As the newest employee of Global Traveler, I have come to realize during my first couple weeks the many positive aspects of working for a small, closely-knit, independent magazine. One of these components includes getting to know the personalities and lifestyles of your fellow employees, which can be done in many ways, one of them being weekly blogs. So this is my first attempt. On Sunday January 13^th, my New York colleague, Alex Young, and I attended the press conference for the Cunard Royal Rendezvous of the three luxurious cruise liners, the Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2. For the first time ever in history, the three ships sailed together around the Statue of Liberty while fireworks cracked and popped in celebration. Just after the press conference in the terminal on Pier 88 and before the fireworks, Alex and I were able to catch a tour of the Queen Victoria, the most luxurious of the three ships. Weighing 90,000 tons and carrying over 2,000 passengers, the Queen Victoria is, indeed, large and luxurious. Equipped with its own two-story library, historic Queen Victoria museum, spa, theater and casino, the ship is fit for royalty. I won’t lie, cruise lines are not my cup of tea. I can appreciate the decadence, art and sophistication that are put into such a massive, breathtakingly large vessel (and the Queen Victoria is nothing less than massive), but the term “cruise” can take away from what it means to actually sail. I’m not an experienced sailor; my only experience aboard a ship was on an 18^th century, three-masted, square-rigged ship. Meaning, I couldn’t sail a sailboat if I tried, but throw me on board an 18^th century pirate ship and I could probably find my way. An 18^th century, square-rigged ship may not be able to bring you the finest cuisines or its own performance theater entertainment with box seats, but one thing a cruise ship can’t do is show you what it physically takes to get from point A to point B. Climbing up an 80-foot mast to unfurl a sail as the wind steals it from your hand is…well, you can picture it. Now, I’d never turn down an opportunity for luxurious dining and spa treatments on a 965-foot-long ship. But even the finest, most technically advanced cruise vessel can’t lure the wind to its sails.

–Courtney Centeno, account executive