Cruising 101 - Risk and Reward

About 3 weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the "rich" people on board...aka the well-healed, wealthy, comfortable, well-off and affluent. This was in the context of being on a world cruise but inserting another mini-trip somewhere in the middle and then rejoining the ship later on. All the time, still paying for your missed cruise days. It's not just a $$ thing, there's a legit risk that suddenly your wonderful trip can go sideways....real fast. It has just happened to acquaintances of ours on this ship. Super nice people!!!. They left the ship in Tauranga and planned to rejoin in Wellington. But due to the storms and being rerouted, we're no longer going to Wellington. Thankfully they're getting to spend even more time with family, but now they'll need to fly to Melbourne to rejoin the ship. It's all fixable, but at a cost of time, money and hassle. If you ever plan an independent excursion like this, just be aware of the risks.

I'm pretty risk averse. Which brings me to an interesting point I've sort of known but never really articulated. I like a plan and I like to stick to it. BUT I can plan to be spontaneous too, and then it's OK. Isn't that a strange mind game? But it's so true. It's an oxymoron of sorts.

There are many ports that we get off at and decide THEN what we want to do, on the spot, in the moment, unplanned, no expectations. That's both freeing and exciting. We've rarely been disappointed with that approach. Partly that's because you have no expectations to be disappointed about. But partly because you get to see what's popular, where people are queuing up and what's drawing people's attention. We've been asked, "aren't you afraid they'll be sold out of all the good options?". The answer is NO, there's always people ready to take our money, it may just cost a little more. In the end, it comes down to this: making an excursion decision with the most information vs making an excursion decision with the latest information. It's tough to get both at the same time. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, each better in different situations or perhaps different stages of life. The weather is very impactful in the enjoyment of an excursion and of course, you'll never know that until the last minute.

Today I did about 4 hrs of work and also got caught up on the blog entries. That took several hours including the uploading of the photos in the ports of call section. 3 ports days in a row put me behind. I did 6+ miles in 1.5 hours on the treadmill. Then dinner and the show.

I'll gamble in a while too. But all in all, a good sea day. Tomorrow is that little game called the superbowl. It will be crazy on board, with the big screen and other venues televising the game. It will be one big floating party. Till tomorrow.