Ultimate World Cruise Part 2 ("Leggers", Segmenters", and "Rock Stars")

Welcome back to Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise, Part 2.

Last time I told you about the peculiar caste system that became apparent almost immediately. This is a 274-day journey, but there are only 700 people signed up for the whole thing. Those people are called 9-monthers or rock stars. Then there are roughly 400 people or so at any given time that are doing single “legs”. Obviously, those are people doing a single leg of the journey. They are called leggers. Legs range from about 16-26 days. For instance, when we reached Buenos Aires yesterday, 400 people got off and 500 people got on. Also, yesterday felt like the last day of the cruise, even for those of us staying on. There had been luggage in the hallways of those leaving. All accounts had to be settled. We had to get off and get back on the ship with a new sea pass card. We had to reinstall the internet service. In many ways, it was like a whole new cruise was starting. Lots of new faces. The waiters and seating assignments in the dining room had all rotated. Weird.

Finally we have the segmenters. Those who have signed up for multiple legs of the cruise, but not the whole thing. That’s me. I am on for 65 days that started in Miami on day 1 on December 10th. I’m out of here in Los Angeles after 65 days, on February 11th. Although I may very well do the next segment that would take me to Brisbane, Australia. I am waiting to book it because I may yet tire of being on the ship. So far, it's been amazing and I feel like I could do the whole thing. But that could change. So, I will wait until the last possible minute to add the next segment.

Remember when I said that there must be a bunch of millionaires on this ship, here's why. Prices for the full cruise started at $62,000 per person for the cheapest interior cabin up to $110,000 per person for a balcony. Suites had to be at least a quarter million per person. This is not your 3-day drunken Carnival cruise to Freeport.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was a giant gala in Miami the evening before the departure. All the 9-monthers were invited. Here is how they became “rock stars”. The President of Royal Caribbean himself was present at the party and called the 700 world travelers the “rock stars” of the cruise. The name stuck. I've even seen some of them wearing T-shirts calling themselves rock stars. I have at times been accused of having an ego that could fill a medium sized Midwestern lake. Yet even I would not think to wear a shirt like that. They also wear little pins on their shirts that look exactly like the ones worn by crewmembers. On many occasions, I have seen these passengers being asked questions by people thinking they were part of the crew. I witnessed their indignation at being mistaken for a working person. Oh the humanity! Hilarity ensued.

In all seriousness it hasn't been that big a deal. But the crazy wealth that some have has been apparent to me in a couple of different ways. For instance, there are some shore excursions on this trip that cost $10,000 per person. They involve 2 or 3 days, airplane and bus travel and sometimes even another flight to catch up with the Serenade at the next port. I know people taking some of these and they talk about them the way the rest of us talk about a $40 3-hour bus tour of Cozumel. The 10k means nothing to them.

Rio de Janeiro Fireworks

This reminds me of 2 things that I have always been extremely grateful for. First, is that life has offered me opportunities (not all of them deserved) to make a good living and that I have the means to be on an adventure like this at all. Even though I can't even remotely consider spending 10k on an excursion, unless it’s going to Mars. Then I would figure something out.

The second thing that I am grateful for is something that I lack—jealousy. I don’t begrudge anyone anything. I have never ever felt that it should have been me born a millionaire instead of someone else. I am perfectly happy with the female parts I popped out of and with the opportunities and advantages my parents worked so hard to provide for me. Thanks dad. Thanks mom. See you soon.

Ok. Yesterday I posted to Facebook that Buenos Aires is the land of irony. Here’s why: The literal Spanish translation of Buenos Aires is “good air”. I have been to many places with bad air quality and horrible, even dangerous, smog. I even spent close to two weeks in Mexico City at a time when it was considered to have nearly the worst air quality in the world (they have since cleaned it up quite a bit). Buenos Aires had far and away the worst air that I have ever been subjected to. After 30 minutes I had a sore throat. There is no doubt in my mind that this air pollution is shortening the lives of the residents. It really is that bad. Other than that, I really enjoyed the place. The people were friendly. Certainly by the standards of any big city. Other than the air, it was pretty clean and for the most part at least seemed safe. But the air was a deal breaker. It's not on my list of places I want to come back to.

As always, thanks for reading. Check out my novels and the new non-fiction work “Why The Fuck Not?”. All are available at davidlitvin.com. If you want to contact me with comments, requests, complaints or suggestions please feel free. Reach me at dlkosmo@gmail.com