"The United Nations of the High Seas" - Time Out #71

Here we are again....the beginning of a new calendar year, and we are filled with anticipation and hope for the future.

Some of us are realizing the future is now.

As I have said many times in this space before, in my opinion, there is no more relaxing way to see planet earth than from a ship. Some may argue a river boat is more to their tastes than an ocean cruise ship. Since I have experienced both modes of travel, I see the positives and negatives of each vessel, but in the end, they are ALL good!

To be able to put all your travel "stuff" in one stateroom , and leave it there safely, cared for by someone else for days or possibly weeks (or longer?) is absolutely wonderful!.

For me, to get on-board and not have to do anything other than ride from point A to point B is beyond nice. You literally are able to go to bed in one country, and wake up the next morning in a new one.

That fact certainly gives legs to the phrase, "It's Tuesday, it must be Belgium".

My bride and I just got refreshed once again on an 11-day holiday (both Christmas and New Years) adventure, round trip from far off Miami, FL. This trip, we hosted our favorite daughter and her husband.

My mission with this installment, is not to guide you, the reader, through our daily activities on-board this particular ocean ship, but to address the magic we've been experiencing for almost 35 years of cruising.. For over 1/3 century Debbie and I have carefully observed, as I like to call it, the "United Nations of the High Seas" function like a fine-tuned piano, on ships all over the waters of the world.

To watch ship crew function day in and day out is truly poetry in motion.

Whether it be a European or Asian river-going vessel with a crew of less than 100 or our most recent outing, on a ship that sports a crew of 1,200, the daily employee teamwork is incredible.

A fact from our latest cruise; 82 different countries were working together to make sure 3,100 of my fellow passengers (including Ms. Debbie and me) had a wonderful vacation experience. As I walked about the massive ship for almost 2 weeks, I listed to a multitude of languages both with the passengers and the crew. Ethnic Asian crew were working side by side with European and/or South American employees, communicating either in English or another dialect. I am sure there were disagreements among the crew, but I am hard-pressed to tell you I have ever seen many issues among the "rainbow" of workers over our decades of cruise travel. They almost never allow passengers to witness any disagreements.

And smiles on their faces? Almost always, and 9/10 times, they will greet you first as you walk past them anywhere on the vast decks of modern cruise ships.

Also, very prevalent, is the old phrase frequently put to the test, "Where there is a will, there is a way".

When a vessel is at sea, you can't just get in a car and go to the closest Wal-Mart to get a part to fix something that is broken. Since a huge cruise ship is literally a small floating city, things constantly break.

Somehow, some way, the ship's employee repair person comes to your stateroom, public area, etc., and usually within a minimal amount of time, repairs said problem---boom, it's done!

My simple point of this dialogue is this. Each and every day all over the earth, there are hundreds of cruise vessels with thousands of ethnically diverse employees all co-existing in very confined space. Language, race, education, male or female gender, it makes absolutely no difference in their ability to come together for the common good. That common good is the pleased cruise passenger, extremely happy he/she took that week or so out of their everyday life to simply enjoy the waterways of the world.

If the cruise employees are able pull it off, it means it is possible for all of us to do the same on dry land.

Just sayin'.............