By Laurel M. Deramo, Cruise Specialist | July 29, 2016 ( Comments)
If you would have told me that I would be absolutely okay with an entire day of being completely disconnected from Facebook, Google, emails, TV, texting, Candy Crush, and iPhone apps, I would have never believed it. I couldn’t possibly be 100% disconnected but remain happy, could I? Well, it turns out, YES, I could!
This summer’s adventures included a cruise from Seattle to Alaska on Royal Caribbean’s gorgeous Explorer of the Seas. Once my husband, teen sons, and I sailed away from the Port of Seattle, we switched our phones over to “airplane mode” due to the exorbitant cost of the ship’s wifi service. So that’s it. Our fancy smartphones’ only function then was as a plain old camera. Phone calls, texting, online gaming, and Googling became a thing of the very recent past in one quick swipe.
However, this reality didn’t bother us much as the first few days on a cruise ship are all about unpacking, getting acclimated to the ship’s features and events and restaurants and bars, and finding your way around. Another cruise line’s flooring has inlaid fish all swimming in the same direction - forward - which made it easy to differentiate if you were walking toward the forward or aft section of the ship, good to know when the ship is just shy of a quarter mile long. But there were no such forward-swimming fish on the Explorer of the Seas. We easily walked our 10,000 steps each day just by getting lost. ha ha and that’s okay with me!
We didn’t miss our phones much over these first few days. Who needs a phone when you’ve got a million and one fun and fabulous things to do on the ship, all day, every day? Phones? They laid in our cabins, unused and unremembered, until the third day when we pulled into the port of Skagway, Alaska and we were able to swipe out of “airplane mode” and have at it. Over fresh salmon and a local beer or three at the town pub, we were able to catch up on emails, Facebook, texts, games. Our phone usage was in full swing knowing that once we left Skagway, it would be four more days of “airplane mode” until we would be able to use our phones again. That evening, we left Skagway, once again, swiped into “airplane mode”, and parked our phones in our cabins and forgot about them.
But what came next was an unexpected surprise and resulted in one of the most relaxing days that I have probably ever had - at least since I can remember. At 6:40 the following morning, our ship slowly coasted into the silent waterway of Tracy Arm Fjord, then anchored. The waterway is narrow, only about a half mile wide, and gives way to 3,000-foot rising mountains and granite cliffs that have narrow but high waterfalls cascading down the crevices and a dramatic blue glacier furrowed into one of the valleys. Seals silently emerged from the deep and slid their way onto broken off pieces of glacier that floated randomly around the ship. The water was flat and clear, like a lake, and the air was brisk.
The most striking thing was the silence. With the ship’s engines turned off, we soundlessly sat among the peaceful glacial scenery devoid of any human development, human disturbance, human presence. It was so quiet - and so beautiful. There was so much to take in! My husband and I homesteaded at a table for four on the top deck of the ship with our hot coffee and hot tea and sweaters. Soon enough, our two teens joined us with their hot oatmeal. It was brisk up there with July temperatures in the 50s - colder than wintertime for this girl’s South Florida blood.
But I didn’t care. As cold as I was, I just could not stop taking in the stunning surroundings and I could not stop appreciating the sheer silence.
We sat there for 2.5 hours but it felt like minutes. Without a sound, the ship’s crew had set up shop alongside us on the top deck and sold sweaters and slippers and Alaskan souvenirs. The breakfast buffet was just inside the doors, so we occasionally went in to quickly refill our coffee and tea and grab some danishes and fruit to pick at while we took in the sights. For the entire morning, we just sat there, looking here and looking there, amazed at the sheer beauty and calmed by the lovely peace and tranquility. For 2.5 hours, I could have not cared less about what emails I might be receiving, what fun was happening on Facebook, or what Candy Crush level I was on. It was liberating. With no way to instantly communicate when apart, I had no idea where my husband or sons might have wondered off to. Usually it was just to the other side of the deck to take pictures, they’d be back soon, and they knew where I was parked. No worries. I sat there, sipped at my hot tea, and relished the pure and undisturbed connection I had with the glorious Tracy Arm Fjord wilderness. It was a remarkably serene morning and I never felt so relaxed, carefree, and at peace as I did for those 2.5 hours. Then, the ship’s engines roared to life and it was time to go. I was still perched at my top-deck look-out, still enjoying. I watched as the ship painstakingly turned within the confines of the waterway and slowly started coasting away. When I could no longer see the brilliant blue of the glacier, I made my way inside to warm up, determined to continue my morning of bliss.
