Unforgettable Cruise Moments: Food, Friends, and Fun

The Intentional Travelers discovered cruising in 1999 and fell in love with it, and so did our kids. Even now, twenty five years later, we look forward to the next cruise and what it will bring. Outside of the adventure of traveling to new places it’s the people that are at the forefront of the experience.

Over a number of years we spent the first day on a ship running into old friends, both crew and passengers. Because you see, our generation, after retirement tended to become frequent cruisers and it wasn’t unusual for us to run into a number of cruising friends regularly. Unfortunately Covid seems to have put an end to cruising for too many people.

We also run into old friends in the crew. One incident is a perfect example of this. On one cruise we would go to a lounge for coffee and a pastry for breakfast and my wife would have a cappuccino. Several days into the cruise one young crew member got in the habit of having her cappuccino ready when we arrived and we spent a fair amount of time with him talking. About ten months later we were on another cruise ship and on our first morning we went down to the lounge. As we got to the door there he was waiting with her cappuccino! He said he saw us as we boarded and thought it would be fun to be ready in the lounge the next morning.

While we do enjoy the food and the dining room staff is always amazing, another part of the cruise experience we really love is the entertainment. For most of our lives we have enjoyed going out to hear live music and usually on a cruise ship the choices are always difficult to make. And the talent is almost always excellent. We’ve made friends with a number of them and one duo that we met on a ship now lives in our home town and we frequently go out to hear them.