Cruise is winding down. Again beautiful weather, walk around the ship and eat a lot.
Some of you know I am not a “cruise person”. I went on this trip because there are not many other ways you can see Alaska’s Inside Passage and Glacier Bay (which for me is still the most spectacular place I have ever seen on Earth) and because I wanted to do this with my father and stepmother.
It was a tremendous trip and I am glad I went, but it did not change my mind about cruise culture. Some fellow cruisers act like spoiled two-year olds when something does not go their way and then turn on the staff with an “I payed for this” attitude. The mostly Indonesian staff on this Dutch ship was courteous and eternally cheerful in spite of taking abuse from customers and management alike. From talking to some of them, they put in 10 to 11 hours days 7 days a week. However, cruise economics also forces them to be pushy, for example when serving drinks during happy hour, which is not always appropriate. The irony does not escape me: After all these years, the liberal progressive Dutch still found a way to colonize a small part of Indonesia. Cruise culture does not bring out the best in people.