Inspired to Cruise

October 16, 2012
by Jessie Work

Can a cruise save a marriage? When I boarded Crown Princess, I didn’t see how it could possibly unravel the ball of knots our marriage had become. But my husband, Chip, wanted to take one more shot at reviving our marriage. He booked a New England/Canada cruise in October 2007 to see if sailing away from our day-to-day problems could bring us back together.

I did not want to go. I had well and truly given up on marriage, on joy for that matter. And we’d tried this cruise-fix two years before with divorce papers drawn and us practically steps from the courthouse. While that particular cruise did work some magic on our relationship, we received some bad news from home that threw up more barriers between us.

It wasn’t always so hard. In the beginning, I was an army nurse and Chip was my Sargent in charge. I remember teasing him about his last name, Work. “Work, work, work, work, work,” I’d say as I went about my duties, never imagining that one day it would be mine. Read More

October 9, 2012
by Sheryl Slone Tarkoff

Lots of people cruise with family, and some perhaps to meet up with a family member or two, but it’s rare when an itinerary literally synchronizes with the people who make up your past, present and future, and you wind up seeing family in nearly every port.

When my husband, Michael, and I took a Canada & New England cruise for my 60^th birthday it became a unique opportunity to reunite with (and in some cases be surprised by) cousins, children, siblings and precious wisps of family history at ports along the way.

I’d been dreaming about this cruise for a while, as I’d recently had a serious health scare, and was extraordinarily happy to reach this milestone birthday. I especially wanted to celebrate and connect with family, and this Eastern Seaboard itinerary
featured ports where I could possibly see many family members and even explore some family roots.

The day of my birthday was the day before the cruise began. We planned a low-key celebration in one of New York’s landmark spots, Serendipity, with one of my nephews (or so I thought…). Read More

October 2, 2012
by Eileen Langdon

For the better part of a year, I kept a picture of the Crown Princess Piazza in my handbag until the paper became worn from constant handling. I kept another copy on my nightstand in case of overnight emergency.

You see, the Piazza of a Princess cruise ship is my happy place in life, and I needed those pictures to keep me calm when I had to have heart surgery.

I’ve always loved grand hotel lobbies, but I felt they were truly perfected when I saw the Piazza during a cruise on Crown Princess in 2008. It had all the elements of the finest hotel, from soaring, decorative ceilings to elegant seating areas. I decided it was my favorite thing.

And we all have our things. Unfortunately, another thing of mine is white-coat syndrome. Since childhood, doctors have terrified me. As for hospitals, I couldn’t even step into one to visit friends and family because they freaked me out so much. Read More

September 25, 2012
by Eleanor Troutman

It took a journey on Island Princess to remind my husband, Ralph, and me just how wonderful it is to take a child out for ice cream.

Ralph and I had taken our respective children (we are on our second marriages) out for ice cream so many times, the experiences have melted into a blur. Same goes for our eight grandkids. But we have another child, one we’d never taken out for anything, let alone ice cream.

His name is Anderson, and he lives in Cartagena, Columbia. We came to know him 10 years ago when I took a leap of faith and sponsored a child through Children International. I knew that I could not change the world, but my hope was that I would at least be able to change the world for one child.

And I think I have. For the past decade, Ralph and I have seen Anderson grow from seven to 17. We send small monthly checks and the occasional gift and get letters and photographs in return. He’s told us about his family, his soccer team and school. We’ve told him about our life in the United States, the family dog and the bears we used to see in our backyard when we lived in Pennsylvania. Read More

September 18, 2012
by Christine Geisler

An Alaska cruise had always been a dream for my husband and me. We planned to make it a retirement gift to ourselves. Unfortunately my husband didn’t live to see retirement. He was killed in an accident at age 50.

I was devastated, and joined a grief support group to help me deal with the loss. There I met another widow, Shirlee, who became a close friend and confidant.

As we got to know each other we became surprised at the similarities between us. Our husbands both died suddenly within days of each other, our wedding anniversaries were a week apart, my husband’s name was Don and her husband’s name was Ron. This helped us through all the “firsts” that can be so difficult in the year following their deaths. Read More