Lately, I've been entering information from my prior cruises into The Cruise Globe, and it has been mapping each of my cruises as I enter them. Not all of my cruises have been entered yet, and I am doing the research to fill the rest of them in.
Why am I mentioning this?
The bulk of my cruises have been out of New York: NCL out of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, Princess and MSC out of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. My other cruises have been out of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Fort Lauderdale, and Southampton, England. Some of these cruises have been with a travel partner, and others have been as a solo. Some of these cruises have been as Mario and others as Marian. And on each of these cruises, I learn a little more about myself and the world as a whole.
- - - - - -
Some cruise ships, like NCL's Pride of America, act as floating hotels that take people from port to port for their sightseeing. Others, like many Royal Caribbean ships, are resorts in themselves. Most cruise ships are somewhere in the middle. Yet, cruising is not for everyone. If one wants to visit a city and get to know it well, cruising is not the way to do this. But if one wants to sample several places in one vacation trip without having to unpack, then cruising might be the vacation for you.
Entering data into the Cruise Globe triggered memories of how I was treated as a transgender person on some of the trips. Occasionally, I was addressed by my dreaded masculine name, which put me in an awkward situation at times. Other times, I was treated properly for a woman of my age. Sometimes, I was reminded how I slipped into my masculine voice in the early days of traveling as Marian. Each entry brings up some memory from the associated cruise, some good, some bad, and some embarrassing. What I found most interesting was that I have spent almost 6 months on cruise ships since I lost my wife to cancer.
- - - - - -
Soon, I'll be going on another cruise and reporting on it here. Hopefully, I will continue to learn more new things while revisiting places I've been to before.