It’s never too late to travel

By Virginia Langston-McDaniel

Those are the words on a plaque I received in a random door prize drawing. I was at an employee party the last Christmas I was working full time. “Yes, exactly” I said to myself. “It is never too late.” I was widowed when my daughter was two years old. As a single mom I had raised my daughter and developed my career. As rewarding as my career was, it involved long work hours and years away from home. Finally and unexpectedly, the happily ever after was about to begin. I met the love of my life and married him in 2006 after being single for 33 years.

My husband retired and I was planning retirement as we talked about what we wanted to do with our free time. Ever since I was a child I had wanted to travel and see other places, cultures, and people. I began to think travel for me as I had dreamed would never happen. I was 60 when I had the opportunity to take my first ocean cruise right out of Galveston, Texas. What a world that opened up to me––affordable, fascinating travel to parts unknown. Having recently booked my 12th cruise, I recommend cruising to everyone I meet.

We took our first two-week cruise this past November. We sailed out of New York City to the southern Caribbean on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas. We experienced high seas and rainy weather for three days out on the Atlantic (not my favorite traveling weather). The big ship took the seas very well. We hardly noticed the turbulence from our mid ship 9th floor stateroom until our captain announced that a rogue wave had hit the 4th deck at 5 a.m. and disabled two of the lifeboats! I was put at ease by the way the crew responded to this unusual event. At each of the next seven ports, the crew conducted lifeboat drills, actually deploying some of the lifeboats into the ocean. They had to make adjustments to the emergency procedures, re-assigning some passengers to different lifeboats. The passengers that were affected received letters with their re-assignments. (Tip: you learn a lot if you attend the scheduled times passengers can talk with the captain of the ship.) He assured us that we had enough lifeboats on board as we were not sailing with full passenger capacity.

By day three, we could feel the warmer temperatures when we strolled on deck. We were headed toward our first island, St. Martin or St. Maarten, a small island that is both Dutch and French. We visited St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Our favorite island was Curacao. It is just north of the Venezuelan coast. It is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and looks like a little Amsterdam. It has brightly colored buildings on each side of a canal. Some of the buildings are hundreds of years old and made from coral and sand. The locals are very proud of how well they maintain their buildings. They have been designated a world heritage site. Standing on one side of the canal, we saw a ship pass through. A swing bridge had to be opened as the Vision of the Seas passed through. It happens that the ship we saw is the very ship we are booked on next to take our first Mediterranean trip!

On the last few days of the cruise, the seas were wonderfully smooth. As we sat on our balcony, we were mesmerized by all the shades of blue of the Caribbean ocean.

We love travel so much that I have become a part-time travel agent and group tour coordinator. I am currently working with LIVING WELL Magazine and Collette Travel to get a group together to visit the Christmas Markets in Germany, France, and Austria beginning December 6, 2015. This is a fully-escorted land tour.

If you would like to hear more about the Christmas Markets tour in Germany, France, and Austria, register for a live webinar presented on June 18 at 6 p.m. Register now at http://tiny.cc/Invite or call Virginia Langston-McDaniel, travel consultant, at 940-367-0714.