When Extraordinary Becomes Ordinary

The Latest Article in Our Ongoing Cruising & The Mind Series

Sometimes our minds don’t change all at once.

Instead, they leave us little clues, small moments that don’t seem connected until one day we step back and realize they’ve been pointing us in the same direction all along.

That’s exactly what happened to me over the past few weeks.

It actually began with a rabbit hole.

While researching future cruise possibilities, I stumbled across the itineraries offered by Variety Cruises. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they operate small motor yachts that visit ports the large cruise ships simply can’t. These aren’t floating cities with Broadway-style productions, endless dining venues, or water parks. They’re intimate ships built around exploration, local culture, and unique destinations.

What caught my attention wasn’t necessarily the ships, but the realization that these experiences weren’t nearly as financially out of reach as I had always assumed. When I compared several of their seven-night itineraries to premium cruises on the larger cruise lines, the difference wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d imagined.

This isn’t really about Variety Cruises.

They simply happened to be the spark that made me pause long enough to ask a question I hadn’t considered before.

Had I quietly stopped looking beyond what was familiar?

At the time, I didn’t have an answer.

Following My Own Default Settings

A few days later, I was talking with my sister Judy about our next cruise together. Susan and I love traveling with Judy and her husband Steve, and for several years we managed to cruise together almost every year. Our last voyage together was in May 2025, and although we already have another cruise booked for October 2027, we suddenly realized it would be more than two years between sailing together.

That just didn’t seem right.

Naturally, the conversation turned to whether we could squeeze another cruise into next summer.

I opened my laptop and started doing my regular searches: Celebrity, Princess, Mediterranean, Europe, Twelve- to fifteen-night itineraries.

Then I stopped. Not because there weren’t plenty of great cruise options, but because I suddenly realized I wasn’t really searching at all.

Without consciously deciding to, I’d followed the exact same path I always followed. My fingers instinctively typed the cruise lines we already loved. My filters automatically narrowed to the same regions and the same cruise lengths. It wasn’t a deliberate decision, though was simply my default setting.

That realization lingered with me long after I closed my laptop.

Why Our Minds Do This

One of the fascinating things about the human mind is how efficiently it works. Once we discover something we enjoy, our brains naturally encourage us to repeat it. We order the same meal at our favorite restaurant, drive the same route home without thinking about it, and instinctively reach for the same brands at the grocery store. Before long, those choices stop feeling like decisions at all, as they simply become our default settings.

Cruising is no different.

Experience teaches us what we enjoy. We find a cruise line that feels like home. We learn which cabin locations we prefer, which itineraries fit our travel style, and how to avoid many of the mistakes we made on our first few cruises.

Those aren’t bad things of course and in many ways, they’re the rewards of becoming an experienced traveler.

But experience also has a quiet side effect, as sometimes familiarity replaces curiosity without us ever noticing.

My Morning Revelation

The final piece of the puzzle came together over tea with Susan this morning.

We were talking about cruises, as we often do, and somehow the conversation turned to cruise length. We’ve said for years that our “cruise sweet spot” is around 14 or 15 nights. We love having enough time to truly settle into life at sea. Longer cruises feel less rushed, more relaxing, and give us time to disconnect from everyday life.

Then another thought entered my mind. Had we slowly begun measuring the value of a cruise by the number of nights instead of the experiences we’d bring home?

That wasn’t meant as a criticism of longer cruises, as I still think they’re a perfect fit for us., but I realized I’d quietly started using cruise length as one of my primary measures of value.

That’s when another question surfaced.

What have we NOT done before?

Not because different is automatically better but because the goal isn’t simply to take another cruise, it’s to create another unforgettable experience.

Looking at Linda and Doug a Little Differently

As these thoughts bounced around in my head, I found myself thinking about my friend Linda D. from Lincoln, NE.

Linda and her husband Doug cruise every year, but over the years I’ve noticed something interesting. I honestly can’t remember them talking about sailing Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Holland America, or Norwegian. Instead, they’re usually excited about their next adventure aboard Azamara, Oceania, Windstar, or Uniworld.

For the longest time, I assumed they simply preferred different cruise lines than I did. Now I wonder if I was seeing it all wrong.

Maybe they weren’t choosing different cruise lines, but were simply choosing different experiences.

While I am asking myself ,“Which cruise should we take next?”, they are probably asking, “What experience do we want to have next?”

Neither approach is right or wrong, but I have a feeling Linda and Doug figured something out long before I did.

Looking in the Mirror

One part of this realization still makes me smile.

I spend part of my time helping people plan vacations. I enjoy talking through destinations, itineraries, cruise lines, and travel styles, encouraging people to think about the kind of experience they’re hoping to create instead of simply looking for the lowest fare or the biggest ship.

Yet when it came time to plan my own vacation, I immediately defaulted to the same cruise lines, the same regions, and the same cruise lengths I’d grown comfortable with.

Apparently, I’m just as human as everyone else.

That doesn’t make Princess or Celebrity any less perfect for us, but it simply reminds me that familiarity has a remarkable way of becoming our starting point.

When Extraordinary Becomes Ordinary

Looking back, I realized there was a time when simply stepping aboard a cruise ship felt like the adventure. We didn’t need a bucket-list itinerary or a once-in-a-lifetime excursion. Everything felt new. Every sail-away was exciting and every port felt like a discovery.

The ships haven’t become less beautiful, the ocean hasn’t become less peaceful, and the destinations haven’t become any less fascinating.

I’ve simply become familiar with something that once felt extraordinary.

That’s not a bad thing I guess, as it’s human nature.

The challenge is remembering that there are still extraordinary experiences waiting for us beyond the ones we’ve already come to love.

Final Thoughts

Susan and I may very well book another 14-night Princess cruise with Judy and Steve, or maybe we’ll find ourselves aboard a small yacht in the Greek Islands or finally taking that river cruise we’ve talked about for years.

I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that I’m asking a different question than I was just a few weeks ago. I’m no longer starting with, “Which cruise line should we sail?”, but I am starting with “What experience do we want to remember ten years from now?”

The older I get, the more I appreciate that we’re able to travel the way we do. That’s a gift we never want to take for granted. If we’re fortunate enough to have the health, the time, and the opportunity to explore the world, perhaps we owe it to ourselves to occasionally choose the experience that excites us most—not simply the one that’s become familiar.

One of the goals of the Cruising & The Mind series has always been to explore not just why we cruise, but what cruising teaches us about ourselves.

This time, it taught me something unexpected.

Sometimes the greatest adventure isn’t finding a new destination, but it’s simply noticing where our own minds have been traveling all along. It may simply be rediscovering our own curiosity.