The Political Risks of Cruising
We have done four cruises now and have signed up for at least one more next year down the Nile. Whether River or Ocean, these cruises are a political minefield in these days of galvanizing global views. It is no secret that the world has bifurcated into distinct cohorts of red and blue. In everyday life, one can manage the situation because we know the lay of the land. To begin with, the best tell is based on location. If you’re in New York City your can lay odds on the people you meet being blue. If you’re in Dallas the shading tends towards red. When you are on a cruise it all gets much trickier.
We always meet lots of new people on cruises whether we are traveling with others or are by ourselves. It’s just the nature of being confined to the limited space of a ship, the nature of the activities and eating arrangements and the fact that passengers come from all over. In some ways it is all a great egalitarian experience. Granted, cruises cost money, but we have met plenty of retired school teachers as well as the retired wealthy business owners. Everyone wants to see the world and as the population ages, cruising gets more and more popular. In a statistical sense I’m sure we have cut off the tails of the normal distribution curve with the truly poor staying home and the truly rich Netjetting or yachting to their favorite spots.
The tour company we favor is Viking, who has a no-kids, no-casinos and no-photographers profile that can be said to appeal to the thinking empty-nester. My guess is that the average age is about a healthy (that is to say, ambulatory) 70-75 years. The dynamics of the financial lifecycle of retirement implies that these people have bank accounts to protect and are asset-heavy and income-light. That works against education and thinking in the blue/red assessment. In other words, whomever you meet on an excursion or sit next to at dinner could be anywhere on the political spectrum. It seems everyone feels this and tends to tiptoe around politics even more than religion.
I would like to describe four couples we have met on cruises to describe the conundrum one faces onboard. The first was a couple we met over a dinner in Reykjavik. While very pleasant and squarely in the target age zone, this couple was from northern Wisconsin and he was a retired orthopedic surgeon. While in the 60’s, the University of Wisconsin was a hotbed of radicalism and the state was far more blue than red, things have changed a great deal lately. I think we all know that Wisconsin swung red to vote in favor of Trump in 2016. Northern up-staters with a bankroll to protect seemed altogether likely to be pro-Trumpers. We had a nice dinner with Jean and Bill, but warned ourselves that if we got closer we might find leanings we didn’t like and might conflagrate a next gathering.
The next day we were scheduled go to the Blue Lagoon, a famous outdoor mineral spa noteworthy due to the natural hot springs that feed the waters amongst the volcanic rocks. This is a hot tub with a capacity of 5,000, so a pretty busy place. As we changed and started to wade into the steaming blue waters, we noticed there a few feet in front of us, Jean and Bill. While I don’t tend to troll the mavens of the cruise world, it was hard not to notice that Jean, clad in a normal tank swimsuit, sported a large ornate Asian or Celtic tattoo in the middle of her back. Now, a guy with a tattoo on his arm can be hard to categorize, but a woman with a big back tattoo seems like a clear signal.
When we next saw Jean and Bill of Wisconsin, I told them the story of my relief in seeing the tattoo and assuming them to clearly be at low risk of getting into a big nasty political argument over dinner with us. They laughed and said that, indeed, Wisconsin’s shift right had happened over their lives and was a cause of great concern. They went so far as to say that they have considered ending a lifelong habit of living in northern Wisconsin because of the reddening of the area.
It should be safer meeting foreign passengers. Viking tends to appeal to a good number of British tourists. On a past cruise up the Danube in 2016, we met Rupert and Fiona from Surry. 70-ish and safe from U.S. political affiliation, we cozied up to them. It didn’t take too long to have the conversation turn to the recent Brexit vote. Now Rupert was a retired professional businessman and he and Fiona were nothing if not sophisticated and worldly. Therefore I was shocked to hear that they had voted with the slim majority that is driving the UK to leave the European Union. I was perhaps even more shocked to learn that they did it as a mild form of civil disobedience or perhaps just a way to voice their disapproval with current political events in England. They claimed that they never thought it would pass, were shocked when it had, and immediately regretted the vote. I never said, “what were you thinking?” even though it was screaming in my head. We felt able to hang with Rupert and Fiona for the rest of the cruise since they ranked as contrite conservatives.
On our most recent cruise we met two interesting couples with whom we broke bread. First there was Roland and Louise. They were a younger couple than the norm and were from Newcastle in northern England, just south of the Scottish border. We met them in the Explorer’s Lounge by sneaking up behind them as they sat enjoying their cocktails. They were real cruisaholics, having been on this same ship three months before and planning to return three months in the future. This cruise propensity immediately caused me to wonder about their circumstances, both due to the money they were burning and the time they had available.
