i love cruise ship season in vancouver. watching the gracefully, lumbering floating cities amble in and out of the harbour. seeing the busy little tugboats tucking them into their docks for quick and dirty swap & swabs in the wee hours of the morning, then guiding them safely out to open water at dinner time. it amazes me. to have all those people coming here to board a great big dinghy for a seven or fourteen-day trip up and down the west coast. fjord-watching. who knew?!
there’s a subtle romance about being on a cruise ship, but i can’t help but get a little disgusted shiver down my spine when i think of it. trapped. on a boat. with hundreds, even thousands, of people. no escape. no chance to find a quiet place without strangers stealing your oxygen. activities! photographers! stay away! leave me alone!
there is one cruise i would want to take. the mediterranean. mostly because on a properly scheduled mediterranean cruise, the ship is not much more than a floating hotel. you can see all the different ports of call without ever having to move your luggage. you’re not stuck onboard for days of monotonous sea-travel. every day or two you’re visiting a new country, experiencing new places and cultures. that’s my idea of travel. especially the not having to pack & unpack every other day.
Your post reminds me of a girl I used to work with in Vancouver, when I lived there. Whenever the navy ships would come into port, she’d disappear for days. Then come back. She had a super reputation in our office.
Not that you wrote about navy ships. Never mind.
i actually did that a long time ago. went down to the wharf when the american navy was in town. mmm, sailors.
a nile cruise is nice for the same reason.
goddamn cruise ships. I HATE THEM ALL.
heh, but then i work in the tourist industry… kinda… anything that brings in track-suited americans by the thousand is an evil device.