Off the Grid, Kinda

Somewhere in the Atlantic, 3 days out of Miami.

I made all the connections (one by seconds) to board the Norwegian Star bound for Tarragon, Spain because a dock in Barcelona had been damaged. Tarragon is just down the coast from Barcelona where I’ll be vacationing and then traveling to Madrid for some business meetings on what started out to be a combination of deferred experience and bucket list checkoffs.

They call it Repositioning

No, not the kind referred to in Marketing circles. This is physical repositioning of cruise ships for summer season tours in the Mediterranean. In late spring, the cruise lines need to move their ships from the fall/winter season cruises scheduled in the Caribbean, Alaska and New England across the Atlantic. The reverse or westerly crossing occurs in early fall. Being of a mind to make the Trans-Atlantic voyage profitable, they turn it into a full tilt cruise.

Once it was the norm

Trans-Atlantic was the primary voyage in the early days before passenger aircraft. The only more adventurous way to make the passage was via Zeppelin. That ended with a couple of World Wars and the growth of the aircraft industry. Each country built their own air passenger service and the business of passenger transport by sea had to pivot. They did, The most successful built cruise lines.

Today it is dominated by afficianados

The other night the emcee in the theatre asked how many in the audience had cruised before. The entire audience raised their hands. He kept upping the number of cruises. At 25 still more than half the audience had hands raised. If you like cruising, it appears, a repositioning cruise becomes a goal. That was verified by conversations I had over breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

English is the lingua Franca of today.

Traveling Single has benefits. The first of these is that you find yourself welcoming individuals and couples you’ve never met to a table for four in the restaurant on board that you’ve selected for that meal. So far, I’ve met people from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Romania, Russia, Spain, Colombia, Spain, Australia, China, The Phillipines, and Portugal. All of them speak English and at least one other language. Americans are so limited! But, the language used on board for announcements, in the theatre and for information of all kinds is English.

Photos are the shared knowledge

I noticed a gentleman snapping photos of the dock in Miami the afternoon before our departure. Later as we were turning to head out to sea, I was having dinner in what is commonly called the “Lido Deck”, a sort of cafeteria found on most cruise ships, when he began taking photos with his phone through the window next to me. I commented on how he was a voracious photographer. Then, Mr. Mundo and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and got to know each other.

He was from Puerto Rico and had put his son in charge of his hotels and rental properties so that he could cruise to Europe and enjoy the delights of cruising the Mediterranean. He shared with me photos of some of his properties, the spectacular beaches in Puerto Rico and places of interest there. We each spoke of the places we knew and what we hoped to see on this adventure. Best of all we overcame the difficulty of language. His English was heavily accented. My Spanish is nearly non-existent. But the photos of Venice and Carnavale made us both nostalgic.

Phantom Phone service

While we were in port, and for a short time after my smart phone was working. Then it simply stopped. There was no service. I believe it was the next day we pssed close enough to the Bahamas for a text message from my service provider to let me know that my standard rates for international service would apply if I would like to make a call.

However, you are not totally disconnected on the ship. You can purchase wi-fi on a host of plans that range from metered service for one device to full time access for up to five devices. I elected a one device metered plan and so I’ll be filing my regular weekly blogs on beBee just as if I was back in Portland.

And so it goes.

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Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and Grand Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for Trust-based Brand development, Positioning and business development for independent professionals on and off-line.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com DIY Training: www.ingomu.com