We took our first long cruise 10 years ago.  We had been on cruises before our kids were born back in the 70s.  In the 90s, after Pop died, Suzi and I took Mom on a couple of cruises.  But the 2015 Grand South America and Antarctica on Prinsendam was the first for just the two of us for a very long time and it was our first long cruise.

We weren’t sure we’d like it.  We did — much more than we thought and much more than our previous cruises.  We liked it not only because of the ports of call, but because of the society we that became a part of.  Near the beginning of that cruise a decade ago, we weren’t sure.  It felt like we had crashed a private party.  But old timers made us welcome, and it soon became our party.

Daniel, our Cruise Director, spoke about the difference between long cruises and short cruises.  On a short cruise people are on vacation.  A longer cruise is not a vacation.  To folks on Volendam’s Pole to Pole, it’s part of the annual flow of life.  It’s the summer cabin or the winter ski condo.  It’s a second home.  Daniel says the crew is aware of this and responds differently to people on long cruises.  Holland America recognizes by greeting us with the banner “Welcome Home.”

But this cruise was different from other long cruises we’ve been on.  For the first part of the journey the ship was barely over half full.  Around 750 people on a ship with 1400 berths.  It was relaxed, no waits for elevators, quick service in the dining room, no need to show up 15 or 20 minutes early to get your preferred seat at the World Stage.  Holland America had two “World Cruises” going simultaneously, Volendam’s Pole to Pole and the traditional circumnavigation on Zuiderdam.  Holland America split both the market and the world cruise society it had fostered.

The two groups were brought together in Barcelona for two days where we ate on each other’s ships and met and toured with friends.  Some of us carried that over a few days later when both ships were docked next to each other in Lisbon.

But in Barcelona the culture on the ship changed.  Travel With Alan is an agency that sells unsold berths at discounted fares.  Alan puts together packages. “Alan fills ships!”  His agency brought 260 people onto the Pole to Pole in Barcelona.  The group arrived in Barcelona a couple of days before they boarded, did local tours and had meals together.  They were a semi formed “tribe” when they joined the ship.

In effect, this meant that there were two tribes on Volendam, and for a while they didn’t mesh.  Some of us who had been on since the beginning resented the slower service in the dining room, the wait for elevators, the longer lines for coffee and someone else taking “my” seat in the World Stage.  It was noticeable enough that Cruise Director Daniel joked about it.  Some in our tribe were not as welcoming as we could have been.

This was the first long cruise for many in Alan’s tribe.  They were a little bit “at sea.”  They did not understand the party they were joining or, as I felt on my first long cruise, crashing.  That caused some awkward moments.  At one dinner we were seated with 4 people from Alan and it was like we didn’t exist.  The conversation was between the four.  While we tried to participate it was clear our participation was not really welcome.  Much of the conversation was about other tours they had taken with Alan, comparing their bargains.  (At other times we had great dinner conversations with members of the new tribe.) 

We spoke with several folks who joined in Barcelona who were not sure they liked being on the ship for more than 40 days.  More than a few asked us how we managed to handle the whole 133 days.  Some of folks we met were relieved as we approached Fort Lauderdale.

But near the end the two tribes began to integrate.  One of the things that slowed that integration was the number of port days after Barcelona.  There was only one sea day in that first week and only 2 in the first two weeks.  Sea days are when the community coalesces.  In 2027 we have booked the final two segments of the world cruise, joining Volendam in Singapore. (We have commitments in the States in January so will join late.)  I’ll be interested to see how quickly we integrate into that cruise’s community.  We have three port days before our first sea day.

While I enjoyed this cruise, I prefer a less port intensive itinerary. I needed sea days to process what I had seen in port, to have time to reflect and time to enjoy the society on the ship.  I needed more sea days to share stories and build friendships.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy we were on this cruise, but to maintain my balance I needed to create “ship days,” staying ashore in some ports, to recharge, sort pictures and write.  But ship days are not a substitute for sea days in building community. 

I also find that, as I age, I have less energy for long shore excursions.  I used to have no problems for an 8 hour excursion.  Now I find that, after about 5 I flag.  There was a good mix of ports I have visited before, where I could concentrate on one place I wanted to return to, and new ports where there was the joy of new discoveries.  It’s just that I had to limit my discovery to one or two things.  It helps that we have some of these ports scheduled on future cruises so we already have our wish lists for those port calls.

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Some of you may want to stop reading what is below the next set of pictures because I am veering into the political. 

One of the reasons this post is so tardy is I agonized over whether to post these the next few paragraphs.  I decided to do so because this affected my mood during much of the cruise and colored the experience.

Some of the joy of the cruise was dampened by my need to reengage with my former work world.  DOGE precipitously cut USAID and fired staff in the cruelest way, with letters that said they did not meet expectations, letters they certainly could not use for references.  Further DOGE mocked good foreign aid programs because they had unusual names, not knowing what the programs did.  The name was enough to hold the program and the people running it to public ridicule.  “Fighting Terrorism with Soccer” may sound funny but when you have young men in refugee camps with mobile phones looking at extreme Islamist websites, getting them out onto the football pitch with coaches giving them a different message does fight terrorism.  It’s the same rationale that we use to support Police Athletic Leagues in big cities.   

To quote Mitch McConnell “Over the years in the Senate, the biggest supporters of soft power have been the military, generals who are fully aware of how much more costly it is to have a war than to prevent one.”  He went on to say that soft power could be the most fiscally responsible course in the long run.

We worked on USAID projects for more than 20 years.  Colleagues, citizens of our host countries who had worked for USAID, were left at sea, fired with no notice.  At the same time USAID staff in the U.S. were also fired. 

Job applications need references.  Many agencies require former employers to confirm salary, dates worked, and projects the applicants worked on.  There was no one left at USAID to confirm employment dates or salaries.  I spent a good deal of time online looking through my files on the cloud and writing letters for colleagues.  I could confirm that I had worked with them between date x and date y but could not confirm salaries and could not confirm hire dates.  I hope my letters, not on USAID letterhead, will help my colleagues land on their feet.  At times I had to go back over a quarter of a century to reconstruct work histories. 

Some of these colleagues had been harassed by their own governments for working with us yet they were loyal to our mission of development.  Once they were fired, they some lost whatever protection they had working for the USA and were subjected to renewed harassment by their own governments.  “See, even the USA, who you worked for, is rejecting your work.”  I did some long distance counseling as well as reference writing on this cruise.  

There is a lot to criticize about USAID.  Having worked in the field for more than 20 years I know this better than most congressmen.  There was need for reform.  But the cruel and chaotic way DOGE handled this caused unnecessary harm to people who worked for the United States for years.  Is this the way the United States rewards service?

This is post 132 from a 133 day cruise. It is the first time I’ve had fewer posts than days on the cruise.