CRUISING TOGETHER

I seriously never thought that I would be the kind of person to go on a cruise. I prefer traveling with nothing more than a map, a car, and no real plans, but when my husband had to go on an Alaskan cruise for work and got to bring us along, I totally jumped at the chance. Mostly I wanted to see what the buffet was like, but I'd also always had a strange fascination with cruise ships, especially after reading the much-loved David Foster Wallace essay on luxury ships years ago.

So without really knowing what to expect, we took a squirmy 16-month-old on a cross-country flight, then another small plane, then a freaky ass Northern Exposure style puddle jumper to get to Homer, Alaska. We then took a boat, and had to drive for three hours until we got to the cruise port. Oh, did I not mention there were no car seats available at Hertz in Homer? Nor baby stores open that sold them? So I had to sit in the back with Charlie strapped to me in his Ergo, both of us sweating and whining for several hours? Trust me, there were easier ways to get there, but we seem to thrive on pain.

After we finally got there, I have to admit, the cruise was kind of cool. It's basically a floating resort, but there is something really strange and wonderful about waking up and being able to look out your porthole and right onto the sea and floating pieces of ice going by. The buffet was not as awesome as I was hoping for (kinda cafeteria food-like) but the rest of the restaurants were delicious. (One of them turned into Le Cirque one night, with the exact Le Cirque NYC menu.) And at night we had babysitters, so drank lots of wine and saw the shows and basically laughed the whole time about everything from the absurdity of some of the events to the towel monkeys our steward would leave for us in the room.

I wrote an article about Cruising with Babies for NewParent.com, so go over there and read it for full details and tips. All in all, it's something I would probably do again, but I'd definitely go to a warmer destination so I could sip cocktails by the pool and hit up some private islands. I'd also go on a line that had daycare or a kid's club that my kid could go to so I could get a little break during the day, and maybe I'd try to do it with another family or friends or even my parents. Not that it's going to happen anytime soon—I had vertigo for three days after docking, and am only now starting to get my balance back. So another cruise will have to wait for another time.