To cruise or not to cruise

No this is not a yarn about whether or not I should go and have a little look at the goings on in Surfers Paradise. God knows the tellie and the papers are giving enough details about the 20000 kid party going on there at the moment. I do not need to cruise on by for a look-see, and besides I was a teacher and am still a mother, whose daughter went along to schoolies on the coast and survived to tell the tale so there would be no surprises for me.

No this is about the quandary I am facing about whether or not I / we are 'Cruise People'. I have always thought NOT. I am claustrophobic and don't play all that well with others and I am not too keen on buffet meals or watered down drinks, and really Steve is just too easily bored.

But then friends are off in December and the hearing about their plans left me wondering, and today we had lunch with other friends who are happy to say they are definitely 'Cruisers'. So I am having a re-think, cos really, what we like to do is eat good food and have a little drink and laze around reading a book or watching a movie. All this sounds possible, except for the buffet thing and I am lead to believe that there are alternatives to hoeing into food that every so and so has had their fingers in.

I can't quite get passed the reality that if I want to leave, it is just not possible. I have been on boat 'Dos' before and it has never ended well. Staff Christmas parties where everyone is pissed and more than a little gropey and student events where the kids of course think no one has noticed that they are pissed or stoned and I spend the evening trying to make sure none of the blighters take a running leap off the side. Standing on lookout duty with life ring in hand is in contrast with the after five outfit and heels. I wonder why no one ever thought to make a range of those rings to match handbags or shoes.

So again I am left wondering. If I can convince myself, then Steve is happy to give it a go, but of course there are a couple of deal breakers. We need a balcony room, as I have surmised that the Ocean View rooms are just a fixed pane of glass that teases the brain into thinking there is fresh air, and as a diehard nutcase who goes into severe panic attack mode when someone puts their seat back in my face on a plane or my head gets stuck in my T shirt when I am pulling it off, I will never fall for the window that doesn't open routine. And after I looked at the configuration on a couple of the boats, I know I couldn't be in a room at the end of a long corridor cos I wonder where the air comes from for all those doors. Yeh I know, more than a little crazy, but I have been known to run screaming from a building where I thought I might rent a flat because it became very clear that the front door was just too many doors away from fresh air. Who else counts the number of doors between the outside and the loo? Is it really only me?

Oh Bugger it!! Here I am talking myself out of it again, just as I was getting excited about sitting around for a week eating and drinking and reading.

I will have to wait to be swayed by some silly season pricing and as we don't want to go until March that could be a very long wait indeed.

Strangely enough I am not at all worried about the boat doing a Titanic.

If you have some wonder stories about cruising, I'd love to hear them.