All the things I loved about cruising, one of the things I had originally booked for was actually true.
I usually think of traveling as a way to experience a place and its culture. I like walking around my neighborhood, eating local food, researching public transportation, and having the kind of unplanned interactions that happen when you’re actually immersing yourself in a destination (even when it’s stressful).
Ports of call vary. We visited some great places and usually only stayed for a few hours before returning to the ship. There is less time to wander, be spontaneous, and engage in meaningful cultural exchange.
In that sense, this cruise felt closer to a real vacation than the kind of trips I usually take. And as it turned out, I really needed it and I enjoyed it. But I sometimes wondered how much of a destination I could truly say I had experienced after seeing it within the relatively controlled framework of a port day.
Therefore, even if my main objective is to know a place deeply, I would choose to stay there rather than visit the place by boat. But I loved the experience on board, and it was one of the best trips I’ve had in recent memory.