Cruising: The Second Honeymoon

By Ellsworth T. Rundlett III

Want to spark up your marraige? Looking for some quality time together? My advice is to take an ocean cruise and I guarantee that your marriage will take a turn for the best.

My wife and I recently spent 38 days on the Queen Mary II sailing from New York City to Los Angeles via the tip of South America, with various stops along the way. Our friends asked us, “How can you spend 38 days together on a ship in a small cabin without wanting to get divorced afterward?”  I answered in one word, “Utopia”.

Think of all that you do in an ordinary day.

You spend a third of your day sleeping, and the rest is spent in various proportions by eating, working, or playing. If each one of these portions of your day is as pleasant as possible, your life is just like the word above, Utopia.

Dining: As good as it gets

Let’s start with eating which most of us love to do. In the average
marriage, this often can be a problem. What, when, how much, and where?

On a cruise ship these questions are all answered for you and you have many choices. There are no dishes, no clean up, and no shortage of choices or abundance.

Spend 24 hours a day eating

The price? It’s all inclusive. She wants steak and you want lobster? No problem. She wants to go to a romantic Italian restaurant? Most cruise ships have one. Cruise ships have learned over the years how to make everything easy for the average married couple.

If you want breakfast in bed while your wife has early morning aerobics, just call room service. For lunch you can either dine together in a nice restaurant or grab anything you want and as much as you want at the buffet table. The bottom line is that if you like to eat, both of you will enjoy yourselves to the fullest extent. You can spend 24 hours a day eating if that’s what suits you.

Romance at sea

The cruise ship industry has been associated with romance ever since the days the ocean liners sailed with kings, queens, and movie stars across the open seas. When I was a child I remember seeing the celebrities in Life Magazine as they sipped champagne on the deck and I said to myself, “I want to be where they are.”

A gleaming Oz-like city

At night when everyone is all dressed up, even if they are casual, the ship is a gleaming Oz-like city, floating along under the constellations, brightly lit above you. People are casually walking around the deck, sipping cocktails, or standing around casino tables like characters in a James Bond movie. It’s exhilarating and exciting.

After dinner you can watch attractive dancers performing in Broadway and Las Vegas-like shows. The best talent goes to sea before they go to New York City. Jugglers and comedians will make you laugh as you sit in comfortable seats and are pampered by polite servers.

Bedtime is magic

When bedtime comes you return to a sparkling clean and comfortable cabin with everything in its place. You can sit on the balcony for a nightcap and watch the moon above and the ocean below or just hold hands as you stand at the railing. Getting ready for bed is relaxing because it is all made up with chocolates on the pillows? You can fall asleep just like a baby as the ship rolls and rocks along the ocean with the sound of the waves splashing below.

Before retiring you can watch first run movies on television, catch up on a good book, or…well, you get the picture.
What you do on most cruise ships depends on the ship’s
destination.

In the Caribbean seas, snorkeling is always fun but some
couples enjoy sitting on the beach under a swaying palm tree with an open bar just a few feet away.

More adventurous couples can mountain bike, sail, scuba dive, or even glide through a jungle rain forest on a suspended cable.

The less active couple can take in a museum or architectural tour
organized perfectly by the ship’s shore excursion people.

Romance is just a few minutes away

On European or Mediterranean trips the ship will go to port
in some of the most famous cities in the world. You can see Paris, Rome, Athens, Madrid, the Greek Isles, and even Monte Carlo, sometimes on the same ship! Romance is just a few minutes away in a secluded restaurant or exotic watering hole. Imagin yourselves in your own Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn location movie.

More enjoyment and romance per dollar

I have found that, dollar for dollar, the cruise ship
experience is perhaps the most enjoyable for the average couple. You can be independent if you like or you can join the group. Boredom, in my opinion, is never an issue. The service is the best anywhere, equal to that of five star hotels, and the food…well, we already covered that.

Choose one

So, you can pack the kids into a car and head off to the local
national park for a camping trip amid the crowds and insects, stand in line at the major amusement parks, or head off into the sunset and the stars with the love of your life by your side.

See you on deck! <<

Ellsworth Rundlett is an attorney from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and a frequent traveler with over 50 trips to Europe, Africa, Australia, and other parts of the world.