TILL CRUISE DO US PART
WHEN CRUISING GOES HAND IN HAND WITH SEASICKNESS, WHAT DO YOU DO? FOR JAY CABOZ, IT MEANS A COKTAIL OF PILLS TO KEEP THE IN-LAWS HAPPY
For some, sailing away on a cruise ship is as romantic as it gets. Drifting smoothly across the Atlantic, like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet at the bow of the Titanic, hair wind-swept and the smell of sea spray invigorating.
My experience is more reminiscent of the end of the movie: panicked screams, the clatter of children running wild, and a nauseating dread while lying in the foetal position praying for landfall.
It's genetic, you see? Something that, as a Portuguese-South African, I failed to inherit are sealegs. Nothing in my genes equips me for the motion of the ocean. Once on board, I am at the mercy of the water gods, my stomach a heaving wreck. The will to have the time of my life may be there, but there is no getting past the reality of my DNA's refusal to be well at sea.
My in-laws, though, love a multi-day cruise. And so it is a standing joke that the adventure hasn't begun until I'm feeding the fish.
I have cruised around Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South America. My most memorable moments were visits to “the Shire” in Dunedin, where The Lord of the Rings was filmed; sipping tequila in Mexico while watching a volcano erupt; and — on a streetfood tour of Lima — learning that there are almost 4 000 varieties of potato in Peru.
Of course, those memorable bits were on dry land — the in-between rewards for putting up with a reeling stomach during the stretches at sea. Cruising is like a tasting menu, an ideal way to sample the coastal cities of the world while alleviating the stress of planning: no worrying about accommodation, no meals to plan nor rip-off restaurants to endure, no taxis or maps to negotiate. That kind of worry-free opportunity is especially useful when you're travelling with a family of eight.
Plus, you only need to unpack and repack once. In 2022, thanks to the in-laws, I found myself on an eight-day Royal Caribbean cruise aboard the far-from-alluringly named . It was indeed bound for the Caribbean, specifically its eastern islands, which are a favourite American cruise destination. On paper, it was a beaut of
