Syllabus for:
Course Title:
Topics in Cruising
Instructor:
Prof. Cruise, best known for her sophomoric jokes and frequent wardrobe malfunctions
Course Description:
CRUISE101 will cover the full spectrum of the cruising experience from planning and booking to embarkation and debarkation to comprehensive ship and port reviews. With occasional tangents into Seattle-based travel or down memory lane. Bear with me.
Recommended Course Materials:
You’ll need some sunglasses so I can’t see you rolling your eyes or falling asleep, a wide rimmed hat for cheating on exams, organic mineral sunscreen so you don’t sue me for medical costs incurred due to the 1st degree burns you received after hours of my droning on, and an insulated travel mug for “coffee” that is actually wine. I recommend these:
About Your Instructor:
It’s like the travel bug swam up into the womb and bit me before I was even fully formed. I came out screaming because, “what am I doing in this lousy hospital room when there’s a whole world to see. Pop some Tylenol and let’s go, mom!”
My dad traveled for a living, so his frequent flyer status and hotel points meant we “buckled our seatbelts and secured our trays” extensively throughout my childhood. I took my first big international trip to Japan at age twelve, without anyone who shared my genetic quirks, staying instead with a Japanese family with much better skin who spoke very little English. Then the summer after high school I backpacked through Europe with my 82-year-old BFF. Some years later, as a college professor, I led a three-week study abroad trip to three different cities in China. I’ve had some adventures!
But it was on my honeymoon that I discovered cruising. Well, technically rediscovered – I’d been on one cruise as a kid. And over the past eleven years I’ve logged 282 days at sea on 32 cruises on 6 different lines. I’ve cruised Alaska, Antarctica, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Hawaii, New England, New Zealand, Mexico, the Pacific Coast, the Sea of Cortez, South America, and the Panama Canal. I’ve cruised solo, on a b2b, with 20 of my in-laws, and with Adam Carolla. I’ve even booked a last minute cruise at 3pm, leaving the next day!
You might say I’m addicted. If I’m not on a cruise, I’m planning a cruise. And if I’m ever not planning a cruise, you can visit me in the hospital in a comatose state dreaming of being on a cruise: “what’s she smiling about and why does she keep mumbling about Carnival chocolate melting cake with TWO ice creams?”
I’ve lived a privileged life when it comes to travel. But my one unfulfilled dream was to live in a city with a cruise port. So in 2016 my husband and I sold our house in Pittsburgh and nearly all our belongings, resigned from our jobs, packed up our cars with a select few valuables – a TV, Vitamix, our son, and our rescue dog Henry, and headed for Seattle.
These dramatic gestures always make for a great story decades later. “Remember that time I quit my tenured professor position, sold everything, and moved to the furthest possible city away from my in-laws (they would want me to mention that)?” Of course I’ll leave out the part about finding myself one of the few unemployed during an economic boom.
It was a terrible time to be looking for work as a college professor with the college aged population shrinking and grad programs continuing to churn out baby Ph.D.’s who were told five and a half years in that an academic offer in Pittsburg…Kansas, not Pennsylvania, was probably the best place to steady their expectations. And in a highly desirable city like Seattle? Nobel Laureates probably submit cover letters to the suburban satellite campus of the community college closing with, “I’m honored to be considered by such an esteemed institution.”
I would have to reinvent myself. Luckily my husband found a real job to pay our rent, so I could find out which Golden Girls character I’m the most like via Facebook, Dorothy, and take online career quizzes that asked questions like:
Question: What do you enjoy?
Answer: Cruising. Eating. Writing. Taking pictures.
Question: What are you good at?
Answer: Embarrassing my kid. Telling bad jokes.
Result: Cruise blogger!
So, here we are.
Course Outline:
Assessment:
Active participation in this course is key. Share your experiences and learn from others by commenting on posts and following Prof. Cruise on social media:
