Crying Myself to Sleep on the Biggest Cruise Ship Ever

[chia]

5. Great read, start to finish. I went on my first and only cruise pre-Covid, and have no desire for another.

The excess, the waste, are nauseating. The work lives of the staff are overwhelming, I talked with many who assisted me, learning their names, where they were from, what their lives were like. They told me who was waiting for them at home, after their 6 months was up. I don't know if they're happy for the money to send home, or if they feel as exploited as they seem to be, to me. But I tried to show them that I saw them, and appreciated them, they weren't someone to look past unless I needed something.

The excess, the consumerism, the frantic and hyper feeling all the time, 24 hours a day... it was exhausting. It was like Americanism in funhouse mirrors, on one of those tilt-a-whirls at the county fair.

The only upside: it was a cruise to Alaska, and I saw ocean and icebergs and glaciers that I'd never have seen otherwise. So there's that.