Why Take a Transatlantic Cruise? We Needed a Vacation From Our Vacation.

This is a picture of me lying in bed on a cruise ship with everything I needed to recover.

It is a remarkably accurate representation of why we booked a 14-night transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami.

We were EXHAUSTED.

Linda and I had just spent three and a half months traveling through England, Ireland, and Europe. New countries. New cities. New experiences. One after another.

And we don’t exactly stroll through a new destination. Linda approaches sightseeing as though someone is going to lock the gates behind us and we’ll never be allowed back. If there’s something worth seeing, we’re going to see it. And then we’re going to see what’s around the corner. I’m not exactly innocent in this arrangement.

After three and a half months, we’d reached the point where one more beautiful European landmark might send us over the edge.

“Is that another castle?!”

We loved every minute of our adventure. Well, almost every minute. But our bodies were beginning to suggest that perhaps we’d experienced enough culture for a while.

So why would anyone take a transatlantic cruise?

We had three reasons.

Rest. American food. And getting back to the United States without jet lag.

That was the entire plan.

Sometimes You Need a Vacation From Your Vacation

Our European adventure was more than an extended vacation. It was the finishing crown of six years of full-time travel.

For years, we had helped people understand how to design a life they love and the work that makes it possible. Then we went and did it ourselves. We built a business we could operate remotely, gave up having a permanent home, and traveled.

For six years.

And this European adventure was the culmination of everything we’d been working toward. It was fantastic. It was also exhausting.

We had reached the point where the thought of another castle, another cathedral, another charming European street, or another train journey wasn’t generating quite the enthusiasm it once had. We’d also recently experienced freezing temperatures and SNOW in Paris and Versailles.

Snow.

We’d spent years chasing adventure, and now we were chasing a warm place to lie down. Fortunately, we had a Norwegian cruise ship waiting for us in Barcelona. And we had absolutely no intention of exhausting ourselves on the way back to the States.

Norwegian? Are We Sure About This?

We’d cruised with Norwegian before. Let’s just say it hadn’t been our favorite experience.

Years earlier, we’d booked an impromptu Norwegian cruise because the dates matched our schedule. That’s not always the most scientific way to select a cruise, but sometimes that’s how travel works.

We boarded and quickly discovered that we might have been the youngest couple on the ship.

And we weren’t young.

The entrance to the dining room had so many mobility scooters parked outside that we started calling it the scooter parking lot. But the scooters weren’t really the issue.

The atmosphere was.

Cruising is supposed to be relaxing. You’re on vacation. Somebody else cooks, cleans, makes your bed, and provides the entertainment. What’s not to love?

Apparently, quite a bit, according to some of our fellow passengers.

We heard more complaints than happy conversations. The general atmosphere just wasn’t what we enjoyed about cruising. So when we booked the Norwegian Escape for our transatlantic crossing, we had some reservations.

But Norwegian surprised us.

The ship had plenty to offer, the entertainment was exceptional, and the experience was entirely different from what we remembered. It changed our opinion of Norwegian enough that we came away thinking the cruise line was moving in a direction we liked.

Of course, we had to wake up before we could appreciate most of it.

The First Three Days: Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

We boarded the Norwegian Escape in Barcelona on November 26, 2024.

For the first three days, we did almost nothing. We slept. We’d occasionally wake up, stumble out of our cabin, find something to eat, and return to bed.

That was it.

The ship was stopping at ports along the European side of the itinerary, and under normal circumstances we’d have been first in line to get off and explore.

Not this time.

One of the clearest memories I have is standing out on one of the decks as we sailed into Funchal, Madeira.

It was beautiful.

The landscape rose above the harbor, and we stood there taking it all in. Here was another wonderful place we’d never explored, just waiting for us to get off the ship.

After three and a half months of sightseeing, we looked at that beautiful landscape and said:

“Nope. Not today.”

And we stayed on the ship.

And that’s one of the things we love about cruising. You don’t have to do anything. You can attend every activity, see every show, explore every port, and keep yourself busy from morning until midnight. Or you can pull the covers over your head and take another nap.

Nobody cares.

For us, those first few days were exactly what we needed.

We took a total of 15 pictures during the entire 14-night cruise. After months of photographing everything we saw, we were done.

Well, almost.

Somebody did manage to document my Fritos-assisted recovery.

And Then There Was the Food

I need to make a confession.

I’m a picky eater. VERY picky.

Traveling through different countries and experiencing local cuisine can be wonderful. If you’re spending a week or two somewhere, you might enjoy trying everything the local restaurants have to offer.

But three and a half months?

My digestive system was beginning to lodge formal complaints.

It wasn’t that Europe didn’t have good food. It was that I had a limited range of foods I enjoyed eating, and after months on the road, finding familiar meals had become increasingly important.

Thank God for KFC.

Seriously. We found KFC in quite a few places during our travels, and when we had the opportunity, we ate there.

I know. We traveled across Europe and ate Kentucky Fried Chicken.

You can judge me later.

And here’s something else that may get my passport revoked.

We spent a month traveling around Italy, and I couldn’t find a pizza I liked.

A MONTH. IN ITALY.

Go ahead. I’ll give you a moment.

So when we boarded the Norwegian Escape, I was ready for some familiar American food. Real bacon. Cheeseburgers. Pizza.

And the beautiful realization that I could find something I actually wanted to eat without turning dinner into an international research project.

Every day aboard gave my digestive system another opportunity to return to something resembling normal. It may not sound like an important reason to take a transatlantic cruise. After three and a half months, it was important to me.

Won’t You Get Bored With All Those Sea Days?

