Don’t forget to take time to stop and smell the roses…………

………. even on a cruise ship! A good friend of mine and his wife recently took their first cruise, to the Fjords on Balmoral. After many months of planning and anticipation in the lead up I couldn’t wait to hear how they had got on and whether they had enjoyed it. They did! They had a wonderful time, enjoying both the on board experience and the ports of call equally. One of the things Paul said to me made me stop and think. He said “it was wonderful but it took us a while to get used to relaxing and doing nothing”. True enough, we all seem to live our lives at 100 mph these days, rushing around working and taking care of families. Holidays should be a time to relax, refresh and regroup but instead we seem to plan them so that they are jam packed with activities and before we know it our holidays are almost as hectic as day to day life – how often have you heard someone who has just returned from holiday say that they need a holiday to recover?

So conditioned are we to our fast paced lives that we seem to be unable to slow down at all and let’s be honest most of our cruise ships do very little to encourage relaxation. There is so much to do on board, so many things to experience that in between shore excursions you find yourself almost trotting around the ship in an attempt to experience as much as you can on board be it sky diving simulators, cookery demonstrations, gym sessions or win tasting sessions etc etc. What happened to simply lying on a lounger or sitting on your balcony just watching the world, or the ocean, float by? Why is it necessary to fill cruise ships with so many activities?Do we really need them all? Do we utilise them all?

Many years ago when my family were younger I took them on Fred Olsen’s Balmoral for a week and they loved every single minute. If you are familiar with Fred’s ships you will know that they probably have less facilities than most other cruise lines but for me that is the joy of Fred’s ships, you can just chill out and simply enjoy the experience of being on a ship without feeling the need to be busy. Why can’t we just learn to enjoy the simple pleasures in life without feeling that we have to be entertained or occupied with some ‘time filler’ at every turn? Why must something always be planned? Why can’t we just let the days evolve?

We all need time out, my friend did and once they learned to relax they found they warmed to their subject very well. They did take time to smell the roses and came home refreshed and revitalized as a result. They stopped being ‘busy’ for a while – I think there is a lesson in there for all of us don’t you?

If you would like more information on cruise ships that allow time for smelling roses, that aren’t jam packed with gimmicks and activities from dawn til dusk please feel free to give me a call on 0800 408 6084, or 0330 303 8184 from a mobile and I will be delighted to help you.