CRUISE DIARY THE FIRST-TIMER

Think you’d hate cruising? So did Katie Bowman. Then everything changed…

Miami’s stripey pink and yellow beach parasols dwindled as our ship sailed into the sunset, and the lifeguards’ huts shrank to colourful confetti specks on the sand. A deep-water kayaker gave us a wave and then the foghorn blew, deep and long. “Are you crying, Mummy?”

Of all the preconceptions I’d had about cruises, one thing I could have never predicted was how emotional I’d become at sea. It was as if I became bewitched the moment I climbed aboard.

In 20 years as a travel editor, I’d avoided cruises, assuming they were floating theme parks – or elderly rest homes, depending on how much people were paying – where days revolved around buffets and bingo. I imagined the destinations were an afterthought and the whole experience to be some sort of travel cheat.

But I was wrong. And I hope that if I achieve only one thing in this first-timer’s diary, it is to share the bizarre and unique magic of cruising. Rather than the port destinations being secondary, they are the stars of a show that never breaks for an intermission.

The amazing travel spectacle simply continues when you’re back on board, be that stargazing from a suspended over-water hot tub, following a pod of dolphins or eating fresh mahi-mahi that the chef just picked up from the island market.