A multitude of voyages

It occurs to me that there are a multitude of voyages happening on the Amsterdam.

There is my voyage, whose purpose is to sail around the world. My voyage likes sea days because we are progressing toward my goal -- Ft. Lauderdale the long way around. And my voyage involves a lot of looking at water going by, to the exclusion of, say, ballroom dancing classes or evening shows or shopping for diamonds or tai chi or acupuncture.

And then there is one of my tablemates who seems grimly determined to wring every last drop of possibility out of the trip. He has scheduled excursions for every day in port, some of them 12 or 14 hours long. He seems to spend sea days mostly in the sports bar or the casino, two places where he can smoke, though he does go to some of the lectures and is merciless toward lecturers who don't hold his interest.

The woman who was my roommate on the China trip seemed most interested in what she could buy and how cheaply. She described destinations in terms of what could be bought there. Her targets ranged from black pearls in Tahiti to jade and silk in China and Thailand and India. She has dozens of people she's buying small presents for, and she seemed to find it difficult to pass a street vendor without trying to haggle herself a bargain. I hope she brought a couple extra suitcases. And that's off the ship. I don't think she buys the gemstones offered in shops onboard, but someone must. Maybe the people paying $100,000 apiece for deluxe veranda suites on Deck 7 need diversions on sea days and pick up spare diamonds to cure the tedium.

Then there are those for whom a cruise provides support that any other form of vacation does not: a widowed tablemate* nearing her 90th birthday, frail and nearly deaf, or the Australian woman who sits near me at bingo whose husband is in a wheelchair. She suffers seasickness the whole voyage no matter how calm the waters, but it's preferable to trying to rassle all their equipment onto and off of airplanes and into and out of hotels. (There are several couples in her situation, all with him in the wheelchair and her on her feet. I would like to see just one with roles reversed. But "judge not... ". And now that I think of it, there was a couple on the China trip, him physically healthy, her in a walker, so forget I said anything.)

I think most passengers, at least the ones with more than one world cruise to their credit, are just garden-variety hedonists. (Again, "judge not... ") They like endless good food served with reliable smiles from people who take the trouble to learn your name and preferences, no housekeeping chores, lots of diversions, and a chocolate coin on your pillow each night.

*One evening at dinner, I asked my six tablemates why they were on this voyage. Answers were kind of what you'd expect until we came to Sue, the frail 90-year-old. It took a couple tries to get her to understand what I was asking, but then she smiled and answered, "Because this will be my last one."