WHY THE WORLD IS OBSESSED WITH CRUISING AGAIN

Mega ships, exotic destinations, traveling with little to no planning. So many pros to out weigh the cons on cruising. Is this why we are driving the cruise industry to new record setting attendance?

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Well good morning. It's May the 25th, 2026, and straight from the Highley Cavet Studio, this is according to Willie B, and I have my voice back. After nine long weeks of pneumonia, I am finally back on my feet, have my voice, and have a few rambling thoughts between my ears. So it should make for a decent podcast. That's what I've got my hope held out for. I've got so much to cover today because I've been quiet for so long. We missed last week for the first time in over a year that I've been doing podcasts. I missed because of pneumonia. And you know, it it really bugged me. Um, I had a lot of people reaching out and checking on me, and and I appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, concerns, everything. It has meant so much to me. Uh, but you know, here I am, I'm back in the studio, and back in front of the mic, and I've I wanted to make sure that I had a really good episode for today, and I also came across something that I want to share with you guys. And you know that I love highlighting small businesses, people that are have an entrepreneurial spirit, and they don't just dream with it, they utilize it, and that's what this lady is doing. I'm very proud of her. Uh, I'm proud to call her a friend. Her name is Danielle. Her business is called Destinations by Danny, D-A-N-I. You can check her out, she's got a website, you can find her on Facebook, you can find her on TikTok. I think she's on every social media page out there. I didn't have any trouble finding her. But I'm gonna tell you the thing that impresses me, one of the things that impresses me about her, is that one, she's been doing this since 2018, so she's got a little time under her belt and thinks she knows what she's doing. But destinations by Danny, she founded in 2018, and it's been the proof of her mantra. No fear, faith forward. And what do we talk about when we talk about traveling? We talk about taking that leap, especially if you're taking a trip that includes a destination that you've never been to, or if it includes going out of the country for the first time, if it includes that first cruise, or whatever the case may be, it's a leap of faith because you're basically taking this trip on your own planning and negotiation of prices of hotels, flights, etc., etc., etc. So, but she can take all of that guesswork out for you. Because one of the things that you know, I chuckle at myself. I'm sorry. I I always talk about in all these podcasts plan your trip, plan your trip, plan, plan, plan. Uh, you planning is half the fun. And I get I'm getting to where I get more and more people that are sending me messages and mail and what have you, and they're like, hey, Will, not everybody loves to plan a trip. Some of us just like to go. And I had someone the other day, and it's funny because this guy is from Scotland, and he said, uh, I just want to tell you that, you know, I always love it when you talk about desserts. He said, but I never hear you talk about making a dessert or cooking a dessert. You always just talk about eating it, and that's the same way it is for some of us with traveling. We don't want to cook the trip, we don't want to stir together all the ingredients, we wouldn't want to go to the store and gather all the ingredients, we just want to eat the bloody dessert. So some of us don't want to plan, some of us just want to go. And he said, you can use that as some of us just want to eat the dessert, like you. He said, So, you know, think about that. I said, you know, that's a really good analogy. I absolutely love that. That was one of my favorite things that I've probably heard in the last couple of months. But destinations by Danny, D-A-N-I, you can find her, like I said, her website, uh, it's any social media, but it's no fear, Faith Ford, and she believes in taking that that leap. And she talks about on her website the first time she took that leap to go on a trip, and she's been hooked ever since. And so make sure that you check her out, make sure that you tell her that we sent you. Uh, she is uh an absolute phenomenon when it comes to helping you plan a trip. Um, she's very knowledgeable, she's very knowledgeable across basically most of the globe, from what I've been able to pick apart from her. Uh, so you know what? Check her out and and put her to the test and see see what she knows. Because I did my homework with her and tried to find out all that she knew, and I found out that she knew a lot more than I did. But you know, that that's not saying a whole lot because I could probably put all my knowledge in a 20-minute podcast, which is pretty much what I do every week, right? Okay, so but go check her out and tell her we said that we sent you, and uh, and I promise