This is probably the question people ask most often about transatlantic cruising.

What do you DO when you’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for days?

First, you need to understand something about us. We’ve been cruising since 1995. We’ve taken short cruises, long cruises, family cruises, and cruises as a couple.

And we’ve learned that people with incredibly busy lives sometimes need three to five days just to realize they’re actually on vacation. You spend the first couple of days mentally catching up with yourself. Eventually, you stop thinking about everything you were doing before you boarded.

That’s why we often recommend that people with demanding work and home lives consider a cruise of at least ten days. A three- or four-day cruise might be fun, but for somebody who needs serious time to unwind, it may end just as they’re beginning to relax.

A transatlantic cruise gives you something most vacations don’t.

Time.

Our itinerary had ports on the European side, five consecutive days at sea, and then more ports after we reached the Caribbean. Those sea days were wonderful.

The seas were respectable, the weather was generally cooperative, and we didn’t encounter significant weather problems during our crossing. It was chilly when we left Europe, but we knew warmer weather was waiting on the other side.

And after the first three days, something happened.

We woke up.

You can’t keep us down for long. We were like bears emerging from hibernation.

NEXT?!?

We started enjoying the ship, meeting people, eating, and discovering everything Norwegian had lined up to keep us entertained.

And there was one show that absolutely blew us away.

The Choir of Man: The Show We Watched Three Times

We’ve seen a lot of cruise ship entertainment over the years. Some of it has been fantastic. Some of it has been forgettable.

But The Choir of Man aboard the Norwegian Escape was one of the best shows we’d ever seen.

We watched it three times.

THREE.

The setting was an English pub called The Jungle, where a group of men gathered to sing, laugh, drink, and tell their stories.

And before the show even started, audience members were invited onto the stage, where beer was being handed out.

Free beer.

I was already appreciating the production values.

But what made the show extraordinary wasn’t the beer, the singing, or even the incredible talent of the performers.

It was the stories.

Each man was dealing with something in his life. The pub was their safe place, where they could come together, share their problems, support one another, and find some humor in the middle of everything.

And then there was the urinal scene.

I cannot begin to explain it. There was a song, the streams underneath told their own story, and it was possibly the funniest thing I’ve ever seen onstage. I think I peed myself.

Two years later, I can’t remember a single word they said or exactly what happened. But I’m laughing just thinking about it.

Of course, they did give me free beer before the show.

Their individual stories unfolded through dialogue and music. Sometimes it was a familiar song we already knew. Other times it was music we’d never heard before. But the songs fit the stories perfectly.

And that’s what great entertainment does. It reaches people where they are. Two people can watch the same performance, laugh at the same jokes, hear the same songs, and walk away feeling something completely different.

For us, the show landed at a particularly interesting moment in our lives.

We’d spent six years traveling full time, enjoying a lifestyle we’d deliberately created. But there was something missing.

Community.

Linda had been feeling it more strongly than I had. She missed having people around, being connected, and having a community to belong to.

And even I was beginning to feel it. Which is saying something, because I’m approximately 98% introvert.

Watching these men support one another through the good, bad, and ridiculous parts of life reminded us of something we’d begun to recognize.

Adventure is wonderful. But so is having people in your life.

We loved the music. We loved the performances. We loved the humor. And we loved what the show represented.

That’s why we went back.

Twice.

When you’re considering a transatlantic cruise, don’t assume the sea days are simply empty space between ports. Check what entertainment and activities your particular ship offers.

A great production can become one of the most memorable parts of the entire voyage. For us, it certainly did.

Antigua: Apparently We Were Fully Recovered

By the time we reached Antigua, we’d had enough rest.

Remember those two exhausted travelers who couldn’t be bothered to get off the ship in Europe?

They were gone.

In their place were the people who spent six years traveling because they couldn’t resist seeing what was around the next corner.

And there are two activities Linda and I will almost never pass up.

UTVs. And ziplining.

If either one is available, there’s a pretty good chance we’re going to find ourselves strapped into something.

So when we stopped in Antigua, we headed into the hills for a treetop climbing and ziplining adventure. This wasn’t just a matter of stepping onto a platform and letting somebody clip us to a cable.

There were rope bridges. Climbing. Platforms high in the trees. And ziplines connecting the adventure.

I don’t think our feet touched the ground during the entire trip through the trees.

And Linda?

First to go. Last to leave.

That’s my girl.

Somewhere between Barcelona and Antigua, we’d gone from being too tired to leave our cabin to climbing through the treetops of a Caribbean island.

I’d say the recovery program was working.

And that’s another reason we love the longer transatlantic itineraries. The sea days give you time to settle, rest, and enjoy the ship. Then, when you reach the ports on the other side, you can get right back to exploring.

If that’s what you want.

And we most certainly did.

We Didn’t Go Home. We Went to Our Next House Sit.

On December 10, 2024, the Norwegian Escape arrived in Miami.

Fourteen nights earlier, we’d boarded in Barcelona, exhausted after three and a half months of exploring Europe.

We’d slept for three days, eaten our way back into familiar territory, discovered incredible entertainment, remembered why community mattered, and climbed through the trees in Antigua.

Now we were ready to get moving again.

We rented a car in Miami and headed toward Nashville, stopping to visit family along the way.

Not home.

We didn’t have a home.

We were still living our full-time travel lifestyle, so we’d arranged a house sit in Nashville that would allow us to spend Christmas close to our sons.

And just like that, we were back on the road.

Rested. Refreshed. Ready for whatever came next.

Like we’d never stopped.

Except we had.

For fourteen glorious nights in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

And that made all the difference.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.
With love and laughter,
Matt & Linda