Life Onboard (and the Herd Mentality)

The concept of Independent Cruising is most applicable while in port, but the philosophy easily extends to our utilization of time spent onboard.

Cruisers tend to act with a definite herd mentality. They have this notion that there is always a best thing to do, and by God, that is what they want to be doing! From the moment we arrive at the dock to check in, we see herd mentality in action. We arrive at noon, and lines are long, tempers short. We fight our way onto the ship, and head right for the waiting buffet, piling our plates high to the ceiling. Then we look for a place to sit down, and we usually have to look very hard. And so forth.

It doesn't have to be this way. The Independent Cruiser avoids the herd at all costs, starting with embarkation, when we arrive well after the earliest stated embarkation time. Worried we might miss something good? We are missing all kinds of things at home, and that is precisely why we are on vacation in the first place! So we relax, we see what we want to see, do what we want to do, and we utilize our knowledge of crowd psychology to avoid the herd. Here are some ideas:

1. Given a choice of early or late seating, we always choose Late Seating. Why? Most cruisers prefer to eat, see a show, and go to bed, in that order. On cruises that are longer or more scenic, where the average passenger age is higher, this is particularly true. In fact, they prefer to go to bed early, and will leave right in the middle of a show to do so. Late seating allows us the flexibility to change tables if need be, to see the less packed late show, to enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail or listen to music and socialize before dinner, and on port days, we don't have to rush to dress for dinner, and can relax or even take a nap after a long day in port.
2. Most of the time, there is no good reason to rush off the ship on port days. We look at the tour schedule, and together with our own plans, we decide whether to leave the ship before the tours, or sleep in. Usually, the decision is obvious, and the herd is all lining up at the buffet at the exact same time, so we avoid them.
3. When possible, we eat a relaxing breakfast in the dining room as opposed to grazing at the buffet. Another option, particularly attractive if we have a balcony cabin, is to order room service breakfast. When there are lots of half day tours which leave early (a common practice), we often find the buffet nearly empty when we go to eat as the herd heads to the tour meeting areas. Even on Sea days, when there isn't a good time to eat at the buffet, the other options are almost always better.
4. Lounging in the sun on the pool deck is a very popular activity on pleasant days, and that is where the herd will be. But they have to eat sometime and that is when we strike! Somewhere around noon, we can always find an open lounge chair. Yes, they will leave a towel behind to mark the spot they hope to return to, so you might have to clear away one to get a chair, but don't let that trouble you. Lately, Princess is doing the clearing, including personal belongings such as books, and putting them in numbered bins. Anyway, all cruise lines say chairs may not be reserved, in the theaters, or on the pool decks, so if you see an open chair, take it. We go easy on the sun, as long exposure really isn't very good for you, and our formal pictures look ridiculous if we are burnt to a crisp.
5. We don't attend bingo, tour talks, shopping talks, disembarkation talks, etc. Most of the port information is available in writing, and these talks are endlessly repeated on TV anyway. If we are sufficiently prepared, we aren't missing a thing. Sometimes a cruise line will offer port enrichment speakers, or other talks on subjects such as economics, genealogy, and the like. These talks are great, and often under attended. We have disembarked many ships, and there isn't anything we can learn at these talks that isn't written down and delivered to our cabin. We do attend the lifeboat drill. Safety first.
6. Our main goal on sea days is to relax, and rest. Sometimes the best spot for that is our personal balcony, if we have one. Other times, a less traveled indoor or outdoor spot is ideal to curl up with a good book. We walk around the ship, and explore all of the decks and we find these quiet little spots to relax.
7. The worst day of the cruise is the last day. Our bill comes to our cabin, our bags are already packed and long gone the night before, and we say goodbye to our cabin attendant, who is also having a bad day cleaning all of the cabins for the next set of cruisers. What to do? Eat, of course! We like to finish a cruise in the dining room, and we linger. The herd? We find them on the deck of embarkation, usually sitting on every available spot, including stairs. When our number or color is called, we can quickly get off the ship, recover our bags, etc., starting from any deck on the ship. So we don't camp out on the disembarkation deck. Sometimes we have an early flight. It happens. But we told the purser about this a few days prior, and are among the first to get off, anyway. If our definition of early doesn't match the cruise lines, we lie, and make up an earlier flight, so we are among the first to leave. But usually, we don't care, we have plenty of time, and we would just as soon eat breakfast as sit at the airport.

There are many other situations where crowd psychology can be employed. Do you really care about meeting the captain? Personally, we prefer our captains to be on the bridge looking for icebergs and whatnot, but at the returning cruiser party, we enter through the door opposite to where the captain is shaking hands. If the line to meet the captain is on the port side, we enter on the starboard side.

Think of a herd of cruisers like a herd of Antelope in Africa. These antelope, especially those at the center of the herd, eat a lot of trampled grass. Those on the outskirts of the herd get nice, fresh grass. They are more likely to be eaten by lions, but they also see the lions first, and can run...fast... It's the middle of the herd that has a problem with egress.

The Independent Cruiser always tries to take the Road Less Traveled.

NEXT: Avoiding bad cruisers