It’s good to get out every now and then to see how the other half lives. To avoid the pressures of the Winter Holiday Season my wife and I took our first (and perhaps last) cruise. It was an 8-day venture from San Diego to Acapulco, planned strategically so we could avoid airplanes, crowds, and temperatures below 60 degrees.
It was a large ship (13 decks) with lots of places to be physically active (the walk around Deck 10 took 5.5 minutes) and eat (24 hours a day). One actually could continue to have a healthy lifestyle if they had the appropriate avoidance skills. Because of my good behavior management training, I was able to exercise every day and accumulated an average of 13,233 steps and avoided the three elevators except to occasionally amuse myself. The plusses were that I had lots of quiet time to grade my papers and plenty of opportunities for cultural experiences at each port of call. I got neither see- or sea-sick, so that was positive. Nonetheless, I found the midnight chocolate buffet, paying $54.00 an hour for internet service, and having tour guide in Acapulco who was from Germany a bit much. It did just not seem authentic–sort of like having a physiologist as a PE instructor—the background was there, but things just did not translate well.
-THOM MCKENZIE
Have any of you taken a cruise and found it was easy to stay active — or did you find it difficult to maintain your workout routine? What about weight gain — could you resist overeating or did you take a holiday from moderation? If you share your thoughts with us we’ll place your name in our raffle for a free dessert (kidding).
