It’s possibly the greatest feeling in the world. Crossing from land to sea. It’s crossing the gangway. Every cruise must begin, and this is the first time you will step aboard your ship. There’s a special feeling to it, when you take your last step on the gangway, and then suddenly your foot hits the deck and you realize that you are no longer on land. 
For first time cruisers, it can be scary, taking that first step, but for seasoned cruisers like me…it feels like coming home. To be suddenly standing on the outdoor promenade with huge yellow, orange, or in some cases a weird red and white mix (I’m talking to you, Norwegian Epic) lifeboats suspended above you (on most ships.) It’s just a certain feeling that is hard to describe. You know you are no longer on land, but on a ship floating on the ocean. My favorite part of boarding is walking down the gangway. You turn a corner, walk through an opening onto a glass enclosed gangway, each step brings you closer to your home for the next week, suddenly you only have 2 steps left before you hit the deck. You take that final step and suddenly you are on the greatest vacation in the world.
You may be greeted with a refreshing and free drink (NCL,) you may be welcomed by name (Seabourn,) or you may be just be handed a key card and shoved towards the drink package table (Carnival & Royal Caribbean.) Whatever way you board, you know you are finally on your cruise. After months of planning and anticipation, and endless night of excitement on the night before you cruise where you CANNOT fall asleep and then you almost get sick because of the excitement. Well, maybe that part of becoming sick may just be me from a cruise in 2010, but anyway, you know what I mean. Crossing the gangway is the first “step” of starting your cruise, and it will always have that special feeling, that feeling you just can’t explain.
Have a great night everyone, and thanks for reading. Tonight, thanks to you, this blog has reached 100,000 views since we started blogging in June. This blog started exactly 300 days ago and if it weren’t for you, our faithful readers, I would have never made it here. Thanks again for reading along, and I expect many more great blogs to come!
-Mikey
2 replies on “Crossing the Gangway”
Congrats on 100,000 Views Mikey!
Keep up the awesome reporting Mikey and congrats on the achievement! As with a lot of your articles, I could actually feel what you were describing on the gangway!