The money issue resolved itself quickly as it became clear that they are professional cruise shoppers, who know very well how to optimize the system. We learned tricks like guaranteed rate rooms, where one books for whatever room might be spare after the cruise has booked up. You are guaranteed a room at the lower than lowest rate and sometimes get lucky with a great room and some times get the bottom of the deck plan. The good news on Viking is that there really are no bad rooms. They actually ALL have balconies and full baths. Then there is the air travel. Louise seems to be a semi-pro travel agent who has learned how to book multi-carrier routes that are on the fill-the-plane program on various obscure international carriers. We also suspect that there are even more perks that come from befriending the ship’s crew as tightly as Roland and Louise seem to have done. At the first passenger/crew bean bag contest, there were Roland and Louise, shilling for the new and shy passenger team, and tossing bean bags like major leaguers. I’m not sure what I infer by this, but it brings a whole new meaning to the term corn-hole.
As for time, Roland is, indeed, still a working stiff. But he works in the scrap steel business (the coals having stopped flowing to or from Newcastle) and does so on the two months on / two months off basis. This is apparently ideal for a couple that love to cruise and party with whatever crew and whatever passengers they can befriend.
In the course of dinner with Roland and Louise, it became clear that Roland sees absolutely no use to the EU. This was surprising since the Scots are all about staying global. But apparently Newcastle is working class enough to feel that they net nothing from the EU. Brexit was never even a question to this couple. Roland and Louise were fun and besides seeing a sideways view of true British nationalists, there was absolutely no discussion about US politics or even Trump. The truth is, Roland and Louise simply couldn’t care less. They were on board to have fun and fun they were.
The last examples were the couple who we met on an excruciatingly long and boring excursion bus ride on a rainy day into the “highlands” of the South Island of New Zealand. This long day was accentuated by a school lunch of a Saran-wrapped sandwich and half cup of juice. Bob and Janie had wandered into the wrong room of the unmarked grange hall where lunch was being supplied. Apparently bus 3 was in the front hall and bus 2 was assigned the back hall. As bus 3 denizens, they mistakenly wandered into the back hall and all hell broke loose. Apparently, Saran-wrapped sandwiches are on tight allocation in New Zealand. Bob and Janie were shamed back to the bus with only half of their mystery meat sandwiches eaten. We found them cowering in the bus in the front row (usually reserved for handicapped, so in this case used by the emotionally scarred). Bob and Janie are from Kentucky, which caused me to mention that their buddy Senator Mitch McConnell had that very day led a vote to reject President Trump’s Syrian withdrawal. I’m not sure how I feel about our presence in Syria, but I do know that anyone who rejects the knee-jerking of our know-it-all, ill-informed, randomly-erratic Jefe is Queen for a Day in my book. Bob’s response was that he stopped being friends with Mitch when Mitch beat him for Senator from Kentucky. I liked Bob right away.
We invited Bob and Janie to dinner that night and learned all about the politics of Kentucky. Even though Bob was the politician, it was Janie who had the strong opinions. She was quick to admit that she voted for Trump, but then went on to explain all the reasons why she was no longer a fan. Ultimately this is all I ever hope for in my political opponents. I can understand the angst that leads to voting for Trump (that is a hugely enlightened view for me, which has come from listening to the many Hillary-haters I have met). What I cannot stomach is the continued support for the idiocy with which he has conducted himself over the past two years. So long as someone can see that and see the emptiness of his claimed successes, I can respect that.
Amazingly, Bob declared that he thought Hillary would run against a Trump and win in 2020. This goes against so many beliefs I hold that I could barely respond. I tend to think Trump is long gone by 2020. I think of Hillary as long gone since 2016, with zero chance for rehabilitation.
What this interaction with Bob and Janie showed me was how hard it is on these cruises to judge any books by the cover, the first chapter, or perhaps anything except a full read through. Kentucky is more enlightened than suspected and with real up-close and personal experience. Don’t presuppose the political configuration of husband and wife. They can be aligned, opposed or anywhere in between. And perhaps most of all, you can enjoy a cruise with nice people of any affiliation so long as you stay loose and not take yourself or your views too seriously. Now if only Donald Trump could take a cruise and learn that lesson……..