my strange commentary on it.
Kathleen Smith author of Miscarriages My Story, Brooklyn Raised Livin’ Upstate & Hey You Moments to Remember. Blogs about a variety of things. Has her own podcast Kathleen’s Korner and she is the CEO of BearsWithApps. OH, let’s not forget her YouTube channel