you you you will not regret it. She's uh she's a very, very nice young lady, and she will take great care of you. She believes in what she's doing. So, moving on with this week's podcast, and it is starts with a question: why the world is obsessed with cruising again. Holy Toledo Batman, what is going on? I know I made a few months ago, I did a podcast, and I got called out for it uh by a lot of people, and that I was anti-cruise, that I didn't like cruises. Again, I I will try to defend myself here if I have my choice to go either on a cruise or go to an all-inclusive island to a resort. I'm going to go to the all-inclusive resort every single time. I understand the pros and cons of both. Both of them have pros and cons. It's all about what you are looking for in your vacation. Because a vacation is supposed to fit you, not everybody else. And that's why I warn you about going off of social media. Yes, the pictures look great. Yes, that dot that. I get all the hype and the fluff on the internet. I get all that, but it has to fit you, just like the packing list. It has to fit you and your trip, has to fit your budget as well, right? So let's talk about the cruising industry. What the heck is going on? You know, I remember, I'll tell you what I remember most about my very first cruise. And believe, and I know, I know right now, I know what some of you are saying. You're about to talk about food, you're about to talk about the buffet. And if you think about my first cruise was back in the early 90s, 91, 92, I believe, if I remember correctly. 91. And yes, they still had the midnight, the famous midnight buffet back then, and they were impressive, I have to say. Never seen a buffet like that. With all the ice sculptures, the fruit sculptures, the you know, it's just it was like a show, and it was made out of food. But here's the thing: the number one thing that I went back home after that first cruise and bragged about was the first thing I said was not about the buffet, not the pool, not even the islands. I came home bragging that the ship had a library. There's a library on the ship. And I mean, I'm not even an avid reader. Why was I excited about that? Because in my mind, ships were supposed to have lifeboats and the buffet line with questionable mashed potatoes. But then I stepped on board that first cruise ship and realized that thing wasn't a boat, it was a floating city. Now, if you think that the cruise ships have changed in the last few years, think about this. This was in 91. This is third or 30 years ago. Think about how much that cruise ship has changed. Think about the size alone of how the cruise ships have changed. I'm expecting at any moment. Now, I mean this as a joke, but I really think this could possibly happen in the very near future. They keep making these cruise ships bigger and bigger and bigger. Sooner or later, they're gonna come in and and they're gonna ask some of these old boys from the south to grab their welding machines and head on down to the shipyard, and they're gonna weld two or three of those things together. And it's you talk about there's not gonna be enough water to float it because they just keep keep making them bigger and bigger. And why is that? Well, do you think they would spend 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 million billion dollars on these boats if there wasn't a demand? Of course not. So there is a demand, the demand is bigger than it's ever been. They're saying that 2026 is almost completely sold out. Now, I don't know exactly what the exact numbers are, but they're the cruise industry, they're already pushing people to get cruises booked in 20 late 27 and 28. So, you know, that's that's something to think about. So, why why is this? What's driving this? Well, let's think about it. Let's say that right now you're sitting in Texas and you want to fly to Florida or California or somewhere, maybe even North Carolina, what's that ticket gonna cost you? More importantly, what's that airline ticket gonna cost you and your family of three, four, five people? It's over a mortgage, isn't it? Yeah. When there are enough ports across the seaboard of the US that we don't have to fly anywhere. We could just pack it up in a car, industrial-sized suitcases and all, pack all the family, the grandparents, everybody in the car, and then show up at the dock at the port and get on a boat. No airline needed. And this is what I'm talking about. This is just one of the reasons why the cruise ship industry is exploding. Cruising is no longer some niche vacation for retirees wearing captain's hats and eating shrimp cocktail at 4 30 in the afternoon. It's definitely not Gilligan's Island. Hear me on this, over thirty-eight million people are expected to cruise this year alone. Thirty-eight million. And somehow, after COVID, after all the documentaries, after the outbreaks, after the horror headlines, the cruise industry didn't die, it exploded. And honestly, that says something very interesting about human beings. Because