We humans are emotional beings. Our emotions remind us we’re alive. They also make us feel good to be alive.
And that’s where this industry comes into its own. Because feel-good emotional experiences are what cruising is all about. When you cruise the oceans, you also supercharge your emotions. But does that lead to a totally positive vibe or an emotional rollercoaster?
I’ll let you be the judge.
To help you decide, here’s my breakdown of a few of the emotions you may or may not experience on a cruise. You could call it my emotional breakdown.
Tears of joy
This experience can be triggered by many different things.
It could be the sound of children singing Bedouin folk songs acapella in a street market in Casablanca. It could be the ocean sunset soaked up by you and your soul mate along with a bottle of Luna di Luna Merlot Cabernet delle Venezie.
Or perhaps it was brought on when you rushed back to your cabin to change out of those tight trousers?
Chilled out euphoria
By day two of your cruise the stresses and strains of everyday life could be just a fading memory. You could be suffused with a kind of chilled out euphoria.
You know the feeling. It’s sort of similar to how you felt when the anaesthetist gave you that pre-med before your wisdom tooth operation.
Awe
During a Red Sea cruise you step ashore at Port Sokhna to take a closer look at the Great Sphinx of Giza. When you realise you are gazing at something constructed about 4,500 years ago, you are awestruck.
You start to wonder when the oldest structure of note in your home town was built. Then you remember you come from Milton Keynes, so probably 1967.
Surprise
That passenger who ignored you when you passed him three times in the corridor and who you’d marked down as a grumpy so and so, actually starts talking to you at the bar. What’s more, he’s really friendly.
Your surprise is only tempered by the realisation that perhaps you’re the grumpy one for not striking up a conversation first.
Happiness
You’re not somebody who gloats at the misfortune of others.
However, you notice that the annoying couple who seem to keep winning in the casino and loudly trumpeting their success have finally suffered a significant loss.
Maybe that will shut them up for a while.
Disgust
They just won it all back again.
Fear
You’re on a cruise to New Zealand and take a trip to Auckland Zoo to see the big cats. You’re not scared of the animals but you’re fearful that the urge to throw your mother-in-law into the lions’ enclosure might be too strong to resist.
Love
It’s a case of love at first sight. You look across the main restaurant and lock eyes with an alcohol-laced cream and chocolate creation, sitting on the dessert trolley.
Pride
From somewhere deep within, you find the strength to resist the temptation and order a fruit salad instead.
You feel proud because it takes true grit and character to do something like that.
Wantonness
Ten seconds later you cancel the fruit salad and revert to the chocolate. It’s true what they say – pride comes before a fall.
Romance
As an attractive woman travelling on her own you’re thrilled to hear you’ve been invited to the captain’s table. The last three times this happened you ended up marrying the top guy. Now you could be about to meet your fourth husband.
You feel your life is like a movie. Then a worrying thought occurs – what if that movie was ‘Four weddings and a funeral?’
Irritation
This is your first cruise and you’d intended it to be your last, because you really don’t like the idea of cruises.
The annoying thing is that after two ports and three days at sea, you’re having the best holiday of your life. Now you’ll probably have to go on another. How irritating is that.
Worry
You’re heading south on an Antarctic cruise thinking profound things about the ice caps at the north and south poles. And then a worrying thought enters your head. Where the hell are the east and west poles?
Relief
You’re halfway into your Pacific cruise when you suddenly remember your Mum’s birthday was yesterday and you forgot to phone her. You’re immediately consumed by guilt.
A moment later the captain announces the ship has just crossed the international dateline. The guilt vanishes as you head off to make that call.
Wonderment
And finally one for the guys.
You can’t take your eyes off that generously endowed young woman who’s sitting on the other side of the lounge, listening to the ship’s cocktail pianist.
That minimalist dress encasing her Archimedean figure seems to challenge the bounds of decency, not to mention the laws of physics. Later on you’ll have trouble naming a single tune the piano man played.
Twang
These feelings – well the positive ones anyway – are just some of the emotions you could enjoy on your next cruise. It’s not luck or co-incidence that brings this about, but the way cruising works.
It’s packed with moments that will twang the strings of your heart and head. But always in a good way.
Forget rollercoaster rides. If you’re off on a cruise, prepare for a full-spectrum, positive emotional experience.
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