Bucket List

As they say at the start of many a police drama on TV, the story you are about to see is not based on any real people, living or dead.  Photos from Norwegian Joy are incidental to the narrative.

You know I help other people plan vacations, so you may find it as ironic as I do that my wife, frustrated with my response in reference to charting out a long "on our own" section of a vacation to accommodate almost-free flights to England using air miles, asked me, "Do you even know what a hotel is?"

That may have been a call to action, but realizing a vacation is supposed to reduce stress, not increase it, I simply replied matter-of-factly, "No.  Is it one of those places where you stay for the night that has beds in it?"

After all, I wanted to show interest in what she was doing but not take over the project that despite the veins popping out on her forehead and the anger flashing in her narrowed gaze obviously gives her so much pleasure.

She has very particular, specific details in mind, details that most people don't consider at all, much less become overly taxed about at the planning stage. 

Ignoring such details can cause complications down the road.  That attention to detail is very much the approach she took as a Director for a Fortune 100 company with over 80,000 employees.

My wife's life plan included working at a job she didn't particularly like but which was rewarding financially, allowing her to retire early to pursue her true passion: travel.

When I was charting out my own life plan, I had decided I wanted to marry a beautiful woman who liked to travel.  DING DING!  I found one who now drags me into the next vacation before I have digested the last one.

Not that I'm complaining.  Quite frankly, I probably wouldn't have considered myself worthy to have gone half of the places we've gone together.

Having exacting standards coupled with specific tastes doesn't have to be a problem, unless you also have a limited budget, which most of us do.

Long ago when I was single, I had almost no budget, but I still managed to love travel.  As long as I had my guitar, sleeping bag and some sort of transportation, I could figure out the rest.  Sure, most of my meals turned out to be a vanilla shake and fries at McDonald's, or something else I could buy for a buck, and the accommodations were inevitably something less than luxurious, but it worked okay for me as a young guy.

I wouldn't want to travel that way any more, which is why I personally have come to the conclusion that I really prefer to travel exclusively on cruises or, on a less regular basis, guided tours without too many hotel changes.

My wife planning these independent vacations can be more stressful for me than work, and that's before we start the process of actually encountering the unexpected problems that inevitably crop up in the real rather than theoretical world of independent travel.

"Better service leads to better trips!"