modern people are exhausted, we are mentally overloaded. Too many decisions, too much stress, too much planning, too much noise. But cruising, cruising removes decision fatigue, doesn't it? Transportation, handled, food, taken care of, entertainment, got it. Hotel, it's a floating ship. Wake up in another country tomorrow morning, done. You unpack one time and somehow, magically, wake up in Italy or Greece or the Bahamas or whatever the case may be, and your hotel room came with you. I remember last year when we took that big trip to Canada and across all of those states, you know many times we loaded and unloaded suitcases and packed them upstairs, and it was a it was a job. But on a cruise ship, it's one time. Plug it on there, throw it in a room, you're done. Go catch the sail away party. Now, if you grew up in the 70s or 80s, you probably remember the love boat. And I think that that show did something huge for cruising and in that error, so to speak, if you will. It made cruising feel magical. And as a kid, when somebody said Caribbean cruise, it sounded like the richest, most glamorous thing imaginable. Because you were thinking these white uniforms, ocean sunsets, romance, champagne, adventure. And now look at us. We got people making TikToks from water slides the size of apartment buildings. That's no joke. I mean, they've got more things on these cruise ships now. It is just absolutely insanity, and there's no other word for it. You you've got these little mini roller coasters on the ships, you've got uh these water slides, you've got it's it's it's unreal go-kart tracks. Go-kart tracks. Do you hear me? I remember on the first cruise I went on. You know what they had outside? They had a ping pong table. Have you ever tried to play ping pong? Think about it. How light is that little white ball? On the deck of a ship, wind blowing. I mean, it made it made the game of ping pong very challenging. It made it almost impossible. There's movie theaters, there's it's it's it's just insane the amount of stuff that these ships have now. There's ships now that have almost like a replica of Central Park out of New York. A park on a ship with with with trees and and uh park benches. I mean, you're on a boat. So there's that. And let's be honest. Some people are terrified before their first cruise. I get it. There's a lot of unanswered what ifs. What if I get seasick? What if the food is terrible? What if I feel trapped? And here's my favorite. What if there's too many people? Because it's it's elbow to elbow. And then there's this one that makes me pause for a moment. What if I hate it? Now I want to pause on this one. Because if you have that thought, and I'm speaking to anybody right now that has that thought, that's never been on a cruise, but thinking of going on one this summer or sometime in the near future, and you think, what if I get on there and and I don't I hate it and and and I want off? I mean, this it's not like you can just go, hey, can you pull over there an anchor and let me let me hop off? I'm I'm how this is not my thing. I want you to hear me on something. I remember very vividly the first time I took a cruise. And yes, I was excited about the library for some reason, I don't know. But I remember standing on the top deck of that ship, and as we sailed away from Galveston, so you know what the water looks like there. Yes, I know. I'm talking about Galveston water again, all brown, yucky. You know it's true. And then as you sailed away further, you notice that the water changed. Now by now it's getting dark, so you're not really seeing the true benefit, but you go to sleep and you wake up the next morning, and you walk back out on the deck of that ship again. And what do you see? You see the bluest water that you've ever seen in your life. And I'm talking this is my experience. I had never seen water that blue. Now, you have to understand that back in the early 90s, it wasn't like you could just pick up your cell phone and Google, hey, what's the blue water look like? We didn't have everything at our fingertips. So there were a lot of things of the unknown out there that were still unknown. Sure, you see things on TV, but I mean, it's on TV, so do you really believe what you're seeing? I mean, that's Hollywood. They done colored the ocean blue. No, that was the most magical, mystical sight that I have ever seen in my life. Ever to this day. The water changing from that murky, dark, deep water into that just crystal clear, deep blue is one of the most amazing things on this planet. So, what I would tell you is if you're hesitant to get on that boat, I want you to do yourself a favor. I want you to go. And I want you to stand up on that deck, and I want you to watch that water and I want you to let me know how it made you feel when you first saw blue water in real life for the first time. Because I promise you it will get your attention. You'll forget about everything else. I guarantee it. Because I, you know, I I I mention all these what ifs