The S.S. Sedentary?

My spouse is one of cruising’s most ardent supporters. When someone comes back from a vacation—any vacation—as soon as they begin to tell him about their trip, he says, “Have you tried cruising?” When he did this last, our neighbor’s response was, “I’m too active for cruising. I run five miles a day.”

And therein lies one of the most pervasive misconceptions about cruising. That we spend seven 

Working off those calories in the
gym of Celebrity's Equinox

days flat on our backs around the pool or eating around the clock until we bust out of our bathing suits.

Now this may be an accurate depiction of some cruisers, but many of us still manage to fit in laps around the jogging track, working out in the gym, scaling the rock-climbing walls, zip-lining, windsurfing, swimming, ice skating, hiking, dancing, walks into town…

A recent article in the Miami Herald noted that when Richard Fain had joined the board of Royal Caribbean, he had never been on a cruise. A full year later, egged on by his colleagues, he went through the motions by choosing the shortest, cheapest cruise: a three-day in the Bahamas.

Today, of course, as the cruise line’s CEO, he spends quite a bit of time extoling the virtues of the cruise vacation.

Which goes to show that some misconceptions can even be cured by three days at sea.

Musings’ Top Tip: 2.4 laps around the jogging track of the massive Allure of the Seas equals one mile. The track has a designated path for joggers and another for walkers, and can be found on Promenade Deck 5.