After a quick visit to my cabin to change clothes, I went to the ship’s gym at the forward-most part of the ship, which had floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides that framed the perfect wilderness outside. I found a front-row treadmill and got on. As I was walking/jogging on the treadmill, unmarred wilderness and unblemished beauty was my slowly passing view. My eyes were wide open looking for bears, whales, eagles and seals amid the pristine scenery. I didn’t see any wildlife, but my focused search for it caused me to unknowingly walk/jog 3.1 miles on the treadmill in record time, a total feat for me! ha ha Before I knew it and in what felt like minutes, not hours, we were leaving the beautiful waters and scenery of the Tracy Arm Fjord and were headed into the open waters of the Pacific.
By 10:30 on that magnificent morning, I was in the ladies’ locker room getting ready to enter the steam room when I met two ladies who were also preparing for steam room perks. I don’t know how we started, but once we did, we talked for an hour about the benefits of eating bok choy and drinking green drinks, about the middle-aged difficulty in trying to maintain our girlish figures, and about our hopeless addictions to cookies, chocolate, and all things sugary. In reality, I would have been worried about the time, or about what was on my agenda to accomplish that day, or about what business I had to tend to, or about what calls I had to make, or what emails I had to reply to. But on that particular morning, I didn’t care. I was already disconnected from the outside world and completely detached from real-world responsibilities, and I was thoroughly engaged in the locker room conversation with my new friends, each of us naked but wrapped in a towel and having an easy conversation like we had been friends for years.
Just after noon, I joined my hubby in the spa for a couples’ massage. It was heavenly. Leanne, my masseuse from England, had soft, small, strong hands, hot oil, and an elegant accent. It was the icing on the cake to an already perfectly relaxing morning.
On the way back to our cabin, the captain announced that whales had been spotted. We rushed outside onto a deck just in time to see a water spout emerge. My sons actually saw the whale’s tail ascend with a large splash and unmistakable presence. Spectacular!
After a hot shower and with no access to the real world, the rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around and playing Bingo. In a crazy stroke of luck, I won $257 by getting all four corners on my obviously lucky Bingo card! Yippee! Could this day get any better? !? The evening brought a lobster dinner and Baked Alaska dessert in the dressed up dining room, served by our wonderful and favorite waiter, Fernando, at our reserved table for four by the window. Then we saw a live production show of music through the decades, from the 50s to the 80s, which was great fun to watch and sing along to. It was a fantastic ending to a fantastic day.
This day at sea, from the morning spent anchored at Tracy Arm Fjord to entering the open waters of the Pacific on our way to British Columbia, encompassed exactly what a vacation should be: Carefree, effortless, satisfying, relaxing. Had I had access to my world via email, text, Facebook, and phone calls, I would have never given myself the opportunity to just let go and spend the day like I did - in the moment, completely engaged, and not distracted. I am grateful for the forced disconnect - and would do it again in a heartbeat.
What was lovely about today: After a long disconnect from the real world that resulted in many loads of laundry and playing catch-up at work, it’s nice to unwind and relax this evening knowing that I accomplished some chores today. The balance between reminiscing about our cruise while accomplishing the real-world tasks at hand is what was lovely about today. Vacations are a blast and the forced disconnect is a blessing in disguise, but there’s no place like home. And there’s no better dreaming than the dreams about where the next vacation might take us! Life is a balance, right?
