Three Opportunities To Improve Your River Cruise Experience
Lately I’ve been thinking about how we can get the most from our experiences, be those experiences river cruises or almost anything else that we do. Of course, a lot of it boils down to allowing yourself to live in the moment. I’ve read countless books about living in the moment during my own journey of self-discovery and self-improvement. Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power Of Now” comes to mind. His book essentially encourages us to live in the present, without getting mired in the past or harboring excess anxiety about the future.
While there are lessons in Tolle’s edict to embrace the moment, I believe that to get the most from our experiences, we would do well to think about opportunities outside the present moment. First, there’s the period preceding the experience, then there’s the period after the experience.
In 2009, I wrote a story for our sister site, Avid Cruiser. It was called Sea Dreaming, about a then 36-year-old German woman who used the time leading up to her trip to begin experiencing the pleasantries of her upcoming Caribbean cruise on SeaDream. She pored over the itinerary and the ship’s deck plans.
"I always begin by looking at travel magazines and brochures to try to get a picture of what I would like to do," she told me. "Once I decide on a trip, I then occupy my mind on where I am going to be, what I am going to do and what it's going to feel like." She said that allowing herself to imagine so vividly filled her with a sense of excitement about the journey.
"I imagined where we were going to sit and what it would feel like to be sitting there," Bettina told me. She said she even went as far as to imagine what it would feel like to ride the gentle swell of the sea with a light breeze blowing while she slept under the stars on one night of her cruise.
The other opportunity to maximize your experience is after the experience has passed. Some of this relies on memory, but two things help my memory: 1) journaling during the experience; and 2) taking lots of photos and videos. I suppose there is a third thing, particularly when it comes to river cruising: Making friends and allowing them to be part of your collective memory. You can share photos and emails that start with, Remember when? What follows is a pleasant stroll down memory lane.
Luckily, I have been “forced” to do all of this in my profession. I study brochures, deck plans, itineraries, journal, take photos and videos – and the best part of all, develop friendships along the way.
I’m curious to know what you think. Is what I have outlined a practical way to optimize your experience?
While Bettina was SeaDreaming about the Caribbean, I am dreaming about Europe. You’ve probably read about my “Dream Cruise,” which takes place in the autumn of 2024. I’ve been poring over deck plans and itineraries, which you’ll now find at this link..
If you’re dreaming of getting away sooner, set your sights on Burgundy and snap on the one remaining cabin on my barge trip.
Thanks for being a subscriber, Ralph Grizzle
Article ID: ART5037
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