Cruising Considerately in 2016 – Resolutions for a year of bon voyages!

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Promises … Promises … Promises …

Cruising Considerately in 2016

Resolutions for a year of bon voyages!

Happy New Year! A new year means a new set of cruise resolutions! Let’s see if I can keep these any better than I kept last year’s:

  • I will understand that my cabin steward is not a mind reader and I will assume full responsibility for my room not being made up on those days when I leave the cabin without ever removing the “Do Not Disturb” sign from the door handle.
  • I will place my key card in the exact same spot each time I enter the cabin so it doesn’t somehow end up between the love seat cushions or in the safe as it has in the past. (In a related resolution, I will try very hard not to leave the cabin with both my and my cabin mate’s key cards.)
  • Early in the cruise, I will make sure to ask — and, here’s the important part, remember — the name of any newfound friend. Nothing’s more embarrassing than hanging out with someone all week and having to ask their name on the last night of the cruise when you’re adding their contact info into your phone.
  • I will accept that I will never ever figure out which of my cabin’s light switches operate which lights.
  • I will plan a cruise over the 2016 holiday season, particularly since I will likely spend a good part of the year consuming leftover food and booze purchased for the 2015 Christmas dinner that my family cancelled an hour before they were scheduled to arrive. Okay, the booze will probably be gone. Okay, most of it already is.
  • Towel animal with sunglasses and bottled water on the cabin bed.I will determine the proper etiquette with regard to towel animals. Is it proper to dismantle these works of art as soon as they’re viewed or should the recipient carefully move them intact from bed to cocktail table as a sign of appreciation? If the latter, what happens when the little pieces of paper that formed the eyes fall off and you can’t find one?
  • I will not wrinkle my nose and act superior when a friend or coworker tells me about the fabulous time he or she had on a ship I wouldn’t be caught dead on. I’ll just accept that different ships appeal to different people and that I have better taste than most.
  • I will take up smoking because $124 for five cartons of American cigarettes in St. Thomas is just too good a deal to pass up.
  • I will try — really try — to understand the appeal of loud music, live or recorded, around the pool.
  • No matter how enticing the ship or its itinerary, I will accept that the use of “kids sail free” or “family friendly” within advertising copy guarantees a less-than-relaxing experience for me.

— Judi Cuervo


 

What are your cruise resolutions for 2016? Tell us in the comments below.

 


 

 

Judi Cuervo is a New York City native who fell in love with cruising in 1976 during her first sailing aboard Carnival Cruises’ Mardi Gras. Twenty years later, she began her freelance cruise writing gig and, since that time, has covered mass market, ultra-premium, riverboat and expedition ships for regional, national and international publications as well as cruise websites.