because I've had all those same thoughts. And then you get on board and suddenly you're sitting there eating pizza. Midnight and watching the ocean roll by, and you're seeing ships off in the distance, and you're wondering, you know, what's what's going on on that boat? What what is that boat all about? What's going on over there? What is that over there? And then you think, Wow, that escalated quickly. So let's talk about these big cruise ships. How big is too big? And this is where cruising gets wild. Some cruise ships now carry. Are you ready for this? Some cruise ships carry now over 5,000 passengers, 5,000 people. That's not a cruise ship, that's a floating zip code. Yeah, surf simulators, ice skating rinks, shopping malls. Sorry, I told you I couldn't guarantee you wouldn't get at least one cough. Robot bartenders. I mean, it's it's insane. And at some point, the ship itself becomes the destination. And honestly, that creates a really interesting question. How big is too big? Now, if we're gonna have an honest conversation, we also need to talk about the criticisms. Cruises have environmental impacts, not gonna hide them. They have massive fuel consumption, they have food waste, energy use, thousands of people floating through fragile destinations. But let's think about this. How many people fit on an average airplane? 200, 300? Okay, that ship has 5,000 people. How many flights is that? One pass with a ship or 10 passes, 15 passes, 20 passes with an airplane. So if we kind of balance it out, I'm not saying that the cruising is not harmful to the environment, I'm not saying that at all, but I'm saying let's look at the reality of it. And you know, some people genuinely hate the idea of cruising. I don't want to be stuck on a boat with all those people, crowded ships and uh tourist traps and floating petri dishes and blah blah blah blah blah. And honestly, some cruisers probably are exactly that. But there's ships now out there, Royal Caribbean. I mean, good night. They got some of the most fanciest ships on the water. NCL is stepping it up. Carnival, I like Carnival. They're the to me, and I don't mean this in a bad way at all. I promise, I don't. Um, but it's the only way I can give you my thought. This is just my opinion. But Carnival is like the let's call it the Dollar General of Cruises. Doesn't mean they're bad, it's just a different genre, if you will. I mean, I've been on Carnival a lot, and I like Carnival. But if I want something a little fancier, well, I'm gonna go with Royal Caribbean. But what changed all this? One of the things that changed it, like I told you, was prices of flights. But social media has also shaped the cruise industry of where it's at now. You know, back in my day when I first cruised, people discovered cruises from travel agents and brochures. Now, just pull up TikTok, put in cruising. You'll get room tours and balcony breakfasts, buffets, cruise hacks, packing videos, hidden secrets on board. Of course, if there's 5,000 people on board, I don't know how there could be many secrets, but you know, there's a lot of content creators out there that here's five secrets you need to know about. Your next screw. Up really, five secrets. Come on. 5,000 people. I don't think there's many secrets on there, bud. But every now and then I'll learn something new that I didn't know. Which, but for me, the caveat is that doesn't mean a whole lot. So and younger travelers have suddenly realized wait, this actually looks fun. But you know what? Cruising really gives people breathing room. What do I mean? No cooking, no traffic, no work emails, no rushing around trying to plan every second. It just exists. You wake up, you look out over the ocean, you grab a coffee, and the world slows down just for a minute. And honestly, maybe that's why the industry is exploding. Because in a world where everybody feels overwhelmed, cruising feels simple again. And what did I tell you a couple months ago when we were talking about how the flight, the airline industry is changing? Flights used to be simple. Are they simple today? They are not. Cruising is making it feel simple again. So is our future of travel on a cruise ship more than say a train or a plane or by car? Could be, and maybe that's why people get addicted to it. Not because of the buffet or the casinos or the water slides, but just because for one week life becomes easy, and honestly, out in the middle of an ocean and nowhere to be tomorrow morning, that might be the real luxury. So if you're a real cruiser, loyal cruiser, I want to know what was the moment that you realized cruising was different than you expected? And if you've never cruised before, what's the one thing that makes you hesitant about it? I'd love to hear about that too. This is according to Willie B, and I'll see you again next week. But don't forget to caffeinate and conquer, and I'll see you again right here behind this big old mic one week from today. Have a great day. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.